An Example of Committee Procedures 6E.4(b)
By Ryan Neal
It was a December week in the South, 77 PGA Tour hopefuls gathered at the second stage of Q-School in Valdosta, Ga. The player we will discuss here said, “You work all year, your whole career, to get through Q-School.”
Unfortunately, at this tournament, Mother Nature intervened.
Some players with higher scores may have welcomed the weather. But for James Nicholas, the weather had a newsworthy impact.
During the final round of this second stage, Nicholas walked off the 13th green 4-under par for the round, and well within the number needed to advance to the Final Stage of Q-School. While approaching the 14th tee box, the horn blew--the Tour had suspended play due to weather. Players waited, then waited some more, and then waited even more. Eventually, the Tour cancelled the final round of this Q-School site.
This brings us to the Rules of Golf, specifically, Committee Procedure 6E.4(b). 6E.4(b) states, “In stroke play there is no set guidance for when a Committee should cancel a round. The proper action depends on the circumstances in each case and is left to the judgment of the Committee….When a round is cancelled, all scores and penalties during that round are cancelled.”
The Tour’s 2025 Q-School Rules and Regulations state, “A round of an ‘official’ First or Second Qualifying Stage that is not completed by the end of the last scheduled competitive day will be canceled, and the results through the last completed round shall stand.”
To sum things up, the final round in Valdosta was cancelled, scores from that final round were erased, and the leaderboard reverted to how things stood after the third round. You know where this is going. That 4-under round that Nicholas had going? Cancelled, suddenly meaningless.
Scores for the event were reverted to how things stood after the third round. Nicholas went from being within the cut number during the final round, to back outside of the cut, by one stroke, after the conclusion of the third round. On social media, Nicholas, a good sport about the tough situation, expressed that he understood the Rules and circumstances, but shared his understandable frustration.
Fortunately for Nicholas, he had already earned full status on the Korn Ferry Tour for 2026 (top 75 from the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List). There will be more professional golf in Nicholas’s future, and more opportunities to secure his PGA Tour card. I, for one, will be monitoring Nicholas’s results in 2026, rooting for his success.
“We’ll just have to work hard and get ready for January to start up for the Korn Ferry Tour season,” Nicholas said. “I’m excited. I’m ready. But yeah, that sucks.”
Want to take a bit of a deeper dive into the Rules of Golf? The NCGA's Rules experts are hosting a series of In-the-Classroom and also On-the-Course Rules Seminars throughout the early part of 2026.
Check out the schedule for In-the-Classroom Seminars here
Check out the schedule for On-Course Seminars here