The levels of competitive golf can easily be correlated to the various strands of baseball. College golf and the local mini-tours closely approximate the competitiveness and experience level of baseball”s rookie leagues. The Nationwide Tour, one step removed from the enormity of the PGA Tour, is similar to AAA being just one step below the major leagues.
As for AA baseball, the midpoint between being a green rookie and yet still not seasoned enough to be just one step away from the big leagues, golf too has a correlation. I”m speaking of professional golf tours where total purses are in the range of $200,000, winners can make $40,000 while competing in 72-hole, stroke-play events held over four days, and corporate sponsorship makes the whole thing work out financially. It”s kind of like the PGA Tour of 1970 from the monetary standpoint.
While some of these AA circuits come and go, the most recent victim being the U.S. Pro Golf Tour (which lost its sponsorship this past December with Donald Trump Golf), the most stable tour on this level of competitive golf is the National Golf Association. Sponsored by the restaurant chain Hooters, the NGA is commonly referred to as the Hooters Tour.
The 2007 Hooters Tour will host 18 events, the majority of them being held in the South and the East. The tour goes to large metropolitan areas such as Jacksonville, Pittsburgh and Richmond as well as small towns such as McCormick (South Carolina), Auburn (Alabama) and Harmony (Florida). In a minor way, the Hooters Tour is international in scope in that one of the circuit”s events is the Guatemala International Open, held during the first week in March.
Unlike the West Coast”s Pepsi Tour or Texas” Tight Lies Tour, you just can”t pony up your money and tee it up on the Hooters Tour. Similar to the PGA Tour”s process of Q School, you”ve got to qualify to get onto the Hooters Tour. In November, December and January, four different qualifiers called Ranking Schools are held throughout Florida, with spots on the 2007 circuit up for grabs. Unlike Q School, if you flunk out of the November qualifier at Oscoe, you can still plunk down another entry fee and try to make it through the December Ranking School at Eustis.
Once you”ve secured your Hooters Tour exempt status, you”ve got to join the circuit for a $2,000 fee and then pay $1,000 each day to play in the four-day tournaments. A total of 168 spaces are available at each tourney, with the low 60 and ties make the 36-hole cut and a guaranteed paycheck for the week. The accountant in me says you”ve got to come up with $20,000 to play a full season and probably have another $20,000 to pay for hotels, caddies, meals and transportation.
In 2006, Theodore Potter of Silver Springs in Florida was the Hooters Tour leading money winner, banking $102,609. Potter made a decent living and probably netted around $60,000 for his 18 weeks of competitive golf. Kris Blanks of Buffton in South Carolina was second in earnings with a little more than $90,000. Going along with the assumption that it takes $40,000 to pay for a season on the Hooters Tour, the top 21 professionals on the circuit made better than they annual expenses. The 50th-leading money winner made just $22,000 and No. 100 on the list took home a mere $7,200.
There were some familiar names participating in Hooters Tour events last year such as Casey Wittenburg, Chris Stroud, David Schreyer and Boo Weekly, all of whom had moments of glory on the PGA Tour. Looking back into the archives of the Hooters Tour, some of its alumni have gone on to bigger and better things in the world of golf, most notably two-time major champions Lee Janzen and John Daley, and Ryder Cupper Chad Campbell.
The Hooters Tour isn”t just some places for good ol” boys to hone their golf game. People travel across oceans and continents to tee it up at Hooters tourneys. Gareth Maybin, the 13th-leading money winner, is from Ballyclaire, Northern Ireland. No. 19 is James Nitties from Newcastle, Australia. The list of home countries of Hooters Tour regulars includes Argentina, Zimbabwe, Barbados, Spain, England, Ireland, Sweden, Scotland, Guatemala and Germany. Some pros use this circuit to get ready for the PGA Tour whereas others are using it to season their games for the European, Australiasian and South African tours.
You”ve got to be able to go low to survive on the Hooters Tour. At last October”s Hooters Tour Championship in Georgia, Travis Nance shot 64-66-66-70 for a 22-under-par total and a four-stroke victory over runner-up Justin Smith. Even par for the week was only good enough for 35th place and that finish wasn”t good enough to make expenses.
The NGA Hooters Tour is a great professional golfing experience for that 20-something who has survived college and amateur golf and has dominated his regional mini-tour. It is definitely not the PGA Tour and it”s a step below the Nationwide Tour, yet you can survive out there and get better in the process.
After all, it is the Hooters Tour. When you go to Augusta, you”re not playing at the Masters in the spring, but instead at Goshen Plantation in the fall. When you go to tournaments in Miami and Philadelphia, get your GPS out because the events are being held in Miami (Oklahoma) and Philadelphia (Mississippi). Still, you”re following the sun, chasing the dream, and hopefully doing something that you love. And maybe, just maybe, you”ll be the next Chad Campbell or John Daly.
Next week: The Nationwide Tour.
