Notes: Haas going for grocery trifecta at Winn-Dixie

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WINN-DIXIE HAS STRONGEST FIELD OF YEAR -- Based on the updated money list after Sunday's Miccosukee Championship, the Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open presented by Planters features 98 of the top 100 players. The only two who won't be in Ponte Vedra Beach are Fran Quinn (64th) and John Mallinger (95th). Quinn has been out since the spring with a back problem. Mallinger is entered in this week's PGA TOUR event in Las Vegas. The field at TPC Sawgrass is the best of 2010. Two September events, the Albertsons Boise Open presented by Kraft and the Soboba Classic, had 94 of the top 100 and 93, respectively.

A SMASHING SUCCESS FOR CHARITY -- The Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open is on track to set a new record for charitable giving for a first-year event on the Nationwide Tour. Charitable donations are expected to exceed $1.4 million according to tournament executive director Jeff Sanders. The is more than three times the previous first-year best of $450,000 set by the Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational in Columbus, Ohio in 2007. Thursday's pro-am will feature 108 pros and 432 amateurs competing over both courses at TPC Sawgrass.

DYE'S VALLEY AT TPC SAWGRASS UP TO THE CHALLENGE -- Everyone is familiar with THE PLAYERS Championship after being played on Florida's First Coast for more than 30 years. For the first time its 21-year history the Nationwide Tour is coming to North Florida with PGA TOUR headquarters as the backdrop and TPC Sawgrass' Dye's Valley Course as the host venue. The sister course to the famed PLAYERS Stadium Course has its own history of hosting TOUR starts. Open for play in 1987, the Pete Dye/Bobby Weed/Jerry Pate design was home to the 1988 and 1989 Senior PLAYERS Championship won by Billy Casper and Orville Moody, respectively. It also hosted the 1996 and '97 Champions Tour Qualifying Tournament. TPC Sawgrass superintendent Tom Vlach and his staff have made numerous enhancements to Dye's Valley over the last several months by pinching fairways, growing the rough, modifying the contours around the greens and more. Two of its par-5s have been changed to par-4s to establish a par-70 layout.

NATIONWIDE TOUR DUO SHINE AT FRYS.COM OPEN -- Leading Nationwide Tour players Jamie Lovemark (No. 1 on the money list) and Kevin Chappell (No. 8) had good showings last week in their Frys.com Open appearances on the PGA TOUR near San Jose. Lovemark finished T30 and Chappell T24. Both are California natives (San Diego and Fresno, respectively).

ANOTHER ENTRY IN THE RECORD BOOK -- Jason Gore's Miccosukee Championship win put him in the Nationwide Tour record book for most career wins with seven. He surpassed Sean Murphy, Matt Gogel and Kevin Johnson. One other key record Gore holds is the 18-hole scoring record of 59 with Notah Begay III and Doug Dunakey.

CHRIS NALLEN / THIS WEEK'S "BUBBLE BOY" -- Former University of Arizona All-American Chris Nallen finds himself as this week's man on the bubble at No. 25. The 28-year-old who was born in Queens, N.Y. has missed his last five cuts after making the previous nine dating back to early July. In April, Nallen stood 63rd on the money list, and then jumped to 19th with a runner-up in The Rex Hospital Open. He was as high as 16th in September after two top-10 finishes.

DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN -- It was déjà vu all over again for Australia's Won Joon Lee, who finished T4 in Miami on Sunday. The native of South Korea began the week 65th on the money list and in need of a good finish in Miami or Ponte Vedra Beach to reach the Nationwide Tour Championship. His payday moved him up 15 places to No. 50. Lee came into last year's Miccosukee Championship at No. 73, tied for second to move to No. 47.

HUNTER HAAS / GROCERY TRIFECTA -- With two wins in grocery store-sponsored tournaments already this year, Hunter Haas is looking to be the first player to earn a battlefield promotion to the PGA TOUR via the "grocery trifecta". In August, the former Oklahoma Sooner won the Price Cutter Charity Championship in Wichita, Kan. The following month he captured the Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho.

WINN-DIXIE CHAIR IS A FIRST -- Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open tournament chair Anne Nimnicht of Jacksonville is believed to be the first person to lead volunteers groups on all three tours that fall under the PGA TOUR umbrella. Nimnicht chaired the 1997 PLAYERS (PGA TOUR), 1999-2002 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (Champions Tour) and now the Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open (Nationwide Tour).

LOCAL CONNECTIONS -- Two players in the Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open have interesting connections to the host TPC Sawgrass facility. Jeff Klauk grew up playing the courses and working on the maintenance crew at the club where his dad, Fred, was superintendent for 25 years until 2008. Seventeen-year-old Michael Johnson of Birmingham, Ala. won the 2010 Junior PLAYERS over Labor Day weekend competing from the same tees and under similar conditions to what the TOUR professionals experience in May during THE PLAYERS. He won with a four-under par score of 212.

NATIONWIDE TOUR FANTASY CHALLENGE -- "The 25" Nationwide Tour graduates are playing to earn their way into January's Sony Open in Hawaii. Golf fans can go to the tournament too by winning the Nationwide Tour Fantasy Challenge via Golf Channel's website (http://www.thegolfchannel.com/contests). With two tournaments remaining on the Nationwide Tour schedule, fans can still enter to win a trip for two to Honolulu and meet members of "The 25". Participants choose a new golfer each week. What their golfer wins in dollars they win in fantasy points. The current leader has 250,520 points. The winner of this week's Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open earns $108,000 and the winner of the Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island wins $180,000. If someone wins two weeks in a row, he/she could win the fantasy challenge and enjoy the Sony Open in Hawaii.

BIRTHDAY BOYS -- Celebrating birthdays in Ponte Vedra Beach this week are Gavin Coles of Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia (Oct. 19 / turns 42), J.J. Killeen of Fort Worth, Texas and TCU (Oct. 22 / 29) and Won Joon Lee of Glenwood, New South Wales, Australia (Oct. 23 / 25).

NEXT WEEK -- The 2010 Nationwide Tour season and "The 25" competition for 2010 will come to their typical suspenseful conclusion at the Nationwide Tour Championship at The Daniel Island Club in Charleston, S.C. Oct. 28-31.