Myrtle Beach, S.C. – The NGA Pro Golf Tour rolls into Shellman Bluff, Ga., this week to compete at the Sapelo Hammock Golf Club for the first time with the playing of the NeSmith Chevrolet Classic.
And if a recent trend continues, it won’t be the last time the words “first time” are used during the tournament. Through the first five events of 2013 on the top-rated developmental tour, five first-time winners have been crowned.
Jon Curran, a former Vanderbilt standout of Tequesta, Fla., outlasted Chris Ross in a two-hole playoff to claim the season-opening Members Only Shootout at Killearn Country Club; Clayton Rask, a former University of Minnesota golfer from Otsego, Minn., earned a two-stroke win in the Killearn Country Club Classic; Justin Lower, a former Malone University stalwart from Canal Fulton, Ohio, won the Spring Hill Classic; Riley Wheeldon, a University of Louisville alumnus from British Columbia, Canada, won the Kandy Waters Memorial Classic by one shot; and Daniel McCarthy, a former Le Moyne College standout from Syracuse, N.Y., won the last NGA TOUR event, the Milton Martin Honda Classic, by one shot.
Curran, Rask, Lower and Wheeldon are all in the field for this week’s
$150,000 event, hoping to break the first-time theme of the season, while McCarthy, a 2013 Web.com Tour member, will be competing Web.com Tour’s Brasil Classic presented by HSBC.
If there is a favorite this week to push the first-time winner streak to six, Trent Whitekiller is his name. The NGA TOUR rookie out of Oklahoma State has been one of the most consistent golfers on the tour to start the season. In his first five starts, the Sallisaw, Okla., native has only posted two rounds over par and racked up four top 10s.
Whitekiller’s worst finish of the season is a T19 and he’s currently fourth on the NGA TOUR money list, despite not visiting the winner’s circle.
As usual with an NGA TOUR event, the NeSmith Chevrolet Classic is filled with NGA winners, former PGA and Web.com Tour players and highly-decorated rookies, meaning the champion this week will need to be at the top of his game.
Through the years, Jeff Corr and Brandon Brown have proved they can win on any given week, regardless of the field depth, and both will be looking for a victory this week to jumpstart their seasons.
Jeff Corr, the 2011 NGA TOUR Player of the Year, has yet to show the form that’s produced 11 wins between the NGA Pro Series and Bridgestone Winter Series during his NGA tenure. In five starts in 2013, the 2012 Web.com Tour member’s best finish is a T5 in the Killearn Country Club Classic.
Brown, a former Western Kentucky golfer, was forced to miss the first three events of the season due to injury, but the reigning NGA TOUR Player of the Year has struggled since his return, missing the cut in the Kandy Waters Memorial Classic and Milton Martin Honda Classic.
If the one of the two can break out this week, they’ll rejoin the race for the Web.com Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am event exemption and put themselves in contention to receive an event exemption into the PGA TOUR’s Reno-Tahoe Open, which will be awarded to leading money winner at the season’s midpoint.
With three events left to determine the BMW Charity Pro-Am exemption winner, Wheeldon currently holds the lead in the exemption race, while Lower’s $37,257.68 in winnings has him atop the money standings entering the NeSmith Chevrolet Classic.
This week’s field will also include 2012 NGA Pro Series winners Rick Cochran, the nephew of PGA winner Russ Cochran and a Middle Tennessee State alumnus, and Jay Woodson, a former James Madison University linkster. Others notable participants include: Matt Hendrix, a current Web.com Tour member and Clemson alum; Stuart Anderson, a 2012 Web.com Tour member; T.J. Bordeaux, a BWS winner and four-time Big West All-Conference selection at the University of Pacific; Major Manning, a former Web.com Tour member; Jack Newman, the 2008 U.S. Public Links champion; and multi-time NGA TOUR winner James Vargas.
The first round of the NeSmith Chevrolet Classic is scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday. As always, admission is free to the public.