After 31 events, 26 different winners and countless birdies, the Nationwide Tour put the finishing touches on its 17th season with the Nationwide Tour Championship at the Houstonian last weekend. While Craig Kanada won the event and jumped into the top 20 on the final money list, Ken Duke played well enough to solidify his spot atop the Tour’s money list with $382,443 in earnings. Duke joins a list of past money winners including such greats as Tom Lehman and Stewart Cink. However, being the top money winner on the Nationwide Tour doesn’t necessarily translate into success later in one’s career. Each of the 16 top earners the Tour has crowned has traveled a distinctly different path since earning the title.

Jeff Maggert (1990) – Sixteen years after becoming the Nationwide Tour’s initial leading money winner, Maggert proved he’s still got game by winning the 2006 FedEx St. Jude Classic. It was the third victory of Maggert’s career and snapped a seven-year victory drought. The veteran is currently 30th on the TOUR’s career money list with more than $14 million in earnings.

Tom Lehman (1991) – The only Nationwide Tour money leader ever to win a major, Lehman picked up his most impressive victory when he won the 1996 British Open at Royal Lytham and St. Annes. Still a force on TOUR, Lehman recently captained the U.S. Ryder Cup Team at the K Club in Ireland. In all, he’s won five times on the PGA TOUR and competed in three Presidents Cups and three Ryder Cups. Since turning pro in 1982, Lehman has earned over $18 million on TOUR.

John Flannery (1992) – Flannery picked up three of his four career Nationwide Tour wins in 1992 to earn a spot on the PGA TOUR. He finished 102nd on the money list the following year to maintain his exemption, but lost his card after the 1994 season. Flannery, who has not played either the PGA TOUR or Nationwide Tour since 2001, won $255,338 in his career.

Sean Murphy (1993) – The year Murphy took home the top spot on the Nationwide Tour’s money list he won four events. Since then, it’s been up and down for Murphy. His top PGA TOUR finish came in 2000 when he tied for fifth at the Michelob Championship at Kingsmill. He’s back at the second stage of Q-school this week, competing at Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Ariz.

Chris Perry (1994) – Perry had one win each on the Nationwide Tour and PGA TOUR. Plagued by a left hand and wrist injury that dates back to the 2001 British Open, Perry will play next year on a Major Medical Extension for the fifth straight season. Even with the injury, the veteran has managed to play in 483 events during his career and win nearly $7 million.

Jerry Kelly (1995) – A two-time champ on the Nationwide Tour, Kelly has gone on to win twice more on the PGA TOUR at the 2002 Sony Open in Hawaii and Cialis Western Open. A consistent performer, Kelly finished 39th on the 2006 TOUR money list and was runner-up twice this year, including at the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee where he fired 64s in the first and third rounds.

Stewart Cink (1996) – Cink followed up his Nationwide Tour Player of the Year season with Rookie of the Year honors on the PGA TOUR in 1997. He’s won four times on TOUR, including twice in 2004 when he finished fifth on the PGA TOUR’s money list. Cink had seven top-10 finishes this season, including a playoff loss to Tiger Woods at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. Cink played in his third Ryder Cup this year.

Chris Smith (1997) – Smith was the first player to take advantage of the instant promotion to the PGA TOUR when he won three times in 1997. His best year on TOUR was 2002 when he won the Buick Classic and finished 43rd on the money list. He’s earned more than $4.5 million on TOUR, but Smith is competing in the second stage of Q-school this week after finishing 195th on the 2006 money list.

Bob Burns (1998) – The year he led the Nationwide Tour money list, Burns won twice. Four years later, he became the 14th first-time winner of the FUNAI Classic at WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort by holding off 54-hole leader Chris DiMarco by one stroke and Tiger Woods by two strokes. He lost his TOUR card in 2005, though, and only played in nine TOUR events this year.

Carl Paulson (1999) – Paulson won twice on the Nationwide Tour in 1999 and set a record for consecutive starts. While never the winner of a PGA TOUR event, Paulson did finish second at the 2000 Chrysler Championship. He has not played since withdrawing from the 2005 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee with a back injury.

Spike McRoy (2000) – McRoy won twice on the Nationwide Tour in 2000, including the Tour’s season-ending event that year, to vault to the top of the money list. Two years later he won his only PGA TOUR event at the B.C. Open. For the past two seasons, McRoy has split time between the Nationwide Tour and the PGA TOUR.

Chad Campbell (2001) – The Texan collected three wins on the Nationwide Tour in his money-leading season. Campbell has also picked up three wins on the PGA TOUR. He shot a career-best 62 earlier this season at the Sony Open in Hawaii, where he tied for second, and went on to win the following week at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Campbell played on his second Ryder Cup team this year, as well.

Patrick Moore (2002) – Moore became the fifth player in Nationwide Tour history to earn an instant promotion to the PGA TOUR when he won three times in 2002. His third victory came in the season-ending event and allowed him to overtake Arron Oberholser and finish No. 1 on the money list. Moore has been plagued by a back injury since joining the TOUR and he has only played in one event over the last two years.

Zach Johnson (2003) – Johnson became the first player in Nationwide Tour history to top $400,000 in earnings when he led the money list in 2003. He went on to win the 2004 BellSouth Classic and earn Rookie of the Year honors on the PGA TOUR. He added four top-10s in 2006, including three among the top-three, and earned a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team.

Jimmy Walker (2004) – Walker, then 25, became the second-youngest player to earn Nationwide Tour Player of the Year honors after winning twice and finishing atop the money list in 2004. He hasn’t been able to regain that kind of form, though, after suffering a neck injury at the 2005 Sony Open in Hawaii. He was limited to nine events that year and only made nine cuts in 21 starts on TOUR this season.

Troy Matteson (2005) – Matteson took a while to get started but finished his rookie season on a strong note when he won the Frys.com Open last month. The victory was the third in a string of five straight top-10s that pushed his earnings over $1.7 million and made Matteson a candidate for PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year.