Is Sim the Nationwide Tour's greatest player in history?

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Michael Sim earned his three-win promotion to the PGA TOUR in just 12 starts this season on the Nationwide Tour.

Sep. 3, 2009
By Nationwide Tour staff

In recently winning his third Nationwide Tour event of 2009 and earning his PGA TOUR card in just 12 starts, Michael Sim has enjoyed one of the most dominating runs in Tour history. And with the money title and an invitation to the 2010 PLAYERS Championship that goes to the leading money winner hanging in the balance, there is every reason to believe Sim has not played his last Nationwide Tour event of the year. Everything will come to a head at the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship in Charleston, S.C., Oct. 22-25.

Given Sim's achievements, the following information was compiled as a means of comparing his remarkable season with some of the others the Nationwide Tour has witnessed over its first 20 years.

While it's always difficult to compare one great season to another, particularly over a 20-year period, there are several statistical categories that are constants; these were used in developing a ranking process -- cuts made, wins, top-10s and top-25s (all four factored as a percentage of total starts) and scoring average.

Each player (10 individual seasons were selected for consideration) received a ranking position within a category (1 through 10) based on where they stacked up against the others. Players' points in each category were then added up and compared against the rest of the group to determine an overall ranking. The lower the player's point total, the better the ranking.

The following are the top five as determined by the tabulation:

1 -- Michael Sim / 2009 16 points
T2 -- Stewart Cink / 1996 18 points
T2 -- Zach Johnson / 2003 18 points
4 -- Chris Smith / 1997 22 points
5 -- Tom Lehman / 1991 27 points

The statistics for the 10 players under consideration appear in the chart below:

All-time best seasons on the Nationwide Tour: 1990-2009

Player (Year)	Starts	Cuts	Wins	Top-10s	Top-25s	Scoring avg.	All-Around ranking (pts.)	Total earnings	Avg. earnings/Start
Michael Sim (2009)	12	10	3	8	9	68.80	1 (137Pts.)	$527,079	$43,923
Stewart Cink (1996)	21	18	3	14	17	69.40	*	$251,699	$11,986
Zach Johnson (2003)	20	19	2	11	16	68.97	1 (112)	$494,882	$24,744
Chris Smith (1997)	17	16	3	8	12	69.40	*	$225,201	$13,247
Tom Lehman (1991)	28	27	3	11	24	70.06	*	$141,934	$5,069
Chris Perry (1994)	24	24	1	10	19	69.77	*	$167,148	$6,965
Jason Gore (2005)	12	9	3	4	7	69.14	1 (170)	$356,579	$29,715
Troy Matteson (2005)	27	24	2	12	17	69.73	9 (289)	$495,009	$18,334
Chad Campbell (2001)	23	21	3	8	13	69.69	5 (259)	$394,552	$17,154
Jerry Kelly (1995)	28	23	2	15	19	69.93	*	$188,878	$6,746

* Did not exist

An individual example of how Michael Sim's ranking was determined:

• Cuts Made: 10 in 12 starts = 83 percent. This ranked eighth overall.
• Wins: Three in 12 starts = 25 percent. This ranked T1 overall.
• Top-10s: Eight in 12 starts = 66 percent. This ranked T1 overall.
• Top-25s: Nine in 12 starts = 75 percent. This ranked fifth overall.
• Scoring average: 68.8. This ranked first overall
• Sim's rankings of in the five categories added up to 16 points