Print this page  |  Close Window

PGATOUR.com news services

ADELAIDE, Australia -- The Nationwide Tour returns to action this week in Adelaide at the Jacob's Creek Open. This marks the sixth year in a row that theNationwide Tour is traveling to Australia and New Zealand to play two events that are co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour of Australasia. The fields are split evenly with 78 players from both tours. They are official events on both circuits.

• The Jacob's Creek Open returns to Kooyona Golf Club, the site of the first three tournaments before the event moved to Royal Adelaide for the past two years. Kooyonga has played extremely difficult in the past, ranking as the second-toughest course on Tour in 2002, the toughest in 2003 and the third hardest in 2004.

• All five of the previous winners of this event have gone on to graduate later that season to the PGA TOUR. The list includes Gavin Coles, Joe Ogilvie, Euan Walters, Steven Bowditch and Paul Sheehan.

• Among the many Australians in this week's event are Jason Day of Queensland and Nick Flanagan of New South Wales. Day, who turned 19 in November, is the youngest member of the Nationwide Tour. He is already very well-known in his homeland having won the 2006 Australian Amateur Stroke Play Championship and other select national junior titles. He is making his first start on this tour.

• Nick Flanagan, 22, defeated Casey Wittenburg on the 37th hole to win the 2003 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont CC. He begins his second full year on the Nationwide Tour having finished 32nd last year in 24 starts.

• This week's host country, Australia, has the largest contingent of members from one country on Tour other than the United States again this year with 16. Canada is next with nine. The 2007 Nationwide Tour Media Guide lists 54 players representing 21 countries outside the U.S.

• Nationwide Tour veteran Ben Bates needs just one more weekend appearance to surpass Steve Haskins for the most made cuts in Tour history. The two players are deadlocked with 192 each. Bates, a 45-year-old native of Quincy, Fla., has played on Tour every year since its inception in 1990, with the exception of the 1998-2000 seasons when he was a member of the PGA TOUR. Haskins leads the Tour with 370 career starts. Bates has 329.

• Gary Player won the 1965 Australian Open at Kooyonga. He had two rounds of 62 and Tournament Director Bob Tuohy marked his card for one of them. The story is told that Jack Nicklaus was walking out of the scorer's hut as Player was going in. Player asked him how he played and Nicklaus smiled and said 63. Player replied, "I've got you by one, Jack."

• Beginning in 2007, there will be an increase from 20 to 25 in the number of PGA TOUR cards that are awarded to Nationwide Tour players for 2008 based on the final 2007 money list. The decision was made due to the level of success Nationwide Tour players have had on the PGA TOUR.

• The Nationwide Tour will have to wait at least one more week to capture its 200th PGA TOUR win. Aaron Baddeley's victory at the recent FBR Open was No. 199. Six of the top 10 at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am were Nationwide Tour alums, including runner-up Kevin Sutherland and third-place finisher John Mallinger.

• Last year, 321 players cashed checks on the Nationwide Tour and a record 62 players earned $100,000 or more.

• The Class of 2006 continues to show great promise on the PGA TOUR. Sixteen of the 22 players are ranked among the Top 144 on the FedExCup points list with Jeff Quinney (9th) and Brandt Snedeker (17th) leading the way.

Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved.