NATIONWIDE TOUR STORYLINES – Week of July 13th

The Nationwide Tour is idle this week while the British Open Championship is contested in Scotland. The Tour’s next stop is next week’s Cox Classic presented by Lexus of Omaha. It begins a stretch of 14 events in a row that will culminate with the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island in South Carolina (Oct. 22-25).

STEVE STRICKER GETS ALUMNI WIN NO. 250 – Celebrating its 20th year, the Nationwide Tour collected its 250th PGA TOUR alumni win on Sunday when Steve Stricker won the John Deere Classic, his second title of 2009. That makes 13 alumni wins this year. Of the top-21 finishers at the John Deere event, 18 were former Nationwide Tour players.

ROGER TAMBELLINI TAKES OFF – Three tournaments ago, Roger Tambellini was well outside “The 25” at No. 41 on the money list. With a T2 at the Nationwide Tour Players Cup in West Virginia and a victory on Sunday in the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic, the 1998 University of Southern California grad catapulted all the way up to No. 3 in these last two events. He earned more than $196,000 in West Virginia and Canada to give him $250,760 on the year. His win in Canada was one of precision as he hit 51 of 55 fairways (T1) and 63 of 72 greens in regulation (1st). He only missed one fairway on the weekend. The California native who now lives in Scottsdale, Ariz. is assured a return trip to the PGA TOUR where he competed full time in 2004 and ’06.

LONG-DRIVE LEADER BLAKE ADAMS CAN ‘PUTT FOR DOUGH’ TOO – They say in golf you “drive for show and putt for dough”. Apparently, Blake Adams is doing both very well in 2009. He leads in the Driving Distance stat (314 yards per drive) and is 7th in Putting Average. The Georgian’s combined stats in these two key categories are the best on the Nationwide Tour. At last week’s Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic, the 2001 Georgia Southern graduate finished runner-up, his best Nationwide Tour finish in 36 starts. Adams earned his biggest check ever, $86,410, which is $69 more than he earned his first two years on the Nationwide Tour (2007 and ’08). With two T3s, a T11 and a T13 in nine starts since his first one in April, he is now 7th on the money list. In addition to his long driving and putting prowess, the former high school basketball star is 1st in Total Driving, 3rd in Scoring Average, 4th in All-Around Ranking and 5th in Birdie Average.

KYLE REIFERS FLIRTS WITH 59 IN CANADA – In the first round of last week’s Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic, two-time Wake Forest All-American Kyle Reifers played a stretch of eight holes (Nos. 4-11) in 10-under par, the best birdie-eagle streak in Nationwide Tour history, bettering Ahmad Bateman’s 9-under-par effort in eight holes at the 1996 Utah Classic. (Note: Billy Mayfair and Briny Baird hold the PGA TOUR record of 9 under over eight holes.) With two par-5s ahead of him, the magic score of “59” became a possibility at Raven Golf Club near Georgian Bay in Ontario. A bogey on the 12th stalled Reifers’ momentum. He would go on to birdie the 16th and 17th holes and shoot a course-record 61 (-11). It was the second time he’d shot an 11-under 61 on the Nationwide Tour, having done so en route to his 2006 Chattanooga Classic win. Reifers finished T12 in the Ford Wayne Gretzky event.

OHIO STATE’S JIM BROWN NAMED HONORARY CHAIR FOR COLUMBUS EVENT – Long-time Ohio State University men’s head golf coach Jim Brown has been named Honorary Chairman of the 2009 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational. The Invitational will be played at OSU’s Scarlet Course July 30 – Aug. 2 and features the college golf coaches’ first-team All-Americans. Brown stepped down from his position at the conclusion of the 2008-2009 season. The 1996 Ohio State graduate is the longest tenured head coach in OSU history and the longest tenured men’s golf coach in the Big Ten, having come to OSU in 1973.

“TICKETS Fore CHARITY™” PROGRAM TAKING OFF – Two years ago, “TICKETS Fore CHARITY” was introduced to the Nationwide Tour by Jeff Sanders Promotions of Beaverton, Ore., promoters of the Tour’s highly-successful Albertsons Boise Open presented by Kraft. A number of events have instituted the program, which provides non-profit organizations a unique opportunity to sell tournament tickets and retain 100 percent of the proceeds. Midway through the 2009 season, there are some very successful stories to tell. Specifically, the recently concluded Nationwide Tour Players Cup in West Virginia generated $142,000 for charities statewide, nearly doubling their first-year effort of 2008. With three weeks to go, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational reports total sales of $430,300. And the innovator of the program, the Albertsons Boise Open (Sept. 17-20), has already hit $426,000, up $285,000 from the same time last year.

TOM LEHMAN AND JASON DAY FEATURED IN “GREATEST MOMENTS” NOS. 11 AND 12 – Two more of the Nationwide Tour’s “20 Greatest Moments” were released during last week’s Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic. The moments featured Tom Lehman’s rise from 1991 Nationwide Tour Player of the Year to No. 1 in the world in 1997 and 19-year-old Jason Day becoming the youngest winner of a Tour event by two years in 2007. The 12 “Moments” that have been revealed to date may be viewed on PGA TOUR.COM (http://www.pgatour.com/h/top20moments_archive/index.html).

NEXT WEEK – The Nationwide Tour is in Omaha, Neb. for the Cox Classic presented by Lexus of Omaha (July 23-26). Omaha and Champions Run host the Nationwide Tour for the 14th year in a row. Beginning at Omaha, the Tour will play 14 weeks straight to close out the 2009 season and determine “The 25” players who will earn their 2010 PGA TOUR cards.

20 YEARS / THIS WEEK IN NATIONWIDE TOUR HISTORY –

July 15, 2007: BYU First-Team All-American Daniel Summerhays becomes the first amateur to win a Nationwide Tour event when he captures the inaugural Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational at Ohio State University’s Scarlet Course in Nationwide’s hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

July 18, 2004: Jonathan Byrd wins the 150th PGA TOUR title by a former Nationwide Tour player when he takes the B.C. Open in Endicott, N.Y. On Sunday, Steve Stricker gave the Tour its 250th alumni win.