Nationwide Tour preps for first event, big anniversary

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Badz/PGA TOUR

Scott Dunlap won the 2008 Panama Championship. Who will take the first event of the 2009 Nationwide Tour?

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The Nationwide Tour will launch its 2009 season next week in Panama and a year-long celebration will begin as the Tour enters its 20th year.

The first of 29 Nationwide Tour events, the Panama Digicel Championship, will be played Feb. 5-8 at the Panama Golf Club in Panama City, Panama. This is the sixth consecutive year Panama Golf Club will host the Tour's season opener.

Also, next Monday marks the anniversary of one of the most significant days in Nationwide Tour history. On Feb. 2, 1990, the first shot in Nationwide Tour history was struck at the Bakersfield (CA) Open. Two days, later Mike Springer won the event.

SEASON LAUNCH IN PANAMA

The season-long quest to earn a PGA TOUR card begins with 132 players vying for $600,000 in prize money. Panama Golf Club was host to numerous "winter tour" events from 1950 into the 1980s, which were won by World Golf Hall of Fame members Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Robert De Vicenzo and Curtis Strange, among others. Several former PGA TOUR winners are entered, including Keith Clearwater, Len Mattiace, Jim McGovern, Steve Pate, Dicky Pride, Paul Stankowski and Willie Wood.

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The 2009 Nationwide Tour season features nearly $19 million in prize money, with 17 events scheduled to air on GOLF CHANNEL beginning in March. The Tour will visit 18 states in the United States and five countries outside its borders. The Panama Digicel Championship will be followed by one event in Australia and two in New Zealand in March before the domestic season gets underway in Lafayette, La., from March 26-29.

Over 200 players who have Nationwide Tour access will compete to secure one of the 25 PGA TOUR cards for 2010 that will be awarded to the Tour's leading money winners at the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island in Charleston, S.C. in late October.

"The Nationwide Tour has a lot to look forward to this year," said Nationwide Tour president Bill Calfee. "As is the case every year, it will be enjoyable to watch the 2009 season progress and see which players elevate themselves into 'THE 25' by year's end and earn their PGA TOUR card, beginning this week in Panama. The 2009 season will be a very special one as we celebrate our first 20 years.

"It will give all of us -- players, fans, sponsors and tournaments -- a chance to reflect on two wonderful decades in which the Nationwide Tour has been transformed into a very significant part of the golf landscape and the 'official proving ground of the PGA TOUR' that it is today. We invite everybody in golf to follow the Nationwide Tour more closely than ever this year and to participate in the fun."

20-YEAR CELEBRATION

Beginning with the Panama Digicel Championship, the Nationwide Tour will initiate a year-long series of activities promoting the Tour's first 20 years, including a top-20 moments countdown, a 20th-year logo and events involving former Tour players who now compete on the PGA TOUR.

The history of the Nationwide Tour is rich and varied. It began on a memorable October day in 1989 in Ft. Worth, Texas, when the legendary Ben Hogan joined former PGA TOUR Commissioner Deane Beman to announce the new tour. "Somewhere out there is a talented young man like I was battling to stay in competition long enough to get a break," Mr. Hogan said. "I want to help him."

Four months later on Friday, Feb. 2, Commissioner Beman struck the ceremonial first shot at Bakersfield Country Club, and a dream had become reality. In the 19 years that followed, the Tour has produced many memorable moments and talented players who have gone on to enjoy much success on the PGA TOUR. Today, two out of three PGA TOUR members are former Nationwide Tour players. Wins in the last two PGA TOUR events by 2003 Nationwide Tour Player of the Year Zach Johnson (Sony Open in Hawaii) and Pat Perez (Bob Hope Chrysler Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer) were the 238th and 239th TOUR titles captured by alumni. Included among those 239 wins are 11 major championships and three PLAYERS Championships.

"We were convinced that developing a system that gave younger players the opportunity to learn how to compete was something that golf ought to do," said former Commissioner Beman. "The thought of the Policy Board was ... some of the younger players, who maybe weren't great players, with a little opportunity to learn how to play at this level, could be stars of the future. We were also building a very important asset for the PGA TOUR."

Four tournaments that have been on the Nationwide Tour schedule from the very beginning are worthy of special recognition. Original host cities Boise, Idaho,, Knoxville, Tenn.,, Springfield, Mo., and Wichita, Kan., join the Tour in celebrating their 20th anniversaries this year and continue to serve as the backbone of the Tour.

From Springer's first win at Bakersfield to Notah Begay's 59 in 1998 in Richmond, Va., to Johnson's 2007 Masters' win to Matt Bettencourt's dramatic victory in the Tour's very last event last November -- the Nationwide Tour Championship -- hundreds of players have contributed to the record books and history of both the Nationwide Tour and PGA TOUR.

The 2009 season will provide an opportunity to remember and reflect on the many great moments of the last two decades and the wonderful players who have called the Nationwide Tour home.

Editor's Note: On Jan. 27, the official name of the Nationwide Tour event in Panama became the "Panama Digicel Championship". Digicel is the largest mobile telecommunications operator in the Caribbean and a recent entrant to the Central American mobile market.