Nationwide creates history in Bogota
BY Bruce Young | Nationwide Tour | 2010 Bogota Open | Preview | 03 Mar 2010
For the first time in its history, the Nationwide Tour plays an event in South America when the The Pacific Rubiales Bogota Open presented by Samsung is played at the Country Club of Bogota in Colombia.
The involvement in the promotion of the tournament by Colombia’s favourite golfing son, Camilo Villegas, has played a key role in getting the tournament off the ground. Although he will not play in the event itself Villegas will play the pro am and participate in several of the week’s social activities.
Pacific Rubiales is a Canadian Petroleum company active in the exploration of the rich petroleum assets of Colombia.
Two of the three winners in the 2010 season are in the field, Jim Herman and Robert Gates, venturing to Colombia as they seek to secure their PGA Tour status in 2011.
Last week’s winner in Panama, Fran Quinn, has gained a start at the Honda Classic in Florida and will take advantage of that.
An interesting player in this week’s field is Jamie Lovemark who finished third at the recent New Zealand Open but late last year he shared with another emerging star, Rickie Fowler, at the PGA Tour’s Frys.com event in Arizona.
The Australasian challenge is again strong numerically and might just throw up a winner. Mark Hensby has made a good start to the year and although he missed the cut last week in Panama he put together a good second round and seems to be on the brink of something special.
Adam Bland, Andrew Buckle, Nick Flanagan, Scott Gardiner, Bradley Iles, Stephen Leaney, Won Joon Lee, Ewan Porter, Alistair Presnell and Phil Tataurangi make up the balance of the Australians and New Zealanders.
