Nationwide Insider: Get ready for twists and turns
By John Dell, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
The young guns will be out in full force this season on the Nationwide Tour.
The season-long chase for 25 PGA TOUR cards begins Thursday with the Michael Hill New Zealand Open at The Hills Golf Club in Arrowtown, New Zealand, and several of the young stars are scheduled to play. Next week, the Nationwide Tour shifts to Australia for the Moonah Classic.
The Tour's first two tournaments, which are co-sponsored by the PGA Tour of Australasia, have 78 players from the Nationwide Tour competing along with 78 players from the PGA Tour of Australasia.
Nationwide Tour president Bill Calfee is looking forward to another season of twists and turns as players compete in 28 tournaments.
"One of the very special things about the Nationwide Tour is that with each new year comes great anticipation about which players will emerge and contend for PGA TOUR cards," Calfee said.
The Nationwide Tour will go more global this season. After stops in New Zealand and Australia, the Tour moves to Panama City, Panama for the Panama CLARO Championship in late February.
A new tournament -- the Pacific Rubiales Bogota Open presented by Samsung -- will be held March 4-7 in Bogotá, Colombia. That tournament will be the first PGA TOUR-sanctioned tournament in South America.
The Nationwide Tour's domestic season starts March 25-28 with the Chitimacha Louisiana Open outside Lafayette, La. Ttwo tournaments this year will have purses of $1 million -- the Soboba Classic in San Jacinto, Calif., in early October, and the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island in Charleston, S.C., in late October.
Chris Mundorf, 32, will be a rookie on the Nationwide Tour this season. He banged around the mini-tours for several years and supplemented his income by caddying for Troy Matteson and J.B. Holmes on the PGA TOUR.
Mundorf, a former player at N.C. State, will have to Monday qualify to get into tournaments early in the season but is looking forward to the challenge.
"You look at the Nationwide Tour and it's a great place to play because it's so similar to the PGA TOUR," said Mundorf, who advanced to the final stage of PGA TOUR Qualifying School for the first time last December. "The course conditions are outstanding and it's a way to get to the PGA TOUR and that's my goal."
Among the young players hoping to get off to a good start this season is Kyle Stanley, 22, a former All-America at Clemson. In 2009 he was the Ben Hogan Award winner based on his outstanding college and amateur record and was a 2007 member of the Walker Cup.
At age 23, Kevin Chappell is ready to break out as well, thanks to last season's showing on the Nationwide Tour where he finished 80th on the money list. He was an All-America at UCLA and was the Jack Nicklaus Award winner as the top player in 2008. Chappell also has tasted some success on the PGA TOUR, finishing tied for sixth at last year's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am playing on a sponsor's exemption.
Another pro to watch is Jamie Lovemark, 22, who lost a playoff to Chris Riley in a Nationwide Tour tournament in Rochester, Minn., in 2007 and last fall lost a playoff on the PGA TOUR's stop in Las Vegas. He was also a 2007 Walker Cup player and was the NCAA champion as a freshman in 2007 at Southern Cal.
One player who might have a bit of a home-course advantage the first two weeks of the season is Bronson La'Cassie, 26, who is a native of Brisbane, Australia. He was a three-time All-America at Minnesota and won the 2006 Western Amateur.
Martin Piller, 24, had a very consistent 2009 on the Nationwide Tour, making 18 of 26 cuts to finish 35th on the money list. He was runner-up to Michael Hill in last year's New Zealand Open. Piller, who played at Texas A&M, won his first pro event in 2008 taking home the title in the Texas State Open.
The Nationwide Tour has been the proving ground for some of the top talent on the PGA TOUR in its previous two decades.
"We invite golf fans everywhere to follow all 28 Nationwide Tour events as the competition to identify the next Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink or Lucas Glover plays out from January through October," Calfee said.
John Dell has covered golf for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina for the last 15 years. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.
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