Nationwide Tour

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Golf's Nationwide Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S. based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either failed to score well enough at that level's Qualifying School (the main tour's qualifying tournament, popularly referred to as "Q-School") to earn their PGA Tour card, or who have done so but then failed to win enough money to stay at that level. Those who are on the top 20 of the money list at year's end are given PGA Tour memberships for the next season.

The earlier "satellite tour" was formalized by the PGA Tour in 1990 and was initially called the Ben Hogan Tour in honor of golf great Ben Hogan. In 1990 there were thirty events, and the typical event purse was $100,000. The name was later changed to the Nike Tour in 1993, and the Buy.com Tour in 2000 in naming rights deals. The current name is a result of the purchase of naming rights by Nationwide Insurance in 2003. Currently (in 2006) there are 31 events, one each in Australia, New Zealand and Panama, and the remainder in the United States. The event in Australia is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australasia. Purses at the other events range from $450,000 to $750,000, which is about one tenth of the level on the PGA Tour.

All Nationwide Tour Tournaments operate similar to typical PGA Tour tournaments in that they are all 72-hole stroke play events with a cut made after 36 holes. The cut on the Nationwide Tour is for the top 60 players and ties, unlike 70 for the PGA Tour. The fields are usually 144 or 156 players, based on time zones. For the aformentioned international events, the joint tour will split players spots with the nationwide tour for proper sanctioning. As with the PGA Tour, the winner of the tournament will get a prize of 18% of the total purse.

Since this tour is a developmental tour, players are usually vying to play well enough to gain status on the PGA Tour. The main ways of having status for the Nationwide Tour are to finish in a group of the top 50 golfers at qualifying school after the top 30 and ties, those who finished between 21st and 60th on the previous year's money list, and those who were formally fully exempt on the PGA Tour in the recent past. Around 14 open qualifying spots are given during the Monday of tournament week, and those who finished in the top 25 of a Nationwide event are automatically exempt into the next tournament. Past PGA Tour winners aged 48 and 49 can play on the Nationwide tour on an increased basis to prepare themselves for the Champions Tour.

Since 1997, a player who wins three tournaments in one year on the Nationwide Tour receives an immediate promotion to the PGA Tour for the remainder of the year. This "performance promotion" (informally sometimes referred to as a "battlefield promotion") has occurred seven times[1]:

1997 Chris Smith
2001 Heath Slocum, Chad Campbell, Pat Bates
2002 Patrick Moore
2003 Tom Carter
2005 Jason Gore

The Nationwide Tour is one of the nine tours on which Official World Golf Ranking points are available, and one of only two developmental tours that offer ranking points, the other being the Europe-based Challenge Tour.

1 2006 schedule
2 Money list winners
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] 2006 schedule

The number in parentheses after winners' names show the player's total number of wins on the Nationwide Tour including that event. No one accumulates many wins on the Nationwide Tour because success at this level soon leads to promotion to the PGA Tour.

Week	Tournament	State/Country	Winner
Jan 26-29	Movistar Panama Championship	Panama	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Tripp Isenhour (3)
Feb 16-19	Jacob's Creek Open Championship	Australia	Image:Flag of Australia.svg Paul Sheehan (1)
Feb 23-26	ING New Zealand PGA Championship	New Zealand	Image:Flag of Canada.svg Jim Rutledge (1)
Mar 23-26	Chitimacha Louisiana Open	Louisiana	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Johnson Wagner (1)
Mar 30 - Apr 2	Livermore Valley Wine Country Championship	California	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Tripp Isenhour (4)
Apr 20-23	Athens Regional Foundation Classic	Georgia	Image:Flag of Australia.svg Paul Gow (3)
Apr 27-30	BMW Charity Pro-Am at The Cliffs	South Carolina	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Ken Duke (1)
May 4-7	Virginia Beach Open	Virginia	Image:Flag of Australia.svg Andrew Buckle (1)
May 11-14	Rheem Classic	Arkansas	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Darron Stiles (4)
May 18-21	Henrico County Open	Virginia	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Matt Kuchar (2)
June 1-4	Rex Hospital Open	North Carolina	Image:Flag of South Africa.svg Brenden Pappas (1)
June 8-11	LaSalle Bank Open	Illinois	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Jason Dufner (2)
June 15-18	Knoxville Open	Tennessee	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Hunter Haas (2)
June 22-25	Chattanooga Classic	Tennessee	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Kyle Reifers (1)
June 29 - July 2	Peek'n Peak Classic	New York	Image:Flag of the United States.svg John Merrick (1)
July 13-16	Scholarship America Showdown	Minnesota	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Brandt Snedeker (1)
July 20-23	Price Cutter Charity Championship	Missouri	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Doug LaBelle II (1)
July 27-30	Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open	Kansas	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Kevin Johnson (4)
Aug 3-6	Cox Classic	Nebraska	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Johnson Wagner (2)
Aug 10-13	Xerox Classic	New York	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Kevin Stadler (3)
Aug 17-20	Northeast Pennsylvania Classic	Pennsylvania	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Craig Bowden (3)
Aug 24-27	National Mining Association Pete Dye Classic	West Virginia	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Jason Enloe (1)
Aug 31 - Sep 3	Legend Financial Group Classic	Ohio	Image:Flag of Australia.svg Gavin Coles (3)
Sep 7-10	Utah Energy Solutions Championship	Utah	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Craig Kanada (1)
Sep 14-17	Albertsons Boise Open	Idaho	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Kevin Stadler (4)
Sep 21-24	Oregon Classic	Oregon	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Cliff Kresge (3)
Oct 5-8	Mark Christopher Charity Classic	California	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Kevin Na (1)
Oct 12-15	Permian Basin Charity Golf Classic	Texas	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Brandt Snedeker (2)
Oct 19-22	PalmettoPride Classic	South Carolina	Image:Flag of Australia.svg Michael Sim (1)
Oct 26-29	Miccosukee Championship	Florida	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Bryce Molder (1)
Nov 9-12	Nationwide Tour Championship at The Houstonian	Texas	Image:Flag of the United States.svg Craig Kanada (2)