Higher purses mean chances to make big money moves

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COLLINGWOOD, Ontario, Canada -- Out here on the Nationwide Tour, it's all about the money. Make enough to squeeze into 'The 25' and there's a promotion forthcoming to a place, the PGA TOUR, where weekly purses are multiplied by 10, a reverie-inducing reality that gets dollar $ign$ dancing in players' heads.

Now is the time to make birdies and money, says Scott Gutschewski. (Martin/Getty Images)

If the Nationwide Tour has a version of the million-dollar mile, it is a five-tournament stretch that begins Thursday when the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic presented by Samsung begins at the Georgian Bay Golf Club, a stunning piece of land on the Niagara Escarpment carved out mainly by Mother Nature with a little help from architect Michael Hurdzan. It represents the richest set of consecutive events in the 19-year history of the Nationwide Tour with purses totaling $3,850,099, or more than 20 percent of what is offered over the course of the 30-event season.

So opportunity knocks for one and all, from the top of the money ladder all the way to the bottom.

"It's a great time to get your game on,'' said Craig Bowden, who finds himself in 59th position on the money list this week. "We do know what's going on in the next few weeks.''

Scott Gutschewski, who is No. 8, agrees.

"This is the time to make a lot of birdies,'' said Gootch, who won the Rex Hospital Open the first week in June.

The Gretzky pro-am event will feature a purse of $800,099, the largest -- by $25,099 -- ever, with $144.017.82 going to the champion. It will hold that distinction for all of two weeks when it is shoved aside by the Nationwide Tour Players Cup in West Virginia. It will be played for a cool million with $180,000 automatically deposited into the winner's checking account. To put all things money related into perspective, that will be twice what Gutschewski earned at the Rex Hospital Open.

The size of the upcoming purses -- the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr. Pepper ($600,000), the Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational ($750,000) and the Cox Classsic presented by Chevrolet ($700,000) are the others -- helped shaped Kris Blanks' schedule in the coming weeks. Blanks, the winner of the Bank of America Open and its $112,000, decided to skip the Rex Hospital in order to be well-rested for what's in front of him.

"I tweaked my back playing in the U.S. Open qualifier and I knew I wanted to be ready to go Thursday so I withdrew,'' said Blanks, who is sixth on the money list and already is a likely graduate. "I could have played, but there is no way I wanted to risk missing these next two. I can take care of a lot of business in them.''

Funny, but some players claim they don't concern themselves with the size of purses. It's all about the process of hitting one shot at a time and adding the numbers at the end of 72 holes. Joe Daley, who is 39th on the money list, is one of those who fall into that school of thought.

"I'm just working on my game, working out and eating well,'' Daley said Tuesday. "The idea is to keep hitting quality golf shots and thinking well. The outcome will take care of itself.''

Keith Nolan believes Daley is correct in his thinking, up to a point.

"You have to prepare each week as if every purse is the same,'' he said. "The idea is to make your check 18 percent (the winner's share) of the total. But that doesn't stop me from running down to the (operations) truck when I finished my round on Sunday. That's where I see how much I won and how many places I improved on the money list.''