By Gord Holder
Ottawa Citizen

Nine bad holes, according to Brad Fritsch, were all that separated him from a spot on the PGA Tour.

It's true, too, in a fashion.

The 34-year-old tour pro from Manotick was seven over par (five bogeys and a double) on the first half of the fourth round in the last stage of Q School at La Quinta, California.

By the time the sixth and final round ended Dec. 5, Fritsch was tied for 38th with a total of 426, two strokes too many to qualify for the PGA Tour, but plenty good enough to get him a full exemption from qualifying for the first dozen or so events on the affiliated Nationwide Tour in 2012. At that point, depending on the earnings of the players to that point in the schedule, the rankings will be reshuffled.

Fritsch isn't new to the Nationwide Tour. He spent three seasons (2007-09) and had one campaign in which he ranked in the mid-70s on the money list with more than $93,000.

He lost his privileges on that circuit, though, so he returned to the Canadian Tour and put some more work into his game. He made over $32,000 on the Canadian circuit this past season, plus $40,000 or so on the Carolina-based eGolf mini-tour, $10,000 and change after playing his way into the RBC Canadian Open, and another $7,500 for a tournament in Colombia early in the year.

GoCamels.com Editor's Note:  During his Fighting Camel career, Fritsch (Class of 2000) was twice honored as an Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).  He earned Trans America Athletic Conference All-Academic honors in each of his four years at CU and was a second-team All-TAAC selection as a senior when he finished ninth in the 2000 league championship.