By Mike Blum
The Nationwide Tour begins its annual two-week swing through Georgia later this month, playing in Valdosta and the following week in Athens.
This will be the sixth year for the South Georgia Classic at Kinderlou Forest, with the tour visiting Athens for the seventh time. Jennings Mill was the host course the first four times the Nationwide Tour played in Athens, with the event moving in 2010 to the University of Georgia course when Stadion assumed title sponsorship.
The South Georgia Classic is scheduled for April 26-29, with the Stadion Classic at UGA set for May 3-6. The Nationwide Tour is off the week before and the week after the Georgia swing, which all but ensures near 100 percent participation by the tour’s top players.
The fields for Nationwide Tour events are impacted by the PGA Tour tournaments held opposite them, with Nationwide tournaments benefiting from being opposite top PGA Tour stops. The UGA Classic will be played the same week as the PGA Tour event in Charlotte, one of the most highly-regarded non-majors, while the Valdosta tournament goes against the PGA Tour stop in New Orleans, which does not draw nearly as strong a field as Charlotte.
As a result, a number of players with PGA Tour status who will not qualify for the field in Charlotte will likely be playing in Athens to avoid two consecutive weeks off, as the Players Championship is scheduled the following week.
Only one of the two tournaments will have its defending champion in the field. Ted Potter, who played his way into the South Georgia Classic in a Monday qualifier last year, went on to finish second on the money list and will be playing in New Orleans.
The UGA Classic will welcome back 2011 winner Russell Henley, who was still a member of the UGA golf team when he became the second amateur in Nationwide Tour history to win a tournament.
Henley turned pro later in 2011 after representing the U.S. in the Walker Cup, and is a rookie on the Nationwide Tour this year. Henley is one of about 20 players with ties to Georgia who are playing on the Nationwide Tour this year, including a fellow rookie who won in his third Nationwide start earlier this season.
Paul Haley, who competed against Henley during his career at Georgia Tech, won the Nationwide event in Chile last month, and is in strong position to qualify for the PGA Tour in 2013.
Haley and Henley are among three 2011 graduates of Georgia universities with exempt status on the Nationwide Tour this year. Hudson Swafford, Henley’s teammate in Athens, also returns to his former home course, and is one of five former UGA golf team members playing on the tour this year.
Veterans Paul Claxton and Justin Bolli are back on the Nationwide Tour this year, along with Richard Scott, who is playing in his first season. Scott Parel, another Nationwide Tour veteran, graduated from Georgia, but did not play on the golf team.
Claxton, a native of Vidalia and a long-time resident on St. Simons Island, is playing his 14th season on the Nationwide Tour and has also been a PGA Tour member for four years. With a 3rd place finish in Chile and a tie for 2nd in Louisiana, Claxton was 5th on the money list at the end of March with $90,000 and is looking to reclaim the No. 1 spot on the Nationwide Tour’s all-time money list (he is currently 2nd) and earn a fifth season on the PGA Tour at the age of 45.
Bolli, a former Roswell resident, was 6th in Panama and is also looking to return to the PGA Tour, where he has played three years. Bolli has been going back and forth between the Nationwide and PGA Tours, three times moving up to the PGA Tour after wins and finishes of 11th or better on the Nationwide money list. He slipped to 57th last year, but at 30th this season is a good bet to return to the PGA Tour in 2013, having never spent more than two straight years on the Nationwide Tour.
Parel, an Augusta resident, missed by just one shot of earning his PGA Tour card in the finals of qualifying, and is back on the Nationwide Tour full time for the first time since 2009. Parel is in his seventh Nationwide season, but this is just the second time he has been fully exempt at the outset of the season. He made the cut in each of the first four tournaments of the year and was among the top 60 money winners at that point.
Also off to a strong start this season is Ringgold’s Luke List, who is playing his third full season on the tour after a successful amateur career. List spent much of last season inside the top 25 on the money list before finishing 38th and made a run at earning his PGA Tour card in Q-school. He is off to another strong start, tying for 2nd in Panama, just one stroke behind the winner, and is 11th in earnings.
Other Georgians on the Nationwide Tour this year include Albany’s Josh Broadaway, who had the best season in his six-year Nationwide career in 2011; LaFayette’s John Kimbell, the 2007 South Georgia Classic champion; former Norcross resident Reid Edstrom; ex-Clayton State golfer Will Wilcox, who tied for 3rd in the UGA Classic last year after playing his way into the tournament in a Monday qualifier; and Nicholas Thompson (Georgia Tech) and Aron Price (Georgia Southern), who have both played on the PGA Tour in recent seasons.
The two host courses are among the best and strongest the Nationwide Tour pros play, with last year’s winning scores the two highest on tour last before the final two events of the season.
The South Georgia Classic has a history of producing surprise winners, beginning with Kimbell, a Nationwide Tour rookie in ’07, and including Potter, a mini-tour legend but Nationwide flop until his victory last year. Tournament runner-ups have enjoyed a better shot at future success, among them Bryce Molder in 2008 and Jhonattan Vegas two years later.
Claxton has a pair of top-10 finishes in the tournament, with Parel enjoying one of his career best showings, placing fourth in ’08.
Kinderlou Forest is the longest course on the tour, measuring 7,781 yards from the tips, but the course never plays its full length for the tournament. The course has tended to favor longer hitters, but most of the Georgians who have done well in the tournament are short-to-average in distance.
Potter, an aggressive player, won last year with a 16-under 272 total, the lowest 72-hole score in tournament history. The average winning score the first four years of the tournament was 12-under 276.
At 7,253 yards and playing to a par of 71, the UGA course has given the Nationwide Tour players a battle in its two years as tournament host, with the winning score both years 12-under 272. The tournament could have both its past two winners in the field, as 2010 champion Martin Piller is back on the Nationwide Tour this season after playing on the PGA Tour last year.
Henley gave fans of the Bulldogs something to bark about, firing a final round 68 to win by two strokes over Troy Kelly and three over Wilcox and Matt Hendrix, both Nationwide Tour members this year. Former U.S. Amateur champions Danny Lee and Bubba Dickerson were among a group tying for fifth at 276.
Also competing in last year’s tournament was Harris English, Henley’s UGA teammate. English tied for 18th and joined Henley as a Nationwide Tour winner later in the Summer, winning a tournament in Columbus, O. English is a rookie on the PGA Tour this year, and will likely be playing in Charlotte that week.
The Georgia PGA will have three members in the tournament, including 2011 Player of the Year Tim Weinhart. Two others will be determined in a qualifier April 9 at the UGA course.
Stephen Keppler, who won the 2011 Georgia PGA Championship at Sea Island GC, will compete in the South Georgia Classic along with two Georgia PGA qualifiers, who will compete at the UGA course the day after the Stadion Classic qualifier.
Both tournaments will conduct Monday qualifiers, with Doublegate CC and Glen Arven the hosts for the South Georgia Classic, and the Georgia Club and Jennings Mill the sites for the Stadion Classic.
The South Georgia Classic features a purse of $625,000, the fourth largest on the Nationwide Tour, with the Stadion Classic’s purse $550,000. Neither event will be televised, as only one of the first 13 events will be broadcast by Golf Channel.
This will be the last year the tour plays under the title sponsorship of Nationwide Insurance, and a replacement for 2013 and beyond has yet to be named. There are also questions about the future of both Georgia tournaments.
Both are still accepting volunteers for the upcoming events.
For information on the South Georgia Classic, call 229-242-8455 or visit www.southgeorgiaclassic.com.
For information on the Stadion Classic at UGA, call 706-369-5841 or visit www.stadionclassic.uga.edu.