While the PGA, Champions, and LPGA Tours get all the glory, it is important to keep in mind there are many other avenues where professionals are teeing it up week in and week out. The most famous of the tours subservient to the PGA Tour is the Nationwide Tour, which receives some (though not enough in my opinion) national attention, particularly when it comes time for Nationwide players to earn their PGA Tour cards. The tour following immediately under the Nationwide Tour is the National Golf Association’s (NGA) Hooters Tour. While the name may be a bit comical, the level of competition is intense. Although the purses are nowhere near that of the PGA or Nationwide Tours, there is prize money at stake, and more often than not, lack of winning is enough to send a player packing for lack of available funds. To join the tour a player shells out $2,000, and then must pay $1,100 for each tournament entered. There is a pool of players exempt for events based upon performance in 2008, those performing well in 2009, and special status for those who are previous champions on the Hooters Tour. In addition, there are weekly Monday qualifying tournaments for the final 10 spots in the field. Those who do are forced to attempt to qualify on Mondays must also pay the $150 ($250 for non-members) fee each time.
The tournament fields are comparable to that of the PGA Tour at 168 members, with a cut after 36 holes narrowing the field to top 60 and ties. Also similar to the PGA Tour, the Hooters Tour has a Pro-Am event each week, with the participating players earning a bit of extra cash for their efforts. Other perks lie in free practice rounds during the week of the event, as well as free range balls and snacks/refreshments throughout the week. There are also several major golf club manufacturers who offer discount purchasing plans for members of the tour.
The tour’s schedule is at 18 events for 2009, primarily in the southeastern part of the country. In skimming over the schedule, none of the courses sound familiar, though that obviously does not imply that they are playing beat-up muni tracks. The purse for each tournament is guaranteed at $200,000, with the tournament champion earning just over $33,000. With one event left in the 2009 schedule, Ted Potter, a native of Silver Springs, Fla., is the money leader with $171,567, a nearly $70,000 lead over the second place finisher. Thus far in 2009, 302 players have cashed a paycheck, with three individuals having made $750 on the year. Potter, who has three wins in 2009, has a scoring average of 68.81 this season and has only missed one cut in the 16 events he has played.
Most of the players on the Hooters Tour see their time on the tour as a short stepping stone to bigger and better places. One of the more experienced guys on the circuit is Marion Dantzler, who was recently profiled in The Golf Channel’s “Golf In America” program. Dantzler has teed it up 88 times on the Hooters Tour since 2005 (as far back as website stats go...), cashing a check in 56 of those events. Throughout these five years, Dantzler has earned $86,722.15. When you calculate his membership fees for five years ($10,000) plus the entry fee for each of those events ($96,800), he has most certainly spent more than he has earned. As featured in the TGC special, he earns extra cash on the side with a yardage book company, selling books on the practice tee of Hooters Tour events for $10/book.
The Hooters Tour also has a 12-event Winter Tour, traveling throughout Florida from late October through late January. For those not wishing to travel to Florida, there are 12 events in North Carolina as well, running from the first week of November through mid-February.
In case you’re curious, as I was, the tour has not made a stop in Maryland since 2005, and from 2005-2008 they stopped in Chesterfield, Va., teeing it up at the Lake Chesdin Golf Club.
There are several more tours I hope to profile, and may even try to contact a couple players for a possible profile interview. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment