Apr. 23, 2009
Editor's note: The 2009 season is a special season for the Nationwide Tour; it's the 20th year of being PGA TOUR Driven. All year long, we'll be celebrating the double decade, and as the season gets started, it's a chance to look back...
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| VIDEO: Nationwide Tour prepares for historic 20th season |
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The Nationwide Tour launched its 2009 season at the Panama Digicel Championship, where a year-long celebration began as the Tour entered its 20th year. For the past two decades, the Nationwide Tour has grown into the official proving ground of the PGA TOUR. Watch |
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| This week in Nationwide Tour history |
| April 20 1997 |
Jeff Brehaut cruised to a six-stroke win at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic. Brehaut took command with a 7-under 65 in the third round, the best round of the day by three shots. He led by four after 54 holes and was never challenged at Mississippi National Golf Club. Dan Bateman and Tom Scherrer tied for second. |
| April 21 2002 |
Monday qualifier Jace Bugg birdied the final three holes and won the Arkansas Classic in Hot Springs Village. Bugg rallied from three down on the last day with a 7-under 65 and finished at 17 under. Jason Caron parred the last seven holes and came up one shot short. Third-round leader Aaron Baddeley finished third. Bugg became the 13th Monday qualifier to win in Tour history and the first in two years. |
| April 22 2001 |
Brett Quigley finished off a wire-to-wire win at the inaugural Arkansas Classic. Quigley led by three, five and four shots after each of the first three rounds and went on to win by three over John Elliott, capping things off with an eagle-3 on the final hole. Quigley, it turned out, made the right call by staying in Arkansas rather than venturing to Texas for the Shell Houston Open, where he began the week as the second alternate for the PGA TOUR field. Last-minute withdrawals left that event one player short of a full field, and Quigley would have made the field if he had been on site. He followed his win with a runner-up finish at the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic on the PGA TOUR the following week. |
| April 23 1994 |
Omar Uresti went on an unprecedented birdie streak during the third round of the Shreveport Open. Uresti birdied a Tour-record, nine consecutive holes at Southern Trace Country Club, starting at the par-3 fourth. His streak ended with a par 3 at the 13th. He finished the day by tying the course record of 63 and grabbed a four-stroke lead in the 72-hole event, which he went on to win. Uresti's streak has never been equaled on the Nationwide Tour, the PGA TOUR or the Champions Tour and remains the greatest nine-hole stretch in golf. |
| April 24 1994 |
Omar Uresti capped a record-setting week with a playoff victory over Pat Bates at the Shreveport Open. In Sunday's final round, Bates birdied the 72nd hole to finish at 18 under. Uresti then squandered a two-stroke lead with bogeys on the final two holes, forcing the playoff. Uresti and Bates battled for six holes before a par gave Uresti his first career title. |
| April 25 1999 |
Clemson grad Kevin Johnson celebrated his 32nd birthday and collected his second career title with a win at the South Carolina Classic in Florence. Johnson, a three-time All-American for the Tigers, used a pair of eagles to grab a share of the third-round lead with Bob Heintz, winner of the Shreveport Open the previous week. The two shared the lead with four holes to play when Heintz made back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 15 and 16 to give Johnson the lead. Both players birdied No. 17, and Johnson's bogey at the closing hole cut his victory margin to one. Johnson became the first player on Tour to win on his birthday since Michael Christie at the 1995 Carolina Classic. |
| April 26 1992 |
Brian Henninger won for the second time in 1992, edging Ted Tryba by one shot at the Macon Open. Henninger lost the lead with a double bogey-bogey stumble on the front nine but recovered on the back. An eagle-birdie combination got him back into contention. Tryba bogeyed the 72nd hole to give Henninger the win. |
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