Bermuda's top golfer, Michael Sims, returns today to what is considered one of the hardest tests in sport – PGA Tour Q School.

Sims will play in the second stage of Q School in McKinney, Texas at the TPC Craig Ranch and will be looking to advance to the third and final stage which will be held next month.

If the 30-year-old can advance to the final stage, he will get the opportunity to regain full Nationwide Tour status and even a chance to go straight to the PGA Tour which the Bermudian has said is his ultimate dream.

But first he will have to forget about his disastrous final round at last month's Miccosukee Championships which was the final regular event on this season's Nationwide Tour.

A five-over-par 76 at the Miccosukee Golf and Country Club in Miami was one of his worst rounds of the year and it left Sims in 61st place on the moneylist – just one place below the 60 who advanced to the Nationwide Tour Championships where all of the players were granted automatic status for next year's Tour.

Of those, 25 were promoted to the lucrative PGA Tour.

Sims admitted a day after that crushing 76 the disappointment hadn't "sunk in".

It was exceptionally tough on him since he had led the tournament late in the third round before taking a double-bogey at the 17th, and then followed with another two doubles in the final mistake-riddled round.

Sims, who now makes his home on Sea Island, Georgia, had his best season as a pro this year. He played in 24 Nationwide tournaments, made 13 cuts, had two top 10 finishes and six top 25 finishes and pocketed $96,927. His official World Golf Rating was 636.

Although he played in one Nationwide Tour event in 2006 and didn't make the cut, in 2007 he made the tour after Q School and played in 27 events, making nine cuts. He had one top 10 finish and two top 25 finishes and made $39,102 and was 120 on the moneylist. His scoring average that year was 72.67 and he bettered that by nearly two strokes this year with an average of 70.69.

Earlier this year, Sims put down his improvement to his teacher Mike Taylor.

He said: "I give a lot of credit to Mike Taylor, my teacher. We've been working on a few things in Sea Island. My head's a lot clearer, I just go out and play golf. I've made a change in equipment and basically I've worked on the simple things."

The second-stage Q School tournaments all start today at six sites in four states and Sims will be joining, among others, those players who finished from 41 to 70 on this year's Nationwide Tour moneylist.

The second stage competition will be stroke play over 72 holes.

Those who have qualified for the second stage are successful first qualifying stage golfers and players, like Sims, who are exempt into the second stage.

The size of the field this week at the six courses will be 450 including ties from the first qualifying stage. There will be approximately 78 players at each course and there will be no cut after the second round. The number of players advancing to the final stage will be roughly the same percentage of players from each site. That number will be announced later this week.

All players tying for the last qualifying position at the conclusion of play on Saturday will advance to the final qualifying stage which will be held at Bear Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach.

Entry fee for the second stage is $4,000 and the finals is $3,500. Sims can only make money at the final stage where the medallist receives $50,000, the runner-up $40,000 and the rest of the 25 new PGA Tour members and ties earn at least $25,000. Players earning exempt Nationwide Tour status earn $5,000 each.

And if Sims does make it to December's final stage, Bermuda golf fans will be able to watch him on TV as the Golf Channel covers the final three days from December 5-7.

The TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas where Sims tees off today, was named by Golf Digest as among the top private golf courses in the US.

It is a par-72, 7,438-yard lay-out and was designed by PGA Tour legend and golf course architect Tom Weiskopf.

It is rated among the toughest golf courses in Texas and was host to the 2008 Nationwide Tour Championship, the pinnacle event on the Nationwide Tour.