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A record $775,000 purse is up for grabs this week at the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship at Barona Creek. With $139,500 going to the winner, every player in the field has a mathematical chance at finishing in "THE 25" and earning a PGA TOUR card for next season.

Daniel Chopra

Daniel Chopra's win this past week on the PGA TOUR was the 216th by a former Nationwide Tour player on the TOUR and the 20th this year.

The Nationwide Tour Championship at Barona Creek will offer free admission this week with those in attendance asked to make a donation to help the Red Cross Fire Relief Fund established in the wake of the disastrous fires in San Diego County last week. In addition, the PGA TOUR and Nationwide will donate a minimum of $200,000 to the relief effort with the "Birdies for Relief" program.

Roland Thatcher begins the week with a $46,538 lead at the top of the money list over #3 Jon Mills. Nick Flanagan, the #2 man on the list, earned an automatic promotion to the PGA TOUR back in August and will not be competing this week. The #1 player at season's end is fully exempt on the PGA TOUR in 2008. Even if Thatcher should finish last this week, Mills would need to finish solo third or better to catch him.

Throughout the history of the event, the No. 1 spot on the money list has changed hands three times in the final week (1998, 2000 and 2002).

Nick Flanagan

Fifty-seven of the 60 players who qualified will be playing this week. Not in the field are Nick Flanagan (already qualified for 2008 PGA TOUR with his three Nationwide Tour wins earlier this season), Jay Williamson (playing in the PGA TOUR's Children's Miracle Network Classic presented by Wal-Mart) and Jason Day (sidelined by a wrist injury).

Two players moved into the top 60 on the money list last week at the Miccosukee Championship, qualifying them for this week's season-ending event. David Mathis improved from 76th on the money list to 47th with his tie for second. Kelly Grunewald improved from 67th to 55th by tying for fourth last week. Conversely, Joe Daley dropped from 60th to 66th, while Chris Riley fell from 58th to 65th.

Arjun Atwal was the last player to qualify for this event, finishing 60th on the money list, $3,383 ahead of Todd Fischer.

Craig Kanada

Craig Kanada captured his second Nationwide Tour title of the season when he clipped Andrew Buckle and Matt Kuchar by a stroke at the 2006 Nationwide Tour Championship at The Houstonian. The win put an exclamation mark on a late-season surge by Kanada that included two victories in his last eight starts, beginning with his win at the Utah EnergySolutions Championship.

There have been only two extra sessions needed at the Nationwide Tour Championship. The most recent occurred when Bob Heintz defeated Marco Dawson in 1999 at Highland Oaks Golf Club in Dothan, Ala. The other occurred in 1995 when Allen Doyle defeated John Maginnes in a playoff at Settindown Creek Golf Club in Roswell, Ga.

Seven former champions of the Nationwide Tour Championship have gone on to win on the PGA TOUR, including 1993 winner David Duval, 1996 champion Stewart Cink, 1997 winner Steve Flesch, 1998 winner Bob Burns, 2000 winner Spike McRoy, 2003 champion Chris Couch and 2004 victor Nick Watney. Those players have accumulated 25 TOUR wins, led by Duval's 13.

Bob Burns, the 1998 Nationwide Tour Championship winner, will tee it up this week at Barona Creek seeking to win the season-ending tournament for the second time. Should he prevail, he would become the eighth player in Tour history to win the same event twice. That last occurred when Brad Elder won this season's Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open.