Tour takes off week, 12 to compete in U.S. Open

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The Nationwide Tour is idle this week though several current Tour players will be competing in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego, Calif. Tournament play resumes next week (June 16-22) at the Knoxville Open presented by Food City at Fox Den CC.

NATIONWIDE TOUR REPRESENTED AT TORREY PINES THIS WEEK -- Twelve players who currently have status on the Nationwide Tour are in this week's U.S. Open field -- D.J. Brigman, Hunter Haas, David Hearn, Justin Hicks, Chris Kirk, Ian Leggatt, Jarrod Lyle, Scott Piercy, D.A. Points, Peter Tomasulo, Jonathan Turcott and Casey Wittenberg. Haas, Hearn and Tomasulo captured medalist honors in their respective Sectional Qualifying events last Monday. Sixty players in the field are Nationwide Tour alumni.

BRANTFORD NEIGHBORS WAYNE GRETZKY AND DAVID HEARN TO PARTNER IN "GREAT ONE'S" NEW EVENT -- Growing up on the same street as the greatest hockey player in NHL history has its rewards. David Hearn, whose boyhood home was five blocks from Wayne Gretzky's in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, is the lucky Nationwide Tour player who will be No. 99's partner in the upcoming Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic presented by Samsung (June 23-29). The inaugural celebrity pro-am event will be played over two courses, The Georgian Bay Club in Clarksburg, Ontario and the nearby Raven Golf Club in Thornbury. "We're really excited about doing a Nationwide Tour event up in Canada," said Gretzky recently. "I think these players -- I talked to a lot of them -- haven't been up there. They're going to love the area, love the lake, meet some great people and make relationships and friendships that will last a lifetime. I thought it was an opportunity to do something to really help promote golf, the Nationwide Tour and do something for the Wayne Gretzky Foundation and the people of Georgian Bay."

GRETZKY ANNOUNCES POWERHOUSE CELEBRITY LINEUP -- Wayne Gretzky has made a lot of friends in the sports and entertainment fields throughout his career and many have accepted his invitation to play in the first Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic presented by Samsung. The impressive list includes hockey personalities Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Brett Hull, Grant Fuhr, Doug Gilmour, Darcy Tucker, Marty McSorley, Marty Turco, Darren Pang, Ed Mio, Matthew Barnaby, Scott Thornton, Pierre McGuire, Nick Kypreos and Gino Reda, plus Janet Gretzky, John Elway, Trent Edwards, Alan Thicke, Cassie Campbell, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Josh Kelley and Javier Colon. Canadian golf fans will get to meet many of these stars as 160 Nationwide Tour players will be paired with celebrities and amateurs in a pro-am format. The unique purse of $800,099 (U.S.) is the third largest on Tour.

BRENDON TODD / CLIMBING TOWARDS "THE 25" -- Four-time University of Georgia All-American Brendon Todd has been making the most of his conditionally-exempt status on the Nationwide Tour this year. The Tour rookie has posted three top-10 finishes in his last four outings, including a tie for eighth over the weekend in The Rex Hospital Open. Todd has climbed to 42nd on the money list and into the conversation about making THE 25 (25 leading money winners who will secure their PGA TOUR card for 2009). The stat he is probably most focused on is his fourth-round scoring average of 73.80 in the five events in which he made the cut. It pales in comparison to his round one, two and three averages of 69.86, 69.14 and 68.80, respectively.

D.J. BRIGMAN / THIS WEEK'S MAN ON THE BUBBLE -- With those 25 cards available to the leading money winners at the end of the year, D.J. Brigman finds himself as the man on the fence at No. 25 on the current money list. The Nationwide Tour season reaches its midway point next week at the Knoxville Open presented by Food City (15th of 30 events). Brigman has other matters on his mind, however, this week. New Mexico born (Clovis), raised (Albuquerque) and schooled (U. of New Mexico), Brigman qualified for this week's U.S. Open for the third time. He made the cut at Pinehurst in 2005 (T71) and again last year at Oakmont (T30). Ironically, Gavin Coles, who contended for the win in the PGA TOUR's Stanford St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tenn., fell one spot and out of THE 25 to No. 26.

GREG OWEN, MATT WEIBRING / ZEROING IN ON A WIN? -- Two of the most telling stats on the PGA TOUR are Scoring Average and the All-Around Ranking. Somewhat surprising is the fact that the current leaders of these two categories are non-winners, Greg Owen (All-Around) and Matt Weibring (Scoring Av.). Both have played very consistent golf this year and have been in contention to win on a couple of occasions. Like Brendon Todd, they could use improvement in their final-round averages. Owen's is 72.14 and Weibring's 72.43. Otherwise, their average hovers around 69 for the first three rounds which leads one to conclude both are just one good final round away from their first win on the Nationwide Tour.

CHAD GINN / 14 YEARS APART -- Chad Ginn's runner-up at The Rex Hospital Open equaled his best Nationwide Tour finish ever. The son of former PGA TOUR tournament director Arvin Ginn recorded his first runner-up 14 years ago in 1994. With four finishes of tied for 16th or better in eight starts this year, the Mississippi State graduate finds himself in contention for THE 25 at No. 30 on the money list.

GOLF CHANNEL'S "QUEST FOR THE CARD" AIR TIMES -- Golf Channel has announced air times for the next eight episodes of the show that takes its viewers "inside the Nationwide Tour". "Quest for the Card" will air the weeks of June 10th and 24th, July 8th and 22nd, August 5th and 19th and September 2nd and 16th. The first airing will be Tuesday of each week (6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. ET) followed by a minimum of four re-airs within the next seven days.

REX HOSPITAL OPEN HOLE-IN-ONE PRIZE: $100,000+ MASERATI -- Hole-in-one cars are often an attraction at professional and local charity events alike. But it's not very often that the prize is a Maserati GranTurismo and a lot rarer that someone captures the prize. Ed Willingham, a 10-handicap, beat the odds last Wednesday at The Rex Hospital Open Pro-Am when he aced the 169-yard 11th hole at TPC Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, N.C. The sticker price on the Italian machine was $116,925.

THIS WEEK IN NATIONWIDE TOUR HISTORY -- Many golf fans know of Stan Utley as the putting guru to the pros. But did you know he also won three events on the Nationwide Tour in the 1990s? On June 11, 1995, the Missouri native won his second Tour event, the Miami Valley Open in Ohio. Utley's first win came in the Buckeye state two years earlier at the Cleveland Open on June 13th. His other win was in Louisiana in March 1995.

NEXT WEEK -- The Nationwide Tour is idle this week while the U.S. Open is played at Torrey Pines in San Diego, Calif. Numerous Tour alumni are in the field.