Stu Anderson advanced to Stage 2 of the PGA Qualifying school on Saturday, but Cory Renfrew's attempt fell painfully one-shot shy.
Anderson, of Sooke, turned his game up a notch in the last of four rounds at Pine Mountain, Georgia, wrapping it up with a 7-under 65 to finish sixth overall.
It followed rounds of 71, 67 and 72 on the Callaway Gardens Mountain View course.
Anderson made it through all three stages of PGA Q school last fall and earned his Web.com tour playing card. He was forced back to Q school, though, sitting 120th on the Web.com Tour money list.
"I've done it the past eight years now, had my good runs in the first stage and show up for the second and have a cold putter or not strike the ball as well and it's right back to the Canadian Tour," Anderson said prior to starting this year's qualifying school grind.
"You're playing for your livelihood, that's the worst thing about it," said Anderson.
Renfrew, of Victoria, started Saturday's final round tied for ninth with 18 spots (and ties) open to advance to the second stage in mid-November.
A final-round 5-over 77 left him tied for 20th, one shot back of the qualifying mark of 290. He bogeyed the 18th hole to fall just shy after rounds of 67, 71 and 76 to start at Oak Valley Golf Club in Beaumont, California.
Bogeys on holes No. 10 and 12 and a double-bogey on 13 put Renfrew in a hole he couldn't quite climb out of. He birdied the par-3 14th, but the closing 414yard par-4 18th cost him dearly for the second straight day.
Meanwhile, former UVic Vikes golfer Mitch Evanecz - originally from Red Deer, Alta., who now calls Victoria home -finished second at the first stage at San Juan Oaks Golf Club in Hollister, Ca., on Friday.
Evanecz had rounds of 72-70-65-63 to finish three strokes ahead of Nick Taylor of Abbotsford. [email protected] Twitter/tc_vicsports
