Nationwide Tour remains the best option for these players

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Jim Carter missed the cut in the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic, but the experience he gained will help him prepare for the Champions Tour.

A walk up and down the driving range on Sunday morning at the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic in Ontario last week raised lots of questions.

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How good will some of the young guys on the Nationwide Tour be next year? On average, more than 40 percent of the graduates who advance to the PGA TOUR manage to finish in the top 125 on the money list the following season. Very few of the players who advance to the TOUR through q-school accomplish the same feat.

The questions will be answered with time. The young ones have time on their side. A misstep or two at the next level will not signal doom. Many before them have gone to the PGA TOUR only to return to the Nationwide Tour for a year or two. For many, like Boo Weekley or Ken Duke, the second time was a charm on TOUR.

The line between the success of guys like Weekley and Duke and the cautionary tales that still haunt the locker room on the Nationwide Tour is nearly indiscernible. So many guys manage to cross it, often unnoticed to the average golf fan.

In 2007 and 2008 Kevin Johnson only made six cuts and less than $35,000 on the Nationwide Tour. Almost inexplicably, though, something changed. Johnson earned career wins Nos. 5 and 6 on the Nationwide Tour this year and is currently second on the money list. Whether he earns the performance promotion with another win or not, he's already secured a PGA TOUR card next year.

But for every Kevin Johnson, there are dozens of others who are hanging on waiting for their time to shine. Many, like Jim Carter, have won on the PGA TOUR. After struggling with injury, Jim shelved his golf clubs for nearly five years.

He became licensed in insurance and asset management but could not exorcise the ghosts that haunt every player who dedicated his life to the craft of professional golf. At 48, he was playing his first tournament in years and was as excited as a rookie on Thursday night in spite of shooting a couple over par the first day.

Healthy now, Jim has his sights set on relearning old lessons and preparing himself for the Champions Tour in a couple of years. But he hasn't discounted the possibility that there are still some PGA TOUR starts in his future.

Bates

Another veteran, Ben Bates, joked that he keeps playing because at 48 he can't do anything else. Everyone who knows Ben knows that simply isn't true. He, too, is trying to stay competitive until his most important birthday in decades. Several of 'THE 25' who matriculate to the PGA TOUR each year do so knowing exactly what to expect because they have been there before. The same is true of the q-school grads. That is the nature of the beast.

When you look at a leaderboard on the Nationwide Tour, remember that every time a Webb Simpson or Matt Bettencourt keeps his card on the PGA TOUR, a Jim McGovern or a Steve Pate is sent back to the Nationwide Tour.

It is not a long fall in terms of how you play. Certainly in terms of finances and exposure the fall from the PGA TOUR to the Nationwide Tour can be dramatic. But the quality of play and the talent of the competitors is indiscernible to the untrained eye.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson managed to bypass the Nationwide Tour at the beginning of their careers, but they are the exception and not the rule. In case you haven't been paying attention, they are still the exception and not the rule. While those two are altering the PGA TOUR record books you might get a kick out of following some of the stories unfolding on the Nationwide Tour.

There is one unifying dream on the Nationwide Tour that holds the players of every age closer together than on any other tour in the world -- everyone wants to get off the Nationwide Tour as quickly as possible. After all, it is a great place to visit ...

John Maginnes is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.