Nationwide Tour

The Nationwide Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either failed to score well enough at that level's Qualifying School (the main tour's qualifying tournament, popularly referred to as "Q-School") to earn their PGA Tour card, or who have done so but then failed to win enough money to stay at that level. Those who are on the top 25 of the money list at year's end are given PGA Tour memberships for the next season.

History

The "satellite tour" was formalized by the PGA Tour in 1990, originally named the Ben Hogan Tour, sponsored by the Ben Hogan Golf Company.^[1] The first season of 1990 had 30 events, and the typical event purse was $100,000. After three seasons, Nike acquired the title sponsorship and the tour's name became the Nike Tour, which held for seven seasons (1993-99). The name was changed again to the Buy.com Tour for three seasons (2000-02). The current name is a result of the purchase of naming rights by Nationwide Insurance in 2003. In 2007 there were 32 events, one each in Australia, New Zealand, and Panama, with the remainder in the United States. All three countries continue to host events on the tour, played early in the season; Canada and Mexico have been added since 2008, and Colombia hosted an event in March 2010. The events in Australia and New Zealand are co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australasia. Purses in 2010 range from $500,000 to $1,000,000, about one-tenth of the level on the PGA Tour.

Rules and results

All Nationwide Tour tournaments operate similar to typical PGA Tour tournaments in that they are all 72-hole stroke play events with a cut made after 36 holes. The cut on the Nationwide Tour is for the top 60 players and ties, unlike 70 for the PGA Tour. The fields are usually 144 or 156 players, depending on time of year (and available daylight hours). For the aforementioned international events, the joint tour will split players spots with the Nationwide Tour for proper sanctioning. As with the PGA Tour, the winner of the tournament will get a prize of 18% of the total purse.

Since this tour is a developmental tour, players are usually vying to play well enough to gain status on the PGA Tour. The main ways of having status for the Nationwide Tour are to finish in a group of the top 50 golfers at qualifying school after the top 25 and ties, those who finished between 26th and 60th on the previous year's money list, and those who were formerly fully exempt on the PGA Tour in the recent past. Around 14 open qualifying spots are given during the Monday of tournament week, and those who finished in the top 25 of a Nationwide event are automatically exempt into the next tournament. If a Monday morning qualifier wins an event, they will earn full-exempt status for the remainder of the season. Past PGA Tour winners aged 48 and 49 can play on the Nationwide Tour on an increased basis to prepare themselves for the Champions Tour.

Since 1997, a player who wins three tournaments in one year on the Nationwide Tour receives an immediate promotion to the PGA Tour for the remainder of the year and for the following year.^[2] This "performance promotion" (sometimes informally referred to as a "battlefield promotion") has occurred nine times:^[3]

• 1997:  Chris Smith (USA)
• 2001:  Heath Slocum, Chad Campbell & Pat Bates (USA)
• 2002:  Patrick Moore (USA)
• 2003:  Tom Carter (USA)
• 2005:  Jason Gore (USA)
• 2007:  Nick Flanagan (AUS)
• 2009:  Michael Sim (AUS)

In 2007 Paul Claxton became the first man to reach US$1 million in Nationwide Tour career earnings.^[4]

The Nationwide Tour is one of the 10 tours on which Official World Golf Rankings points are available, and one of only two developmental tours that offer ranking points, the other being the Europe-based Challenge Tour.

2011 schedule

The table below shows the Nationwide Tour's 2011 schedule. The numbers in parentheses after winners' names show the player's total number of wins on the Nationwide Tour including that event. No one accumulates many wins on the Nationwide Tour because success at this level soon leads to promotion to the PGA Tour.

Date	Tournament	Location	Winner	OWGR points	Notes
Feb 27	Panama Claro Championship	Panama	Mathew Goggin (3)	14
Mar 6	Pacific Rubiales Bogotá Open	Colombia	Brenden Pappas (n/a)	10[5]	Official money, unofficial win[6] - tournament shortened to 36 holes by weather
Mar 27	Chitimacha Louisiana Open	Louisiana	Brett Wetterich (3)	14
Apr 17	Fresh Express Classic at TPC Stonebrae	California	Daniel Chopra (3)	14
May 1	South Georgia Classic	Georgia	Ted Potter, Jr. (1)	14	Won as a Monday qualifier
May 8	Stadion Classic at UGA	Georgia	Russell Henley (am) (1)	14	Won as an amateur
May 22	BMW Charity Pro-Am	South Carolina	Garth Mulroy (2)	14
Jun 5	Melwood Prince George's County Open	Maryland	Steve Wheatcroft (1)	14
Jun 12	The Rex Hospital Open	North Carolina	Kyle Thompson (3)	14
Jun 19	Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open	Kansas	Mathew Goggin (4)	14
Jun 26	Mexico Open	Mexico	Erik Compton (1)	14
Jul 17	Chiquita Classic	Ohio	Russell Knox (1)	14
Jul 24	Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational	Ohio	Harris English (am) (1)	14	Won as an amateur
Jul 31	Utah Championship	Utah	J. J. Killeen (1)	14
Aug 7	Cox Classic	Nebraska	J. J. Killeen (2)	14
Aug 14	Price Cutter Charity Championship	Missouri	Steve Friesen (1)	14	Won as a Monday qualifier
Aug 21	Midwest Classic	Kansas	James Nitties (1)	14
Aug 28	News Sentinel Open	Tennessee	Kirk Triplett (1)	14
Sep 4	Mylan Classic	Pennsylvania	Gary Christian (2)	14
Sep 18	Albertsons Boise Open	Idaho	Jason Kokrak (1)	14	Last player to gain entry into the field
Sep 25	Soboba Golf Classic	California	Ted Potter, Jr. (2)	14
Oct 2	WNB Golf Classic	Texas	Danny Lee (1)	14
Oct 9	Children's Hospital Classic	Tennessee	Miguel Carballo (2)	14
Oct 16	Miccosukee Championship	Florida	Jason Kokrak (2)	14
Oct 23	Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open	Florida	Gavin Coles (5)	14
Oct 30	Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island	South Carolina	Ken Duke (2)	20

