An 'exhausted' Michael Sims remained positive yesterday as he reflected on his up and down performance at the six-round PGA Tour Qualifying School – one of the toughest tests in pro golf – in which he failed to regain his privilege to automatically play on the Nationwide Tour.

But by merely having reached the final stage of the 108-hole event in which players can earn the right to play on both the PGA or Nationwide Tours, Sims knows his professional career is still on track.

As well as playing on mini-tours next year, he will be given the opportunity to play on the Nationwide once again – an opportunity of which he intends to take full advantage.

While the top 25 finishers at Q-School will be playing on golf's most lucrative tour in 2009 and the next 25 on the less attractive but still prestigious Nationwide, the rest of last week's field will also be given their chance when the season begins in January.

"I need to get into around seven (Nationwide) events in the first part of the year and make some cuts and make some money," said Sims, who will remain in California for a while having spent the last week battling the two demanding courses at La Quinta.

"If you make some cuts, you usually get to play the next week and that's what I'll I have to do."

A lot of factors will determine how the 29-year-old Bermudian gets to contest the hundreds of thousands of dollars which will be on offer, such as player withdrawals, injuries, invitations and his 125th finish at Q-School.

In the meantime he'll be taking a break.

"I'm totally exhausted," he said yesterday. "It was a stressful week.

"To be honest I wasn't hitting the ball very well and there was just no margin for error. Everybody was making birdies."

Sims admitted the PGA West Nicklaus course, where he broke par every day with rounds of 69, 67 and 67, suited his game much better than the daunting PGA West TPC Stadium lay-out where he struggled with rounds of 76, 74 and 72.

In his final round at TPC Stadium on Monday, he recorded six birdies, four bogeys and a double bogey to finish at even par.

"It was tough," he said. "There was so much water. If you went off the fairway, you would be in trouble.

"But I'm still confident about my game. I'm making birdies, I just have to eliminate the mistakes."

His five-under-par total of 427 left him 27 shots behind long-hitting winner, Harrison Frazer, who recorded an astonishing 32-under-par total of 400, and nine strokes away from regaining his Nationwide Tour status.

It was a performance that impressed his father, Bermuda's former number one tennis player Bruce Sims and mother Carol who refused to contact their son throughout the tournament in order not to exert any more pressure.

"We didn't speak to him at all," said Carol. "We just wanted him to concentrate on what he was doing. He didn't need any other distractions.

"But we're enormously proud of him. I'm not sure everyone appreciates what he's done already. It was an accomplishment just to get there (final stage of Q-School).

Added Bruce: "He's come a long way this year. It's a pity he just couldn't get it right on one course. He made too many bogeys. But he had an awful lot of birdies as well.

"He's determined and he'll get his chance at some stage to play on the Tour next year."