High drama awaits on Nationwide Tour
BY Bruce Young | Nationwide Tour | 2007 Nationwide Tour Championship | Preview | 01 Nov 2007
For those who have travelled across the length and breadth of the USA and the far reaches of the world in an attempt to gain a ticket to the big-time in 2008, this week’s closing event of the 2007 Nationwide Tour is one of the more important tournaments in their professional lives.
The Nationwide Tour Championship at Barona Creek in Lakeside, California, was threatened recently by the fires that raged through the region but tonight Australian time, the Todd Eckenrode designed Barona Creek Golf Club gets its chance to take centre-stage on the Nationwide Tour.
For many of those inside the top 25 players who will graduate to the 2008 PGA Tour, they already have the luxury of knowing the job is done but they and those outside that number still know there is work to do in order to finish as high as possible and ensure early season starts are readily available.
Three Australians, namely Nick Flanagan, Jason Day and Matthew Jones, are already assured of status in 2008 but for the likes of David McKenzie precariously perched in 23rd position, he knows just how important it will be to have a big week.
So too will New Zealander, Tim Wilkinson, Greg Chalmers, Aron Price and Scott Gardiner who need varying degrees of success this week. With US$775,000 total prizemoney available, McKenzie probably needs a top 20, Gardiner, Price and Greg Chalmers a top 3, while Wilkinson needs to finish either first or second.
Flanagan and Day will not play this week as Flanagan has already played his way to the USPGA Tour via the Battlefield promotion while Day is struggling with a wrist injury and may even require surgery before the end of the year.
This is a week that makes for some of the more tense moments in the game as players dreams of life on the US PGA Tour can come to fruition or disintegrate right before their eyes – only time will tell.
