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By Jeff Adams
PGA TOUR Staff

GLENVIEW, Ill. -- The Nationwide Tour returns to the city that is home to America's first 18-hole golf course, Chicago Golf Club, and one of the city's newer facilities, The Glen Club, for the LaSalle Bank Open in the suburbs of Chicago. In its fifth year, the tournament has become one of the Nationwide Tour's most popular events. The LaSalle Bank Open offers the Tour's largest full-field purse of $750,000 ($135,000 to the winner) and a list of champions who have all gone on to earn their PGA TOUR card the year of their victories.

Chris Smith, a five-time winner on the Nationwide Tour, is in Chicago for the LaSalle Bank Open. (Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

As in years past, the LaSalle Bank Open again boasts one of the season's strongest fields as 47 of the top-50 money winners will be at Glenview, including every 2007 tournament winner. Five-time Nationwide Tour winner Chris Smith and four-time winners Kevin Stadler and Kevin Johnson are in the 156-player field, all of whom are vying to improve their positions in "The 25" and their shot at 2008 PGA TOUR playing privileges. There are 19 former PGA TOUR winners at Glenview.

The year's leading money winner, Nick Flanagan, is looking for his third win of the season and an automatic promotion to the PGA TOUR. He leads an international contingent which represents 18 different countries.

The LaSalle Bank Open is the 12th of 32 Nationwide Tour events this year. The winner of the LaSalle Bank Open has never finished lower than 13th on the final money list.

The Glen Club, designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 2001, features 7,263 grueling yards carved out of a 195-acre refuge and former site of the Glenview Naval Air Station. Last year, the course was played to a par of 71 and its scoring average of 73.857 was the second highest on Tour. Tournament winner Jason Dufner posted a 5-under 279, which catapulted him onto the PGA TOUR this year. The Glen Club scorecard is 23 yards longer this year and playing to a par 72.

Paul Claxton, winner of last week's event and the Tour's first player to reach $1 million in career earnings, will also be teeing it up this week.

Playing on sponsor's exemptions are golfers Kevin Hall and Dillon Dougherty. Hall, the first African-American to play on a golf scholarship for Ohio State, led his team to a Big Ten title. He has been deaf since the age of two. Dougherty is a former standout at Northwestern University and runner-up in the 2005 U.S. Amateur.

All four rounds will be televised by GOLF CHANNEL.