PGA Tour Notebook: Lyle, surviving leukemia, hopes to play again in 2014

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Jarrod Lyle says he has some hopes of returning to the PGA Tour in 2014 if he continues his current recovery from a second battle with leukemia.

The 31-year-old Australian, who was first diagnosed with the disease at age 17, learned it had returned shortly after the recent birth of his first child, a daughter. He has since undergone chemotherapy, received a transplant of donor blood from umbilical cords and is making a strong recovery.

''I do want to get back to golf at some stage, but I guess if I never hit another shot I'll be happy,'' he said Tuesday. As long as I've got my health and as long as I've got my family, I'm a happy boy.''

Q-SCHOOL: Scott Brown was a lonely figure on the putting green at Disney World for the last two days after he missed the cut at the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic. He saw no point in going home. Brown was No. 144 on the money list, and if he dropped out of the top 150, he would have to go to the second stage of Q-School.

His projected number fell as low as No. 149, and he wound up at No. 148. He could go home for two weeks before heading out to the California desert for the final stage of the last Q-School that awards PGA Tour cards.

So many others were not so fortunate. Billy Hurley finished at No. 151 by $165. Mark Anderson was tied for the lead at one point Friday, but he fell back and didn't make up enough ground to avoid the second stage, which starts this week at six locations and is a critical step in getting back to the tour.

Those who don't make it have no status anywhere on tour, unless they are a past champion.

Among those entered in the 72-hole stage are major champions Todd Hamilton, Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel and Lee Janzen. Also entered are a pair of Europeans ranked in the top 50 (Jamie Donaldson and Alex Noren), a former Ryder Cup player from England (Ross Fisher), and K.T. Kim, who played in the Presidents Cup last year.

DIVOTS: Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium and Peter Hanson of Sweden were among four international players who earned enough money to get full PGA Tour cards for next year. The others were David Lynn of England, the runner-up by eight shots at the PGA Championship, and Ryo Ishikawa. ... The top 26 players in the world ranking are all PGA Tour members. ... Steve Stricker says he struggled with his putter over the second half of the year, and one statistic shows that. In the ''strokes gained'' category, Stricker fell to No. 67. He was No. 2 last year. ... Justin Leonard (No. 9) and Jerry Kelly (No. 25) will be using one-time exemptions for being in the top 25 in career money to have a full PGA Tour card for 2013.

STAT OF THE WEEK: There were 67 tee shots of at least 400 yards on the PGA Tour this year, with 65 occurring at either Kapalua or Firestone. The exceptions were Retief Goosen on the seventh hole at Doral, and Kevin Kisner on the 18th hole at Sedgefield CC in the Wyndham Championship.

FINAL WORD: ''I still have a lot of years ahead of me. I just don't want to be burned out. I don't want to get to the stage where I'm 30 years old or 35 years old and ... I don't want to say, 'Fed up with the game.' But it's a long time to be playing a sport. And I just want to pace myself.'' -- Rory McIlroy.