The MENA Golf Tour will stage its first-ever US Qualifying School at the Slammer & Squire course at World Golf Village in Florida from October 13–15, 2026. The three-day event serves as the gateway into the tour’s 2026/27 season, with the top 10 finishers earning Category 4 status and guaranteed entry into every MENA Golf Tour event next season.
Players finishing 11th through 20th will receive Category 11 status, which provides access to multiple tournaments subject to availability from higher categories. Ties through 20th are included in Category 11, while ties through 10th are separated by final-round scores.
The announcement follows a disrupted 2025/26 campaign. The tour said regional challenges cut the season short, and the US Q-School is positioned as the centrepiece of its restart, described by the tour as the most significant international development in its history.
What MENA Tour Graduates Play For
Successful qualifiers join a 2026/27 schedule featuring 12 guaranteed events with purses ranging from $100,000 to $200,000 per tournament. The top 60 players and ties will be paid at every event.
Beyond the season itself, the tour says it offers a route to the HotelPlanner Tour and, from there, a pathway through to the DP World Tour. That progression structure is the detail that makes the Florida qualifier relevant to ambitious professionals looking for competitive footholds below the top-tier circuits.
Expansion and recovery
Keith Waters, Chairman and Commissioner of the MENA Golf Tour, framed the US event as both a comeback and a growth move.
The last few months have tested everyone involved with this Tour, but they have also confirmed exactly what the MENA Golf Tour is capable of, We are coming back bigger and more ambitious than at any point in our history. A US Qualifying School at a venue of World Golf Village’s stature tells you everything about where this Tour is heading. It puts our region on the world stage, it opens our doors to a whole new pool of talent, and it creates the platform for an eventual US swing of MENA Golf Tour events.
Holding a qualifier in Florida gives the tour access to a deeper, more international player pool. The state is home to a large concentration of aspiring professionals competing on mini-tours, and a Q-School in that market puts the MENA Golf Tour on the radar of players who may not have previously considered it as a competitive option.
A US Swing on the Horizon for MENA
Tour figures have signalled that the Florida Q-School is intended as a stepping stone toward staging full MENA Golf Tour events in the United States. Brendon Williams, Co-Owner of US promoter GSM International, said the response from players has already validated the move.
We are very excited for this Q School and believe it is going to be a success. The response we are already getting from players speaks for itself. The natural next step is a US swing of MENA Golf Tour events, and this is the platform that makes that conversation possible. World Golf Village is the perfect home for it, a venue with real history, a course players are going to love, and a setup that does justice to what the MENA Golf Tour is all about.
A US swing remains an ambition rather than a confirmed calendar addition, but the language from both Waters and Williams suggests the tour views the Q-School as a proof of concept for American expansion.
World Golf Village Already on the MENA Calendar
The MENA Golf Tour’s own schedule page now lists “MENA USA Q-School 2027” as an upcoming tournament item, confirming that the event is an operational part of the 2026/27 build-out rather than a speculative plan. Registration details and entry requirements have not yet been published, but the October 13–15 dates and the Slammer & Squire venue are locked in.
For players weighing their options heading into the autumn qualifying season, the numbers are straightforward: three rounds at World Golf Village for a shot at guaranteed starts across 12 events with six-figure purses, and a defined pathway toward higher-level professional golf.