Career money leaders

The table shows all golfers who have earned above $1 million on the Nationwide Tour as of the 2011 season. Players in bold were 2011 Nationwide Tour members.

Rank	Player	Country	Earnings ($)
1	Darron Stiles	United States	1,614,777
2	Paul Claxton	United States	1,538,215
3	Jeff Gove	United States	1,411,457
4	Hunter Haas	United States	1,398,873
5	Chris Tidland	United States	1,338,160
6	Gavin Coles	Australia	1,324,267
7	Craig Bowden	United States	1,295,189
8	Kyle Thompson	United States	1,286,669
9	Jon Mills	Canada	1,213,138
10	Roger Tambellini	United States	1,202,642
11	Fran Quinn	United States	1,189,856
12	Tom Scherrer	United States	1,153,933
13	Vance Veazey	United States	1,151,583
14	Justin Bolli	United States	1,130,843
15	Kevin Johnson	United States	1,091,278
16	Jeff Klauk	United States	1,081,671
17	David Branshaw	United States	1,053,538
18	D. A. Points	United States	1,046,630
19	Jason Gore	United States	1,033,736
20	Mathew Goggin	Australia	1,022,493
21	David McKenzie	Australia	1,014,628
22	Joe Daley	United States	1,004,571

There is a full list on the PGA Tour's website here.

Money list and Player of the Year winners

Year	Money winner	Earnings (US$)	Player of the Year
Nationwide Tour
2011	J. J. Killeen (USA)	414,273
2010	Jamie Lovemark (USA)	452,951	Jamie Lovemark
2009	Michael Sim (AUS)	644,142	Michael Sim (AUS)
2008	Matt Bettencourt (USA)	447,863	Brendon de Jonge (ZIM)
2007	Richard Johnson (WAL)	445,421	Nick Flanagan (AUS)
2006	Ken Duke (USA)	382,443	Ken Duke (USA)
2005	Troy Matteson (USA)	495,009	Jason Gore (USA)
2004	Jimmy Walker (USA)	371,346	Jimmy Walker (USA)
2003	Zach Johnson (USA)	494,882	Zach Johnson (USA)
Buy.com Tour
2002	Patrick Moore (USA)	381,965	Patrick Moore (USA)
2001	Chad Campbell (USA)	394,552	Chad Campbell (USA)
2000	Spike McRoy (USA)	300,638	Spike McRoy (USA)
Nike Tour
1999	Carl Paulson (USA)	223,051	Carl Paulson (USA)
1998	Bob Burns (USA)	178,664	Bob Burns (USA)
1997	Chris Smith (USA)	225,201	Chris Smith (USA)
1996	Stewart Cink (USA)	251,699	Stewart Cink (USA)
1995	Jerry Kelly (USA)	188,878	Jerry Kelly (USA)
1994	Chris Perry (USA)	167,148	Chris Perry (USA)
1993	Sean Murphy (USA)	166,293	Sean Murphy (USA)
Ben Hogan Tour
1992	John Flannery (USA)	164,115	John Flannery (USA)
1991	Tom Lehman (USA)	141,934	Tom Lehman (USA)
1990	Jeff Maggert (USA)	108,644	Jeff Maggert (USA)

See also

• List of golfers with most Nationwide Tour wins
• Professional golf tours
• Challenge Tour - the analogous tour in Europe operated by the PGA European Tour
• Gateway Tour - a third tier tour in the United States
• NGA Pro Golf Tour - another third tier tour in the United States

Notes and references

1. ^ ESPN.com - sports business - "Legendary brand will soon have new owner - again" - 2003-08-12 - accessed 2010-05-26
2. ^ 2008 Nationwide Tour Eligibility Requirements
3. ^ Nationwide Tour Midseason Review
4. ^ PG County Open victory makes Claxton first million-dollar manpgatour.com, May 27, 2007
5. ^ Points reduced 25% due to only 36 holes being played
6. ^ Pappas declared winner in weather-plagued Bogota

External links

• Official site
• How to become a new Nationwide Tour member