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Nationwide Tour Storylines – Week Of August 25th
The Nationwide Tour is idle this week, with tournament play resuming next week at the Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank near Salt Lake City (Sept. 1-7). The countdown to the end of the season is on with only seven events remaining to determine “The 25” who will earn their 2009 PGA TOUR cards.
SCOTT PIERCY / TAKING ADVANTAGE OF HIS OPPORTUNITIES – August has been a good month for Las Vegas, NV native and resident Scott Piercy to put it mildly. Three weeks ago Piercy was 123rd on the money list. With a win (Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open), a T6 (Xerox Classic) and another win on Sunday (Northeast Pennsylvania Classic), the 2001 San Diego State University grad has leaped all the way up to 12th. He was 35th after the Xerox Classic. On Sunday he shot 64 and had to wait for an hour to see if his score would hold up. A conditionally-exempt player at the beginning of the year, Piercy did not get his first Nationwide Tour start until the Ft. Smith Classic presented by Stephens, Inc. in May. Piercy won last year’s Ultimate Game in Las Vegas, collecting its $2 million first-place check.
PIERCY JOINS JARROD LYLE AND COLT KNOST IN THREE-WIN PROMOTION CHASE – With three players now sitting on two wins, the odds of an instant promotion to the PGA TOUR this year got a lot greater on Sunday. Scott Piercy’s win in Scranton, PA put him in the same position Jarrod Lyle and Colt Knost have been in the last eight and five weeks, respectively. There are seven Nationwide Tour events remaining. Only eight players have earned a three-win TOUR promotion since it was initiated in 1997, with Australian Nick Flanagan being the most recent last August in Rochester, NY.
BRENDON DE JONGE / THE NEW NO. 1 – Nationwide Tour players now have a new man to chase atop the money list. With his fourth top-five finish in five starts on Sunday (T2, Northeast Pennsylvania Classic) and no finish worse than T18 in his last seven outings, Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge has soared from No. 23 to No. 1 since July 20th. Former No. 1, Jarrod Lyle of Australia, held the top spot after the seven previous tournaments and 14 in all this year. The difference between the two is only $4,090. There is a much larger gap, $72,158, between Lyle and countryman Greg Chalmers at No. 3. The 2008 leading money winner on the Nationwide Tour will be fully-exempt on the PGA TOUR next year and receive an invitation to compete in THE PLAYERS Championship in May.
2007 TOUR GRADS NICHOLAS THOMPSON AND MARTIN LAIRD HEADING UP FEDEXCUP POINTS LIST -- With T7 finishes at the PGA TOUR’s Barclays event on Sunday, 2007 Nationwide Tour graduates Nicholas Thompson and Martin Laird dramatically improved their position in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Thompson, a former Georgia Tech All-American, bettered his standing by 27 spots to No. 20. Laird, a native of Scotland who played college golf at Colorado State, began the Playoffs in 128th position and now finds himself 67th. As recently as July 20th, Laird was 199th in FedExCup points. A pair of T4 finishes to close out the regular season put him in the competition. Another Nationwide Tour winner of a year ago, 20-year-old Jason Day of Australia, made a nice jump in the standings too at The Barclays, moving from 127th to 96th with a T31 finish.
MORE ON LAIRD….SPORTSMANSHIP REWARDED – Martin Laird almost didn’t make the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. At the Wyndham Championship, the last regular season event that set the Playoffs field, the Scotsman recorded a second-round 74 that included a two-shot penalty he called on himself for failing to return his ball mark to its original position after moving it on the putting green at the 18th hole. His 137 halfway total (63-74) was just inside the cut number. Laird went on to fire 64-63 on the weekend to go from 164th in points to 128th (144 made the field). His T3 at The Barclays advanced him another 61 spots to 67th and into the middle of the run for the FedExCup and its $10 million champion’s payout.
FOURSOME OF WINNERS HANGING ONTO “THE 25” – the competition to earn one of the 25 PGA TOUR cards each year is indeed a season-long quest. Four golfers who won tournaments this year find themselves precariously close to falling outside “The 25”. Australian Ewan Porter (Moonah Classic winner), Canada’s Bryan DeCorso (South Georgia Classic), Justin Hicks (Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic) of Michigan and Ryan Hietala (Cox Classic) of Boise, ID currently occupy Nos. 22-25, respectively, on the Nationwide Tour money list. Scott Dunlap (Panama Movistar Championship winner) of Duluth, GA at No. 28 is on the outside looking in as are No. 50 Robert Damron (Athens Regional Foundation Classic) of Orlando and No. 56 Gavin Coles (Chitimacha Louisiana Open) of Australia, both of whom have played more events on the PGA TOUR this year. Damron had season-ending shoulder surgery in early August.
NEXT WEEK – The Nationwide Tour will be in Sandy, UT (Salt Lake City area) for the Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank (Sept. 1-7). Willow Creek Country Club is the host club for the tenth year in a row. Franklin Langham won the event in 2007.
THIS WEEK IN NATIONWIDE TOUR HISTORY – August 26, 1990: Tom Lehman records only two bogeys in 54 holes to win the Reflection Ridge Open in Wichita, KS, his first Nationwide Tour title. August 30, 1998: The late Stiles Mitchell (he passed away on July 19th) tops Woody Austin and Jeff Barlow in a playoff at the Permian Basin Open. “Big Daddy” Mitchell leads the tournament in driving distance with an average of 335.7 yards on his measured tee shots and ties for fifth in greens in regulation.
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