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NATIONWIDE TOUR STORYLINES – Week of April 13th
Athens Regional Foundation Classic
April 16-19
Jennings Mill Golf Club, Bogart, GA
Purse: $550,000 First Prize: $99,000
2008 Champion: Robert Damron
7th of 29 Nationwide Tour events
CHAD CAMPBELL / ONE OF SEVEN MASTERS’ RUNNERS-UP – In 2007, Zach Johnson became the first former Nationwide Tour player to win the Masters tournament. Several others have come all too close. On Sunday, Chad Campbell became the seventh alumnus to finish runner-up in the chase for a green jacket, joining Tom Lehman (1994), David Duval (’98 & ’02), Ernie Els (’00 & ’04), Len Mattiace (’03), Chris DiMarco (’05) and Tim Clark (’06). DiMarco, Clark and Campbell came the closest, each falling victim in a playoff.
TOUR PAYS FOURTH VISIT TO ATHENS – The Nationwide Tour returns to Jennings Mills Golf Club outside Athens, GA this week for the fourth year in a row. The tournament benefits the Athens Regional Foundation, which serves the long-term healthcare needs of area citizens. The nearby University of Georgia has fed many of its former stars to the Nationwide Tour over the years, including 2008 “25” graduate Brendon Todd, who is now on the PGA TOUR, and Erik Compton, who last Wednesday received the Ben Hogan Award at the Golf Writers Association of America’s annual banquet in Augusta. Todd gave the locals plenty to cheer about last year over the first three days. He started the final round tied for the lead only to falter, shooting 80 to finish T25.
STRENGTH OF FIELD – All six 2009 Nationwide Tour winners (Vance Veazey, Alistair Presnell, Steven Alker, Alex Prugh, Bubba Dickerson and Michael Sim) will be in Athens this week, along with 22 of the top-25 money leaders.
MASTERS CONNECTIONS – 23 players who are entered in the Athens’ event have played down the road in the Masters tournament at least once in their career. Andrew Magee (see additional note below), who will be making his first Nationwide Tour start, tops the list with seven, followed by Ted Schulz and Willie Wood with four. Chris Riley, Len Mattiace and Paul Stankowski have competed three times at Augusta National. Bubba Dickerson is the most recent Nationwide Tour winner (Chitimacha Louisiana Open) to have played in the Masters (2002).
CATCHING UP WITH THE DEFENDING CHAMPION, ROBERT DAMRON – Last year’s champion, Robert Damron, will be in Athens this week to defend his title. Damron’s 2008 year came to a halt in August when he underwent shoulder surgery. In 2009, he has made the cut once in three PGA TOUR starts and missed the cut and withdrew in his two Nationwide Tour starts. The Kentucky native who grew up at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club in Orlando, FL, won the 2001 Verizon Byron Nelson Classic on the PGA TOUR and has more than $6 million in earnings since turning professional in 1994.
ANDREW MAGEE TO MAKE FIRST NATIONWIDE TOUR START – Four-time PGA TOUR winner Andrew Magee will tee it up for the first time in a Nationwide Tour event this week in Athens. Magee, who turns 47 next month, has seen a very successful career ($8.5 million in earnings) slowed in recent years after undergoing cancer surgery on his left kidney in 2006. The resident of Paradise Valley, AZ has made only six PGA TOUR starts since 2007, his last being this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard (missed cut), which he won in 1991. Magee has been busy, however, off the course, including his co-host role on Golf Channel’s “The Approach”. He was in Augusta last week.
NEXT WEEK – The Nationwide Tour remains in Georgia. The South Georgia Classic will be played at Kinderlou Forest Golf Club in Valdosta April 23-26.
20 YEARS / THIS WEEK IN NATIONWIDE TOUR HISTORY – April 15, 2007: Big-hitting 38-year-old rookie John Kimbell wins the inaugural South Georgia Classic by one shot over Australian Matt Jones, posting the only sub-70 round on the final day at Kinderlou Forest Golf Club where wind gusts reached 35 mph.
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