Hooters Tour Alumni Dominate Nationwide Tour!

If there was ever any question about where the best young golfers in the world go to get their start, it was answered this past season on the Nationwide Tour.

At the same time former Hooters Tour members Ben Curtis, Shaun Micheel and Jim Furyk were winning 3 of the 4 ‘Majors’ on the PGA Tour, another flock of Hooters Tour Alumni were making noise on the PGA Tour’s developmental circuit…The Nationwide Tour.

Of the 30 Nationwide Tour tournaments played in 2003, nearly half (12) were won by former NGA/Hooters Tour members! In fact, 8 of the top 20 players on the Nationwide Tour money list who earned their PGA Tour cards came from The Hooters Tour.

It all started ‘down under’ when rookie Ryan Palmer took home the top prize at The Clearwater Classic in New Zealand, just 2 weeks into the 2003 season. Palmer, from Amarillo, Texas got his start in professional golf on the Hooters Tour after graduating from Texas A&M in 2000.  Palmer went on to have a solid year on the Nationwide Tour finishing 6^th on the final money list with $286,066.  Keep your eye out for Ryan as he takes his game to The PGA Tour in 2004!

Without a doubt the biggest success story of the 2003 Nationwide Tour came from 2001 NGA/Hooters Tour Player of the Year Zach Johnson. No player in the history of The Nationwide Tour has enjoyed more success than the 26-year old from Iowa.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Before he broke most of the records on The Nationwide Tour, Zach made his presence felt on The Hooters Tour winning the final 3 regular season events of 2001 earning the nickname “Back-to-Back-to-Back-Zach,” finishing the season as the tour’s leading money winner, more than $126,000 richer.

After failing to get through PGA Tour Qualifying School following the 2001 season, Johnson returned to The Hooters Tour and enjoyed similar success. The former Drake University golfer won once (Tulsa, OK), recorded 5 top five finishes, 9 top ten’s, and took home more than $74,000.

Fast forward to 2003.

With The Hooters Tour squarely in the rearview mirror, but with only conditional status on the Nationwide Tour, Johnson needed to Monday Qualify for the first few events of the season, finally breaking through in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Zach  finished in a tie for 3^rd, automatically earning him a spot in the following week’s event in Fort Smith.

It took 73 holes but when it was all said and done in Ft. Smith, Zach beat Steve Haskins on the first playoff hole for his first ever Nationwide Tour victory. Johnson took home $85,000 for the win, but more importantly it got the ball rolling on the most remarkable season in Nationwide Tour history.

The numbers boggle the mind. In 20 events Zach only missed the cut once! He won twice (Ft. Smith, AR & Salt Lake City, UT), finished second 4 times, third 3 times, had eleven top 10’s and sixteen top 25’s!

Not only did he finish as the Nationwide Tour’s leading money winner ($494,882) and Player of the Year, but he became the first ever to break the $400,000 mark. Needless-to-say we’ll be seeing Zach teeing it up with the likes of Tiger Woods, Davis Love III and Vijay Singh in 2004.

“It’s really nice to know all my time and effort is paying off,” said Johnson following his 3^rd place finish at the season ending Tour Championship. “I owe a lot to The Hooters Tour, it basically taught me how to win. The level of talent on that tour is so high, winning out there really gives you confidence. Just look at all the players from that (Hooters) tour that have moved on.”

Augusta, Georgia product Vaughn Taylor is another great example of that talent. “VT” as his friends call him began the 2003 season playing very well on The NGA/Hooters Tour. Through the first 7 events Taylor won once (Hawkinsville, GA), finished second twice, and third twice too. But after Monday qualifying for the Nationwide Tour event in Virginia Beach and finishing 2nd, Vaughn continued his stellar play by winning the Knoxville Open and becoming the fastest player in Nationwide Tour history to surpass the $200,000 mark, doing so in just five tournaments. Shattering the previous record by 7 tournaments! The former Augusta State golfer finished the 2003 Nationwide Tour season 11^th on the money list with $223,988.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” said the 27-year old Taylor. “It probably won’t hit me until that first event.”

Taylor won 4 times in his 3 years on the Hooters Tour. Like Johnson, he also credits the high level of competition as a big reason he was able to make the jump to The Nationwide and ultimately The PGA Tour.

“You really had to shoot low numbers out there (On the Hooters Tour), said Taylor. “If you didn’t go low every day, you got lapped.”

Joining Vaughn, Zach, and Ryan Palmer on the PGA Tour in 2004 will be fellow recent Hooters Tour graduate D.J. Brigman. Brigman earned his first ever professional win when he took home top honors at The Hooters Tour event in San Antonio, Texas in 2001. After a solid but unspectacular 2002 season on The Nationwide Tour, D.J. finally broke through with a win late in 2003 at Permian Basin Charity Classic in Odessa, Texas. The win vaulted the 27-year old to 32^nd on the money list and into the season ending Tour Championship.

Riding the momentum from his win in Odessa, Brigman finished all alone in 2^nd place at the Tour Championship; which moved him into 20^th place on the Tour’s money list, meaning a 2004 PGA Tour card with his picture on it.

We wish all the former NGA/Hooters Tour members the best of luck in the future as they continue to pursue their dreams!