Philadelphia, PA -- (Sports Network) - Qualifying School has the reputation as the most intense, nerve-wracking marathon of fear in the sport of professional golf.

On more than one occasion, I've pooh-poohed that notion as rubbish. The Nationwide Tour offers quite a healthy salary if you make it to that tour. The Duramed Futures Tour helps the ladies make some money before they get to the LPGA Tour.

This is to say that if you don't earn a spot through Q School, your golf career is not necessarily dead. Granted, you won't make the sort of loot that PGA Tour or LPGA Tour players earn, but $447,865 is nothing to sneeze at. (That would be the earnings of one Matt Bettencourt, the Nationwide Tour money champion.)

Having never participated in Q School, I can not accurately defend my position with experience. Also, I'll concede that a four-foot putt that means the difference between making the tour and not, would be extremely unsettling.

Yet, I'm in the minority. Everything you read, everything you hear, tells you that Q School is the ultimate cooler. John Feinstein, maybe the best golf writer in the world right now, penned an entire book on the subject. Good read, but can't ever get on board with the Q School as the be all and end all.

However, I'm nothing if not a slave to the people. You want to know about the stories of this year's respective Q Schools, so here they are.

Nothing will get bigger coverage in these Q School rounds than Michelle Wie, possibly the only thing more overrated than the pressure of Q School.

Wie is trying to get her card while simultaneously trying to attain a degree from Stanford, which is a good school from what I've been told. She has taken to a philosophy of not speaking with the media until the event is over, so in that spirit, I in the media won't really talk about her until the event is over.

Remember Stacy Lewis? Yeah, didn't think you would. She won the 2007 NW Arkansas LPGA Championship, but it was unofficial because the event was shortened to 18 holes by rain.

Patricia Meunier-Lebouc was a major champion in 2003. Five years later, Meunier-Lebouc is in Q School. Anna Rawson is better known for her looks than her golf game, but she's trying to get a card, too.

There are other names you might recognize only if you are a die-hard women's golf fan.

On the PGA Tour side, there is actually a defending champion at Q School, an honor Frank Lickliter would probably rather not have.

Chris Riley played in the Ryder Cup four years ago. Fast-forward to today, and he's struggling to find a place to play. Mark Brooks won the 1996 PGA and nearly took the 2001 U.S. Open. Now, he's with people he's never heard of trying to stay on tour.

Joe Durant, Olin Browne, Jason Gore, Notah Begay III, Carlos Franco, Robert Gamez and Kevin Stadler are also in the Q School field.

Even Tommy Gainey, a man most known for a reality show and the fact that he wears two gloves, not because he's cold, but...well, who knows why, had to go through this hell week.

Wie is a legitimate story, but other than that, it's grasping at straws to get worked up about Q School. If one of the biggest draws is a quasi-celebrity with two sewed-up pieces of leather on his paws, than how can this be considered such a huge thing?

It just is. So I've been told.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

- Thoughts out to Seve Ballesteros. He had his fourth brain operation this week. It's just going to be an uphill battle the whole way.

- Annika Sorenstam's career is now over as far as the LPGA Tour is concerned. I'm sorry, but I can see her having some children, then hopping right back into competitive golf. Juli Inkster showed that is possible in this day and age.

- The John Daly circus is in Australia. I say we keep it there.

- Non-golf thought - As of December, 3, 2008, I am done my Christmas shopping. Not totally, but I need two little gifts. It's pretty easy when the parents team up for a GPS system and the girlfriend provides you with links to the stuff she wants. Now, I just cruise into the holiday season.