Nationwide Tour Notes: Day heading in right direction

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Jason Day's stats are improving on the PGA TOUR. (WireImage)

The PGA TOUR's youngest member, Jason Day, 20, joined the TOUR with a fair amount of fanfare last month. The Australian's practice was extremely limited the last three months of 2007 as he nursed a wrist injury. Day's first outing since securing his 2008 PGA TOUR card based on his fifth-place finish on the final Nationwide Tour money list of 2007 was the Sony Open in Hawaii where the rust showed and he missed the cut. Two weeks ago he finished T49 in the Buick Invitational and last weekend he improved to T20 in the FBR Open. Day is paired in the first round tomorrow at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am with countryman Greg Norman (9:20 a.m. / Poppy Hills).

NATIONWIDE TOUR CEO TO TEAM WITH JOHNSON AT PEBBLE BEACH -- Nationwide CEO Jerry Jurgensen, an excellent golferin his own right, will partner with 2007 Nationwide Tour leading money winner Richard Johnson this week in the PGA TOUR's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Jurgensen and Johnson will play Spyglass Hill, Pebble Beach and Poppy Hills on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, respectively.

TOUR TRAVELS TO NEW ZEALAND / AUSTRALIA FOR SEVENTH STRAIGHT YEAR -- The Nationwide Tour flies across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand next week, then Australia, for the seventh year in a row for a pair of events featuring 156-player fields. Co-sanctioned by the Nationwide Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia, the fields are evenly divided with 78 players from both tours in each tournament. Last year's events were won by Nationwide Tour members Nicholas Thompson (New Zealand) and Scott Sterling (Australia), both of whom went on to finish among THE 25 and earn their PGA TOUR cards for 2008. The HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship (Feb. 11-17) has been played at Clearwater GC in Christchurch every year of the co-sanctioning agreement. The Australia event has a new name, Moonah Classic (Feb. 18-24), and a new venue in Moonah Links in Fingal, Victoria, Australia.

EVERY OFF TO FAST START -- Aside from winners Jarrod Lyle and Scott Dunlap (Panama Movistar Championship), three-time University of Florida All-American Matt Every is off to as good a start as anybody on the Nationwide Tour. The 2006 Ben Hogan Award winner (top men's NCAA Division I player) finished 12th in Panama (despite a final-round 76) and runner-up in Mexico. He has earnings of $81,300 and is third on the money list behind No. 1 Lyle and No. 2 Dunlap. Interestingly, the former Walker Cup team (2005) member's grandfather was a classmate at Rollins College in Florida with renowned golf course architect Pete Dye.

FUNK TO SERVE AS MELWOOD HONORARY CHAIRMAN AGAIN -- Maryland native Fred Funk has agreed to serve as the honorary chairman of the Nationwide Tour's Melwood Prince George's County Open for the second year in a row.

The 1980 University of Maryland graduate said "Golf fans in the region should come out and see this Nationwide Tour event because they're going to see some great players who will compete on the PGA TOUR in the very near future." The event will be played May 19-25 at The Country Club at Woodmore, located in the Maryland suburbs near Washington D.C.

TOP-25 MEXICO OPEN FINISH LEADS TO LOUISIANA INVITES FOR NON MEMBERS -- Jose de Jesus Rodriguez of Mexico and Rafael Gomez of Argentina, both of whom received sponsor exemptions to play in the 50th Mexico Open presented by Corona, had top-25 finishes. A top-25 finish on the Nationwide Tour provides an automatic invitation to the Tour's next co-sponsored event which in this case is the Chitimacha Louisiana Open (the New Zealand and Australia events are not sanctioned solely by the Nationwide Tour). Rodriguez finished T7, while Gomez was T16. The golfers have until March 21st to commit.