“Someone has to win, so why not me?”— David Carey dreaming big ahead of PGA TOUR Q-School test

Everyone loves an underdog and Ireland’s David “Mr 57” Carey sees no reason why he can’t be the fairytale story and win his PGA TOUR card at this week’s Q-School finale in Florida.

The big-hitting Dubliner (29) is one of 176 hopefuls battling for just five tickets to the big time in a 72-hole contest over Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass and at Sawgrass Country Club, just down the road.

Having shot 57 on the Alps Tour in 2019, qualified and made the cut in The 150th Open at St Andrews in 2022, and Monday-qualified for two PGA TOUR events out of nowhere in 2023, Carey has shown he’s got the guts to aim for the stars.

Thanks to his Q-School exploits so far, he’s already got status on the third-tier PGA TOUR Americas wrapped up for 2026, as well as conditional status on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour after finishing second at last week’s Second Stage qualifier in Alabama.

A top 45 finish this week would secure the Dubliner a full Korn Ferry Tour card, but with nothing to lose now, he feels he’s playing with house money and sees no reason why he can’t hit the jackpot.

“Of course, I could win or finish top five,” Carey declared, confident that his two-driver strategy could help him shoot four sub-par rounds and contend for a life-changing result.

“There are 170 players in the field or something like that… Someone has to win, so why not me?”

Carey, who is coached by Shane O’Grady, is renowned as a massive hitter who regularly achieves a 190mph ball speed.

But he’s also learned to rein in his power and believes his two-driver strategy can serve him well this week and help him avoid those destructive “big numbers”.

“I have a little driver and a big driver,” Carey revealed, explaining that he can either blast it “well up into the 190s” [mph] for ball speed or play a controlled “three-quartery swing” with a shorter-shafted and slightly more lofted driver that still flies 300 yards. “That’s been really key.

“I hit nearly every fairway last week, bar a couple of funny ones in the rain. But if I'm in play all the time, golf gets a lot easier because, if you have a wedge into a green, you have to do quite a lot wrong to make bogey. You're going to have to have a bad wedge, a bad pitch, and a bad putt.”

There’s a lot at stake for the 176-man field, which features 15 PGA Tour winners, including five-time winner Camilo Villegas, Cameron Champ, Luke List, and former Irish Open champion Russell Knox.

“All you need is one good week,” said Carey, who believes he might have less pressure than players who have had poor years and now find themselves in the Last Chance Saloon.

“It's not going to be easy. But I feel like I'm coming in from a relative position of strength and playing well.

“There are going to be quite a few other guys in the same position, but then there are also guys who maybe haven't had the best year or have maybe lost their card on the Korn Ferry or the main tour, who are maybe stressed trying to retain what they had? 

“I think it's always better to be trying to gain, so hopefully I can be in a slightly better mindset than maybe some of them.”

His secret weapon is his girlfriend Caitlin, who is pulling triple duty as caddie, psychologist, and social media manager.

“We’re a good team,” he said.

He believes he’s learned a lot from big-time experiences in The Open, the RBC Canadian Open, and the Valero Texas Open, and while the stakes are high, he’s treating the week as just another event.

“They’re all just golf tournaments,”  he said. “I mean, we kind of covered it a little bit earlier, but someone has to finish in the top five.

“I don't know what score will be needed to get there. But I feel like if I can put four under-par rounds together on two par-70 courses and break 70 every day, you will put yourself in a position to have a go for it.

“So that's going to be my goal for the next two days: to try and figure out a way to shoot under par, and go from there.”