PGA Tour Pre-Qualifying: Concerns About Player Eligibility & Integrity

Question
The Pga Tour's Pre-Qualiying Tournament was recently held at the PGA West course in California where 42 golfers moved on to Stage 1.  In this pre-qualifying tournament, a gentleman named Mark Bove of Philadelphia recorded a score of +145 over the 4 rounds (low score being 103).

My question:  Aren't there safeguards to prevent ANY hack golfer from entering this qualifier or simply just paying an entry fee will get you a spot?

Answer
Dear David, thanks for the question.  I saw that...isn't that just terrible.  Well, as it were, ANYONE willing to pay the initial $2500 entry fee is eligible to attend the Pre-qualifying.  The "safeguard" IS the pre-qualifying tournament itself.  Any hacker that happens to have some money will quickly find himself eliminated, and likely embarrassed.  In the past, there wasn't a pre-qual tournament, and when a lousy player chose to attend, it could be very disruptive if a strong player (like a former PGA Tour member who lost his card) had to spend the day with this person.  So, they created pre-qualifying to help weed out this problem.  First time "tryers," if you will, or players who have tried before, but performed badly are required to attend pre-qualifying.  Its understandable that this type of player can be just as disruptive at this stage as the later ones, but until they are willing to put a handicap requirement on pre-qual, this is the only solution.  Frankly, I don't know why they haven't done that.  The USGA requires for all of their events, a handicap of 2 or less, validated and signed by a PGA club professional.  In fact, the PGA tour even requires this for any tour event open qualifying as well.  I can't imagine why they haven't gone to this system.  Until then,  players like Mr. Dove can continue to give it a try.  I'd hate to think its about the money, and that the thinking is, if a person wants to waste their money, we'll take it...but with sports today the way they are...I wouldn't doubt it.  I know that Mr. Dove stands out, but frankly he's only taking the spotlight off many others who don't belong there either.  Maybe his score this year will inspire a change.  Good luck with everything, thanks again for the question and remember...

Love the game,
skipper