For the first time in a decade, the Web.com Tour will not make be making a stop in Georgia.
The South Georgia Classic, which has been played at Valdosta’s Kinderlou Forest since 2007, dropped off the schedule after eight years as a Nationwide/Web.com Tour stop. The Stadion Classic at UGA also lasted eight years from 2006-13, playing four years each at Jennings Mill and the UGA course in Athens.
Georgia has been part of the Ben Hogan/Nike/Buy.com/Nationwide/Web.com Tour since it began as the Ben Hogan Tour in 1990. Macon’s River North (now Healy Point) was part of the tour in its first season and lasted until 1995.
Roswell’s Settindown Creek was the site of the Nike Tour Championship in 1995 and ’96, but it was a decade before the tour returned to Georgia with the Athens Regional Foundation Classic in 2006.
The South Georgia Classic is the only Web.com tournament to drop off the 25-event 2014 schedule. The only addition to the tour is a second tournament in Colombia.
The Web.com Tour begins its 2015 schedule in Panama in late January, one of five stops in Central and South America to open the season. The first American tournament is the Louisiana Open in late March.
A number of tour events will be played in neighboring states, including the BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greenville, S.C. (May 14-17), the Rex Hospital Open in Raleigh, N.C. (May 28-31), the News-Sentinel Open in Knoxville, Tenn. (August 20-23), and two of the four Finals series of tournaments that will determine 25 of the 50 players who earn PGA Tour cards for 2015-16.
The second of the four events is the Chiquita Classic in Charlotte (Sept. 17-20), with the season-ending Tour Championship scheduled for Oct. 1-4 at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
The top 25 players on the money list at the conclusion of the Portland Open Aug. 30 qualify for the 2015-16 PGA Tour, along with the top 25 players from the four Finals events, which will consist of the top 75 Web.com money winners along with PGA Tour players who finish between 126 and 200 on the regular season FedExCup points list.
Among those with Georgia ties who will be competing on the Web.com Tour this year are players with PGA Tour experience, including former PGA Tour winners Vaughn Taylor, Troy Matteson and Ryuji Imada.
Roberto Castro and Will Wilcox have limited PGA Tour status after placing in the top 150 on the FeedExCup points list last year, and are exempt on the Web.com Tour along with 2014 Louisiana Open winner Kris Blanks, Matt Weibring, Henrik Norlander, Aron Price, Casey Wittenberg, Mark Silvers, Patton Kizzire, Bryden Macpherson and Michael Hebert.
Blanks, Weibring, Norlander, Price and Wittenberg all have PGA Tour experience, as do several Georgians who have status, including Justin Bolli, Luke List, Paul Haley and Paul Claxton. Other players with Georgia ties on the 2015 Web.com Tour include Scott Parel, Josh Broadaway, Brent Witcher, Kyle Scott, James White, Taylor Floyd and Tim O’Neal.