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NATIONWIDE TOUR STORYLINES – Week of April 20th
NATIONWIDE TOUR STORYLINES – Week of April 20th
SOUTH GEORGIA CLASSIC
presented by First State Bank & Trust Company
April 23-26
Kinderlou Forest Golf Club, Valdosta, GA
Purse: $625,000 First Prize: $112,500
2008 Champion: Bryan DeCorso
8th of 29 Nationwide Tour events
Golf Channel will televise all four rounds
VALDOSTA TO HOST NATIONWIDE TOUR FOR THIRD YEAR – The Nationwide Tour comes to friendly Valdosta, GA this week for the third playing of the South Georgia Classic. Last year, Canada’s Bryan DeCorso ran away with the title, defeating Bryce Molder and Greg Owen by four shots at the super-long, Davis Love III-designed Kinderlou Forest Golf Club (see related note below). Inaugural winner John Kimbell of Lafayette, GA and DeCorso did not turn their good play in Valdosta into a spot in “The 25” at year’s end. Kimbell and DeCorso are in this week’s field as will Sunday’s Athens Regional Foundation Classic winner Patrick Sheehan.
VALDOSTA STATE STAR GETS CLASSIC INVITE – South Georgia Classic tournament officials have given a sponsor exemption to Valdosta State University senior, Brent Witcher. The Lawrenceville, GA resident was a 2008 finalist for the Jack Nicklaus Award, given to the nation’s top Division II golfer. On Monday and Tuesday of this week, Witcher will join his Blazer teammates at the Gulf South Conference Championship tournament in Hot Springs, AR.
MICHAEL SIM / THE HOTTEST PLAYER IN GOLF? – There may not be a hotter player in all of golf this year than Australia’s Michael Sim. In six Nationwide Tour starts and one on the European Tour/PGA Tour of Australasia (Johnnie Walker Classic), the 24-year-old has a win, a playoff loss, a third, a T4 and a T7:
Feb. 8th T23 Panama Digicel Championship (Panama City, Panama)
Feb. 22nd T7 Johnnie Walker Classic (Perth, Australia)
March 1st 3 Moonah Classic (Victoria, Australia)
March 8th T4 HSBC PGA Championship (Christchurch, New Zealand)
March 15th MC Michael Hill New Zealand Open (Queenstown, New Zealand)
April 5th Win Stonebrae Classic (Hayward, California)
April 19th 2nd * Athens Regional Foundation Classic (Athens, Georgia) * = Playoff
In the 26 rounds he’s played in 2009, Sim is 56-under par. He has 15 rounds in the 60s and only been at or over par eight times. Sim apparently likes Sundays. In his two final rounds in California and Georgia, he fired 64 and 63, respectively. At Stonebrae, he also shot 64 in the second round.
The former number one amateur in the world (2005) who was born in Scotland has a commanding lead of $106,140 in the Nationwide Tour money race. The largest lead through seven events previously was $39,345 by another Aussie, Jarrod Lyle, at this time last year. There is little doubt Sim is fully recovered from a career-threatening back problem that sidelined him for much of the 2007 and 2008 seasons. His current earnings of $241,417 would have been 21st on last year’s final money list. He surpassed Tripp Isenhour ($226,705 in 2006) for most earnings through the first seven events of a season.
MAKES SENSE – With his game on cruise-control, it only makes sense that Michael Sim is doing well in the Tour’s statistical categories. How does first in All-Around Ranking, Greens in Regulation and Putting Average, second in Total Driving and third in Driving Accuracy Percentage sound?
NO LONGER A SURPRISE VISIT – Michael Sim had big plans this week. He intended to fly home to Perth, Australia to surprise his parents. Then in talking to them last week he found out they were going to be in Bali, Indonesia. “No worries, mate”! Sim boarded a plane for Australia after his Georgia win and will reunite with mom and dad when they get home this Friday. Sim plans to return to the States on May 7th and get back to business on the Nationwide Tour at the BMW Charity Pro-Am in South Carolina (May 14-17).
BRENDON TODD MAKES HISTORY WITH ACES – In case you missed it, former University of Georgia star Brendon Todd put on quite a show last Thursday and Friday in the shadows of his alma mater. By making aces on the same hole at Jennings Mill Country Club (No. 17, playing 147 & 157 yards, respectively) both days of the Athens Regional Foundation Classic, Todd became the first player in Nationwide Tour history to do so. The last player to ace the same hole in the same tournament was Graham Marsh at the 2004 Senior British Open (first and third rounds). Editors note: In response to inquiries we’ve received – Arnold Palmer made aces at the same hole on back-to-back days of the 1988 Chrysler Cup at TPC Avenel outside Washington, D.C. but they came in the Tuesday and Wednesday pro-ams.
LONG, LONG KINDERLOU FOREST – Once again, at 7,781 yards Kinderlou Forest tops all golf courses on the Nationwide Tour this year in length. And until this past February it was the longest course played on both the Nationwide Tour and the PGA TOUR. Dove Mountain outside of Phoenix, site of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, was listed at 7,849 yards. A sound argument can be made, however, that Kinderlou Forest plays longer from the tips due to its lack of altitude, which clearly aids players in Arizona, and the prevailing humidity generally in evidence in South Georgia.
BRIAN GAY UPS ALUMNI WIN TOTAL TO 243 – Brian Gay’s runaway victory in Sunday’s Verizon Heritage was the 243rd PGA TOUR win by a Nationwide Tour alumnus. The former Florida Gator standout became the sixth former Tour player to win on the PGA TOUR in 2009.
TWO MORE “GREATEST MOMENTS” TO BE UNVEILED THIS WEEK – The third and fourth of the “20 Greatest Moments” in Nationwide Tour history will be unveiled during this week’s South Georgia Classic telecasts on Golf Channel and on PGATOUR.COM. At season’s end fans will have the chance to vote for their favorite moment from the 20 that will be unveiled through mid-September.
NEXT WEEK – The Nationwide Tour is idle before resuming play at the BMW Charity Pro-Am at three host courses in Greenville and Spartanburg, SC and Mill Spring, NC May 11-17.
20 YEARS / THIS WEEK IN NATIONWIDE TOUR HISTORY – April 21, 1991: Former PLAYERS champion (2006) Stephen Ames wins the Pensacola Open by one shot over the Golf Channel’s Jerry Foltz. Ames birdies the last three holes to outlast Foltz, who ties the course record with a 7-under 65.
April 24, 1994: Omar Uresti sets a PGA TOUR-record with nine consecutive birdies during the third round of the Shreveport (LA) Open. Uresti would go on to win the tournament the next day in a six-hole playoff over Pat Bates.
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