Lagarde: Nationwide Tour has real stories, real people

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The quizzical looks I get.

Faces scrunch. Eyes roll. Eyebrows rise.

Happens every time the conversation turns to what I'm doing these days, other than playing copious amounts of golf on any day that ends in 'Y.'

"I've been working for PGATOUR.com since I retired,'' I explain.

Tee McCabe (WireImage)

"Oh, so you still get to go to the Masters,'' comes the typical reply.

"Well, no. I'm covering the Nationwide Tour for the website,'' I say.

Faces scrunch. Eyes roll. Eyebrows rise.

See the reaction enough, it becomes expected. Duly prepared now, it prompts a spiel about the beauty of the Nationwide Tour. And make no mistake, this satellite circuit of The Big Show is a beautiful thing.

Granted, there is no Tiger. But there is a Phil (Taturangi) not Mickelson. The Big Easy doesn't play there -- at least any more. You won't find a Retief or a Vijay, nor any players ranked among the Top 100 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

But here's the thing. Throw out Tiger at 19.71, and the difference among the world's best players compresses like you wouldn't believe. For instance, Tiger, according to the rankings, is 13.23 points ahead of the world's No. 3 Steve Stricker. Yet, Stricker is only 6.27 points ahead of the Nationwide Tour's Tee McCabe, who has yet to score his first professional victory. McCabe is 611th in the world.

The point is, the difference all professionals, with the exception of that fellow named Woods, is infinitesimal. And many will argue, quite vehemently in fact, that the dog-eat-dog competition on the Nationwide Tour is second only to that on the PGA TOUR.

Forget about the competition for a minute. It's tough. Brutal in fact. But that's not what makes the Nationwide Tour so attractive to me. In many ways, it is a throwback to the way the PGA TOUR used to be, before the players became corporations and conglomerates, before private jets became the preferred method of travel between stops.

It was a barnstorming TOUR where players traveled together, ate together, hung out together.

Want a reasonable facsimile? Check out the Nationwide Tour.

I've done Q&As with the Nationwide Tour graduates in each of the last three seasons. One of the questions always has been what will the player miss most about the Nationwide Tour. More than 90 percent were quick to mention the camaraderie and close-knit family feeling the tour fosters from the top on down. That alone makes it a very special place.

OK, let's insert the disclaimer here.

Don't misunderstand. This is not meant to knock or mock the PGA TOUR. It is head and shoulders above any other tour on this planet. The best play there. Period. Full stop.

But that doesn't mean other circuits do not have their redeeming qualities. And the Nationwide Tour has its -- in spades.

Don't take my word for it. Listen to what Jason Gore had to say after his head-spinning, meteoric rise in 2005. That was the season Gore was a conditional member of the Nationwide Tour. He qualified for the United States Open at Pinehurst and played his way into Sunday's final twosome.

Jason Gore (WireImage)

He faltered badly in the last round, but he was the story of the week. He gained about 10 tons of confidence, returned to the Nationwide Tour and did something there no one had done before -- or since. Gore won three consecutive tournaments to earn a performance promotion to the PGA TOUR, where six weeks later, he won the 84 Lumber Classic.

The subject of the Nationwide Tour came up in Gore's championship press conference. Here's what he has to say so eloquently say.

"That just goes to show you how good the Nationwide Tour is. You know, I think so many people overlook the fact that oh, it's a secondary Tour, but it's not. [What happened to me] could happen to any one of us, and somebody coming out of the Top 20 this year is going to do the same thing that I'm doing right now, and that just shows you how many good players there are on that Tour and how great that whole Tour is for golf and how much respect it actually doesn't get.

"The PGA TOUR has done a great job with the Tour, but I just think that a lot of people need to make a note about that place because there's going to be a lot of great players and a lot of major champions and a lot of 84 Lumber champions that are going to come out of there.

"I think it's the most fun golf to watch. You watch it on TV on The GOLF CHANNEL, and it is great stuff because everybody has a story. Everybody is fighting for their life. It's not a bunch of millionaires out here just doing what they do. Everybody has got a story and everybody has got a heart and everybody is fighting. It's a pretty great place.''

Couldn't have said it better myself. But the Nationwide Tour goes beyond the competition. It's a real place with real people, the vast majority of them real good people, again from the top on down.

And that, folks, is saying something in this day and age of the pampered and privileged professional athlete.