Chattanooga area trio in PGA Q-School stage two

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Steven Fox, Paul Apyan and Jonathan Hodge are one-third of the way through PGA Tour Qualifying School.

Their attempt to get two-thirds of the way through begins today.

The trio of young professionals with close Chattanooga ties will play four rounds at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas.

"We have to be prepared for terrible weather," Apyan said. "It's blowing 20-25 [mph] with gusts up to 35. So you have got to stay patient, keep your head up and play your game. You can't get too focused on your score. Just play."

The PGA Tour has not announced how many participants from each site will advance to the third stage of Q-School. The winners there will earn status on the Web.com Tour -- the goal for all the participants.

"This will be a little more difficult than playing in the first stage, but I'll have the same mentality," Fox said. "It's four days so you need to remember that it's a marathon and not a sprint. If you shoot even par for four days out here, I think you'll move on."

Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.