2011 Nationwide Tour Championship

The Nationwide Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either failed to score well enough at that level's Qualifying School (the main tour's qualifying tournament, popularly referred to as "Q-School") to earn their PGA Tour card, or who have done so but then failed to win enough money to stay at that level. Those who are on the top 25 of the money list at year's end are given PGA Tour memberships for the next season.

Tournament information

Location: Charleston, South Carolina (in 2010)

Established 1993

Course(s) Daniel Island Club (Ralston Creek course) (in 2010)

Par 72 (in 2010)

Length    7,446 yards (in 2010)

Tour(s)   Nationwide Tour

Format    Stroke play

Prize fund               S1,000,000

Month played: October

Tournament record score

Aggregate: 264 Richard Johnson (2007)

To par : -21 Matt Every (2009)

Current champion

United States Brendan Steele

History

The "satellite tour" was formalized by the PGA Tour in 1990, originally named the Ben Hogan Tour, sponsored by the Ben Hogan Golf Company.[1] The first season of 1990 had 30 events, and the typical event purse was $100,000. After three seasons, Nike acquired the title sponsorship the tour's name became the Nike Tour, which held for seven seasons (1993-99). The name was changed again to the Buy.com Tour for three seasons (2000-02). The current name is a result of the purchase of naming rights by Nationwide Insurance in 2003. In 2007 there were 32 events, one each in Australia, New Zealand, and Panama, with the remainder in the United States. All three countries continue to host events on the tour, played early in the season; Canada and Mexico have been added since 2008, and Colombia hosted an event in March 2010. The events in Australia and New Zealand are co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australasia. Purses in 2010 range from $500,000 to $1,000,000, about one-tenth of the level on the PGA Tour.

Rules and results

All Nationwide Tour tournaments operate similar to typical PGA Tour tournaments in that they are all 72-hole stroke play events with a cut made after 36 holes. The cut on the Nationwide Tour is for the top 60 players and ties, unlike 70 for the PGA Tour. The fields are usually 144 or 156 players, depending on time of year (and available daylight hours). For the aforementioned international events, the joint tour will split players spots with the Nationwide Tour for proper sanctioning. As with the PGA Tour, the winner of the tournament will get a prize of 18% of the total purse.

Since this tour is a developmental tour, players are usually vying to play well enough to gain status on the PGA Tour. The main ways of having status for the Nationwide Tour are to finish in a group of the top 50 golfers at qualifying school after the top 25 and ties, those who finished between 26th and 60th on the previous year's money list, and those who were formerly fully exempt on the PGA Tour in the recent past. Around 14 open qualifying spots are given during the Monday of tournament week, and those who finished in the top 25 of a Nationwide event are automatically exempt into the next tournament. If a Monday morning qualifier wins an event, they will earn full-exempt status for the remainder of the season. Past PGA Tour winners aged 48 and 49 can play on the Nationwide Tour on an increased basis to prepare themselves for the Champions Tour.

Since 1997, a player who wins three tournaments in one year on the Nationwide Tour receives an immediate promotion to the PGA Tour for the remainder of the year and for the following year.[2] This "performance promotion" (sometimes informally referred to as a "battlefield promotion") has occurred nine times:

1997: Chris Smith (USA)

2001: Heath Slocum, Chad Campbell & Pat Bates (USA)

2002: Patrick Moore (USA)

2003: Tom Carter (USA)

2005: Jason Gore (USA)

2007: Nick Flanagan (AUS)

2009: Michael Sim (AUS)

In 2007 Paul Claxton became the first man to reach US$1 million in Nationwide Tour career earnings. The Nationwide Tour is one of the 10 tours on which Official World Golf Rankings points are available, and one of only two developmental tours that offer ranking points, the other being the Europe-based Challenge Tour.

Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island Winners

Year	Player	Country	Score	To Par	1st Prize ($)	Purse ($)
2010	Brendan Steele	United States	275	-13	180,000	1,000,000
2009	Matt Every	United States	267	-21	180,000	1,000,000

2011 schedule

The table below shows the Nationwide Tour's 2011 schedule. The numbers in parentheses after winners' names show the player's total number of wins on the Nationwide Tour including that event. No one accumulates many wins on the Nationwide Tour because success at this level soon leads to promotion to the PGA Tour.

Date	Tournament	Location	Winner	OWGR	Notes
Feb 27	Panama Claro Championship	Panama	Mathew Goggin (3)	points	.
Mar 6	Pacific Rubiales Bogotá Open	Colombia	Brenden Pappas (n/a)	14	Official money, unofficial win[6] -
Mar 27	Chitimacha Louisiana Open	Louisiana	Brett Wetterich (3)	10[5]	tournament shortened to 36 holes by weather
Apr 17	Fresh Express Classic at TPC Stonebrae	California	Daniel Chopra (3)	14	.
May 1	South Georgia Classic	Georgia	Ted Potter, Jr. (1)	14	.
May 8	Stadion Classic at UGA	Georgia	Russell Henley (am) (1)	14	Won as a Monday qualifier
May 22	BMW Charity Pro-Am	South Carolina	Garth Mulroy (2)	14	Won as an amateur
Jun 5	Melwood Prince George's County Open	Maryland	Steve Wheatcroft (1)	14	.
Jun 12	The Rex Hospital Open	North Carolina	Kyle Thompson (3)	14	.
Jun 19	Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open	Kansas	Mathew Goggin (4)	14	.
Jun 26	Mexico Open	Mexico	Erik Compton	14	.
Jul 17	Chiquita Classic	Ohio	Russell Knox	14	.
Jul 24	Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational	Ohio	Harris English (am)	14	.
Jul 31	Utah Championship	Utah	J. J. Killeen	14	Won as an amateur
Aug 7	Cox Classic	Nebraska	J. J. Killeen	14	.
Aug 14	Price Cutter Charity Championship	Missouri	Steve Friesen (1)	14	.
Aug 21	Midwest Classic	Kansas	James Nitties	14	Won as a Monday qualifier
Aug 28	News Sentinel Open	Tennessee	Kirk Triplett	14	.
Sep 4	Mylan Classic	Pennsylvania	Gary Christian	14	.
Sep 18	Albertsons Boise Open	Idaho	Jason Kokrak	14	.
Sep 25	Soboba Golf Classic	California	Ted Potter, Jr. (2)	14	Last player to gain entry into the field
Oct 2	WNB Golf Classic	Texas	Danny Lee (1)	14	.
Oct 9	Children's Hospital Classic	Tennessee	Winner	14	.
Oct 16	Miccosukee Championship	Florida	Mathew Goggin (3)	.	.
Oct 23	Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open	Florida	Brenden Pappas (n/a)	.	.
Oct 30	Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island	South Carolina	Brett Wetterich (3)	OWGR	.

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