South Georgia Classic – 2011 preview, page 10
Nationwide event has ‘graduated’ just one champ
The Nationwide Tour exists as a path to the PGA Tour, with the quickest way to get there a victory on golf’s developmental circuit. Just as long as that victory doesn’t come in Valdosta.
The South Georgia Classic will be played for the fifth time later this month (April 28-May 1) at Kinderlou Forest GC, and this year’s winner will hope for better post-Valdosta results than the previous tournament champions.
Only Garth Mulroy, the 2009 South Georgia Classic winner, went on to qualify for the PGA Tour the following year. His stay lasted only one season, although he has a minor medical extension after missing several late-season tournaments last year.
Last year’s winner – Australia’s Ewan Porter – finished 54th on the money list. Only six tournament champions who played a full schedule did not end up in the top 25, the cutoff for moving up to the PGA Tour, and Porter was at the bottom of that group.
Former Georgia resident John Kimbell, who won the first South Georgia Classic in 2007, finished well outside the top 25 that year, as did 2008 tournament champion Bryan DeCorso, leaving Mulroy as the only Valdosta winner who has made his way to the PGA Tour, and that for just a brief stay.
While the tournament’s champions haven’t enjoyed much success after their victories, a few of the runner-ups have.
Matt Jones, who finished one shot behind Kimbell in 2007, has played on the PGA Tour each of the last four seasons, and finished among the top 60 in the FedExCup standings last year.
DeCorso has done little since his win in 2008, but runner-up Bryce Molder has enjoyed back-to-back excellent seasons on the PGA Tour the last two years, placing 63rd on the money list in both ’09 and ’10.
While Porter made just four cuts the rest of the 2010 season and never finished better than 23rd after his win in Valdosta, the player he edged out for his victory has definitely made a name for himself.
Jhonattan Vegas went on to win in Wichita later last year and has already scored a victory as a PGA Tour rookie, taking a playoff in the Bob Hope Classic.
Porter has played on the Nationwide Tour since 2005 and has compiled a record that makes him arguably the leading example of being an all or nothing competitor. In 80 career starts, he has made just 20 cuts and finished higher than 23rd on only three occasions.
But those three other tournaments include two wins and a T3, with his other victory coming in Australia in 2008. Porter got into that co-sanctioned event as a member of the Australasian Tour, and used it earn Nationwide Tour status.
For the second straight year, the South Georgia Classic will be played opposite the PGA Tour stop in New Orleans, which annually draws a relatively weak field that will likely feature even fewer prominent players this year.
As a result, almost all of the players who split their schedules between the PGA and Nationwide Tours will likely get into the New Orleans event, while players with limited Nationwide Tour will have a chance to get into the field in Valdosta.
Three of the four Nationwide Tour members with south Georgia roots did not get into either of the first two events of the season, and are unlikely to make it directly into the field before the South Georgia Classic. The Nationwide Tour’s California tournament two weeks before the Valdosta event is also being played opposite a lesser PGA Tour event, and is a possibility.
Without a chance to play in the early Nationwide tournaments in Panama and Colombia, Albany’s Josh Broadaway competed in Monday qualifying for the PGA Tour Honda Classic, played his way into the field. After an opening 78 on the demanding layout at PGA National, Broadaway responded with a second round 68, highlighted by a pair of birdies on both of the treacherous par 3s that are part of the infamous “Bear Trap.”
Broadaway, a Nationwide Tour veteran who finished 90th in earnings last season, made the cut, shot another 68 in the third round and ended up tied for 43rd to earn $17,350, equivalent to a top-10 finish on the Nationwide Tour.
Swainsboro’s Will Claxton, a Nationwide Tour rookie, and Sandersville’s David Robinson, who has seen little tournament action in his two years on tour, also missed out on the first two events of 2011, and are hoping to get a chance to play in Valdosta. Claxton played in the PGA Tour event in Tampa as a Monday qualifier, and also made the cut.
Paul Claxton (no relation to Will) is guaranteed a spot in the field and will be looking for another strong showing, having recorded top-10 finishes in both 2007 and 2009 at Kinderlou Forest.
Kimbell is another player with positive memories of tournament appearances in Valdosta, winning a Hooters Tour event at Kinderlou Forest the year before he captured the first Nationwide Tour tournament held in Valdosta.
Augusta’s Scott Brown tied for 8th last year in the South Georgia Classic as a Nationwide Tour rookie, and is off to a strong start this season, tying for 3rd in the rain-shortened tournament in Colombia.
The tournament has been a fixture on the Golf Channel in its early years, but will not be televised for the first time this year, depriving a national audience of a close-up look at the picturesque but demanding Kinderlou Forest layout. Despite the absence of the Golf Channel, the purse remains one of the larger ones on the Nationwide Tour ($625,000), with the winner taking home $112,500.
The Davis Love design is the longest course that hosts a tour event in the U.S., measuring 7.781 yards from the tips. Although all 18 back tees are never used the same day, the course typically plays over 7,500 yards for the tournament, and is among the toughest tracks the Nationwide Tour pros tackle.
In its four years as tournament host, Kinderlou Forest has yielded winning scores between 10 and 14-under par, with Porter posting an 11-under 277 total last year to edge Vegas by one stroke.
Open qualifying for the tournament will be held April 25 at Glen Arven in Thomasville and Doublegate CC in Albany, with seven spots in the field available from each site. Three Georgia PGA professionals will also be in the field, including the top two finishers from a Section qualifier held recently at Rivermont CC.
For information, visit the tournament’s web site at www.southgeorgiaclassic.com.
By Mike Blum