School is in session.

Q school, that is. The first round of LPGA Q school sectional qualifiers, all 72 holes of it, has begun.

Perhaps the biggest standout, 17-year-old U.S. Women's Amateur winner Morgan Pressel, teed it up at 7:37 this morning at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. Joining her in the field are Japan’s next great hope, Ai Miyazato, and Duke’s own NCAA champion Brittany Lang.

Those three ladies, along with 190 other hopefuls, will grind it out in their sectionals, aiming for one of those top 30 spots that will move along to the final qualifying tourney, to be held Nov. 30-Dec. 5, in Daytona Beach, FL.

Had Pressel won the U.S. Women’s Open this year outright, rather than the T2 finish she had due to Birdie Kim’s miracle bunker birdie on 18, she could skip all this nonsense; the winner of the Open receives a 5-year Tour exemption.

And speaking of Birdie Kim, the country sending the largest number of LPGA wannabe’s to this year’s Q school is none other than South Korea, with 18.

Pressel and Lang, low amateurs at the U.S. Women's Open, are meeting again today.

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