Richest season ever opens at Movistar Panama Championship  PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The 18th season of the PGA TOUR's Nationwide Tour will begin next week in Panama City, Panama, with the Movistar Panama Championship. The 72-hole championship will launch the Nationwide Tour season Jan. 25-28 for the fourth year in a row at Panama Golf Club. The purse is $550,000 with a first prize of $99,000. Tripp Isenhour won the event in 2006.  The 2007 season again will open at the Club de Golf de Panama. (Stan Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage) Two weeks after the Movistar Panama Championship, the Tour moves to Australia and New Zealand for its second and third events of the 2007 season. The Jacob's Creek Open Championship will be hosted by Kooyonga Golf Club near Adelaide, South Australia, Feb. 15-18. It's then on to Christchurch, New Zealand and Clearwater Golf Club for the HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship, Feb. 22-25. Both events are being played for the sixth time at their respective host sites and will air on GOLF CHANNEL. The domestic portion of the Tour begins March 22-25 in Broussard, La., near Lafayette with the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by Dynamic Industries. From this tournament until the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship at Barona Creek near San Diego, Calif., on Nov. 1-4, the Nationwide Tour will play every week but four, visiting 23 states. The 2007 schedule features a record 32 events and record prize money of nearly $18 million, an increase of more than $1 million over 2006. The average purse of $560,000 is also a record figure for the Nationwide Tour. Fifteen tournaments will be televised on GOLF CHANNEL. The foundation of the Nationwide Tour is particularly strong. Last November, Nationwide and the PGA TOUR announced an extension of the Nationwide umbrella sponsorship through 2012. Nationwide Tour tournaments continue to grow and positively impact the communities they are played in and the competition has never been stronger. Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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