Calfee blog: Recent grads at THE PLAYERS this week

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Badz/PGA TOUR

Nationwide Tour President Bill Calfee (front left) poses with 2008 Nationwide Tour money winner Matt Bettencourt. Bettencourt's victory gave him a spot in the 2009 PLAYERS.

May 4, 2009

We will not host an event the next two weeks as the golf world turns its focus to THE PLAYERS Championship. That said, the Nationwide Tour is far from idle.

Our team is excited about PLAYERS week as part of our 20th-year celebration. On Monday evening we will host former players at a reunion cookout that is sure to be a great time embodying the spirit and personality of the Tour. I have been recruited once again to man the grill. It will be my pleasure to continue what I am told is my singular, and dedicated, effort to make the Butt Rub pork chop sandwich the Official Sandwich of the Nationwide Tour (www.buttrub.com). In addition, we will look forward to following some of our most recent Nationwide Tour alumni whose impressive, early-season play has vaulted them into golf's deepest field. Matt Bettencourt, Scott Piercy, and Jeff Klauk (conditional) will represent the Class of 2008 and look for one of the three to make some noise on the leaderboard.

The ever-important "reshuffle" fell at the completion of last week's South Georgia Classic. From a competitive and eligibility standpoint, the first eight events form the first leg of the Nationwide Tour season. In line with the mission of the Nationwide Tour to identify those players ready to compete and win, the reshuffle rewards players who are most competitive via their eligibility status. Speaking of ready to win (again), I had a chance to spend a little time with Michael Sim on the practice range in Athens.

As the current leading money winner of THE 25, he is setting the stage for a breakthrough season. With the amount of confidence he is riding, he could be tough to catch and it would not be entirely out of line to say he's currently one of the hottest golfers in the world (56-under par for his 24 rounds this year and a win, 2nd, 3rd, a top ten, and a top 25 in five of his six events played.

The Nationwide Tour will return in two weeks (May 14-17) at one of the Tour's most popular events, the BMW Charity Pro-Am. Check out the celebrity-pro format on Golf Channel and PGATOUR.COM.

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March 25, 2009

During our recent Policy Board meetings in Orlando, I was able to reconnect with some old friends at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. It was a pleasure to catch up with Zach Johnson, Brandt Snedeker, Stewart Cink, David Toms and other Nationwide Tour alumni from throughout the years.

They all seem to be excited for the alumni reunion our team will host at THE PLAYERS as part of our 20th celebration. In the true spirit of the Nationwide Tour, the party will be an informal barbeque with the Nationwide Tour Ops truck serving as the backdrop. It should be fun to hear the alumni across the generations reflect on their time on the Nationwide Tour and share stories with the members of the Nationwide Tour team.

I also had the opportunity to chat with Arnold at a dinner he hosted for the Board of Directors and our executive team. It is always a treat to spend some time with him and take the opportunity to thank him for his support of the Nationwide Tour. He has said many kind things over the years with respect to the Tour and how it uniquely prepares players to compete and win on the PGA TOUR relative to other avenues.

It's an exciting week on the Nationwide Tour with the launch of our domestic season at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by Dynamic Industries. After four events abroad in Panama, Australia and New Zealand, it will be exciting to see who makes an early season statement. Reports are that the golf course is in fabulous condition and the players are ready. Travel schedules will prevent me from being there, but Louisiana will be at the top of my mind all week. In particular, I won't be able to forget missing out on all that great down-home Louisiana cooking, including pork chop sandwiches, crawfish and jambalaya! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

The forecast calls for some possible showers during the week which will keep the course relatively soft. As a result, look for lots of birdies and low scoring. It should be a real shootout!

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Feb. 4, 2009

The Nationwide Tour started in 1990 with Deane Beman, Ben Hogan and the Hogan Company. It's well documented that they wanted to start a Tour that provided the players a place to develop their game so they could get to PGA TOUR caliber. Clearly, we've come a long way since then.

The Tour has grown into what I believe today, and what many people recognize, is one of the strongest Tours in the world and really stands on its own legs. Look at where we started and where are today. We're playing in bigger cities, on better golf courses, the purses have grown considerably and we have three $1 million events. We now have 25 leading money winners who move on to the PGA TOUR each year. It used to be just five. This year, we will have 17 events televised, some of which are International, through GOLF CHANNEL.

Our corporate sponsorship is strong and continues to grow, while our national media footprint increases each year. So when you look at this Tour, it's come a long way, and we feel that the future is bright.

But just as with the PGA TOUR, the Nationwide Tour is about each individual player -- not just the whole. We all recognize it is undeniable that these players are ready to win immediately when they go out on the PGA TOUR. Look at the numbers -- two out of every three players on the PGA TOUR have come through our system.

Every year, the graduates are distinguishing themselves on the PGA TOUR. Our ties are getting closer and closer to the PGA TOUR, and it's really true in a number of ways. Our players are driven to the PGA TOUR, and the Nationwide Tour helps drive the PGA TOUR to greater heights. Just these past two tournaments on the PGA TOUR (Sony Open in Hawaii and the Bob Hope Classic), we've added our 238th and 239th wins from Nationwide Tour alumni -- Zach Johnson and Pat Perez.

This year is shaping up to be another great year for us despite the challenging economy. We are very optimistic about our schedule. We've got 29 events, and we're playing in five countries outside of the United States. We start out in Panama this week on a great golf course for an event our players have come to enjoy over the years. We continue to improve the quality of our golf courses and test the players in a more challenging way. We think that 2009 is going to be our best season ever, and there are a lot of players who could impact this season.

One of the fun things about the Nationwide Tour is that we start the year over with a new group. There are a lot of returning faces, but while we have a lot of guys moving to the PGA TOUR each year, the converse of that is there are a lot of players coming to the Nationwide Tour from the PGA TOUR. It's hard to predict who the next young gun is going to be, but there are a lot of promising players.

One name that comes to mind is Jonas Blixt, a young Swedish-born golfer who played at Florida State University. He was an All-American in 2008. Matt Every is also another name that comes to mind. Matt played well early on last year and looked like he was going to finish inside "THE 25" but ended up just missing it. Sometimes, that's a good thing -- another year to mature might help him be more successful later on.

Won Joon Lee is another player with enormous talent. He absolutely bombs it, and he has all the tools necessary to be very successful at just 23 years old. Garrett Osborn is another one to look out for. He is a wonderful athlete and started to play well late in 2008. And of course Michael Sim is back with us; he at one point was ranked No. 1 in the amateur ranks. He was injured, but now he's back in good health, and he's one that I certainly want to watch.

I look forward to enjoying the new season with all of you,

-- Bill