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In professional golf the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S. based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the tour for the following season, otherwise known as a "tour card," meaning that they can play in most of the tour's events without having to qualify. They join the leaders on the previous year's money list/order of merit and certain other exempt players as members of the tour.

Getting through the qualifying school of an elite tour is very competitive and most professional golfers never achieve it. There can be up to four stages to negotiate, each of them like a regular golf tournament with only a small number of players going on to the next stage. The final qualifying school may be played over up to six rounds, compared with the standard four rounds in a professional golf tournament. However players who are successful at Qualifying School can reach the elite level of competition very quickly.

Some lower status tours are open to any registered professional who pays a membership fee so they don't have a qualifying school.

Q-Schools

PGA Tour

The PGA Tour's qualifying school is officially known as the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament, but the organization also frequently refers to it as "Q-School." The system dates back to 1965, and as of 2008 involves four stages (see this link to the 2007 results, and also the official application, which includes the criteria for exemption to a particular stage):

Pre-Qualifying Stage: Four tournaments held in September, all in warm-weather locations in the United States. Each is played over four rounds. This stage was introduced in 2006 with four tournaments (six in 2007). In each tournament, roughly 35 to 40 players, plus ties, advance to the next stage.
First Stage: Eleven tournaments held in October (compared to 14 in 2005, before the introduction of Pre-Qualifying, 10 in 2006, and 12 in 2007), also in warm-weather locations in the United States. Each is played over four rounds. The participants are a mixture of Pre-Qualifying Stage winners and players who were exempted from Pre-Qualifying. Roughly the top 25 players plus ties in each tournament advance.
Second Stage: Six tournaments in November, also in warm-weather locations and each played over four rounds. Like the First Stage, certain players receive exemptions to this stage. Roughly the top 20 plus ties in each tournament advance.
Final Stage: One tournament played over six rounds in late November-early December. The field consists of Second Stage winners and players who received exemptions into the Final Stage. The top 25 players, plus ties, earn PGA Tour cards for the following year. Their priority ranking for purposes of tournament entry is 24; this ranking enables them to enter most full-field events on the PGA Tour, but not more prestigious stops on the tour unless a substantial number of players in higher categories skip the events. For example, the top 125 players on the previous year's money list who are not otherwise eligible are at priority 19; sponsor's exemptions are priority 11; and winners of PGA Tour events in the previous two years are priority 9.

European Tour

The European Tour has a three-stage qualifying school:

First Qualifying Stage: eight tournaments, held in various countries around Europe, each played over four rounds.
Second Qualifying Stage: four tournaments, each of four rounds, at four different courses in Spain.
Final Qualifying Stage: a single tournament played over six rounds at two courses in Spain.

The leading 30 players and ties at Final Qualifying receive category 11 membership of the European Tour, which entitles them to entry to a substantial number of European Tour events, but not to the more prestigious stops on the tour unless a large number of players in higher exemption categories skip those tournaments.

The leading 30 players also receive category 4 membership of the second tier Challenge Tour, with the remainder of those making the 72 hole cut being granted category 7 status, and those missing the cut, category 12. Any player not making it through to the final stage is able to take up category UR1 membership, with limited opportunities to participate in tournaments during the season.

LPGA

The LPGA operates a qualifying school with two stages (see the LPGA's Q-School page for more details):

Sectional Qualifying: Two tournaments played over four rounds, one in California and the other in Florida , held in September and October. These tournaments are scheduled so that they do not conflict, and golfers may enter one or both sectionals. The entry fee is $4000 for one sectional or $5000 for both. The top 30 players, plus ties, from each sectional advance.
Final Qualifying Tournament: A single tournament held in late November-early December at the LPGA's home base of Daytona Beach, Florida , played over five rounds. No extra fee is charged for entry. The survivors of Sectional Qualifying are joined by 10 players from the LPGA's official developmental tour, the FUTURES Tour, with priority granted based on their position on the FUTURES Tour money list. While the top 10 finishers on the FUTURES Tour money list are granted Tournament Division Membership in the LPGA, the top five finishers do not enter Q-School. Finishers from 6 to 10 can, and usually do, enter Q-School in an effort to improve their priority position.

The top 40 players, plus ties, receive Tournament Division Membership. Their priority position varies depending on their Q-School finish:

The top 20 finishers receive Category 11 membership, which entitles them to entry in most full-field events apart from the more prestigious events. Note that this does not include ties—if the top-20 cut includes more than 20 golfers, the players tied for the last position go to a sudden-death playoff to reduce the qualifiers to exactly 20 players. They alternate with the golfers who finished between 81 and 90 on the previous year's LPGA money list.
Finishers between 21 and 30 receive Category 16 membership.
Finishers between 31 and 40 receive Category 20 membership.

Other qualification methods

Other methods of getting onto an elite golf tour include:

Finishing near the top of the money list/order of merit on the tour's official developmental tour, such as the Nationwide Tour for the PGA Tour, the Challenge Tour for the European Tour or the FUTURES Tour for the LPGA Tour.
Winning a specified number of tournaments on the tour's official developmental tour may grant an exemption. For example, both the PGA Tour and European Tour grant a "performance promotion", also informally known as a "battlefield promotion", to any player who wins three events on its developmental tour in a season. Such a player is exempt from qualifying on that tour for the remainder of that season.
Winning a tournament on the tour after gaining entry to it through its qualification event or as a sponsor's invitee. Tiger Woods secured his PGA Tour card by winning the Las Vegas Invitational in October 1996 as a sponsor's invitee, and went on to win another event two weeks later.
Winning enough money on multiple events on the tour as a qualifier/sponsor's invitee to meet whatever criteria the tour may lay down for promotion to full membership. Even without his 1996 tournament wins, Woods would have earned his tour card by finishing in the top 125 on the 1996 money list, since he had three other top-5 finishes as a sponsor's invitee that season.
Special categories for elite golfers: Most tours offer automatic memberships to golfers with outstanding achievements such as winning a recent major championship or making a recent Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup team.

For complete lists of exempt categories on various tours, see the following pages:

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