News >> NGA Hooters Tour Tees It Up In Victoria
Battle for title, exemption and local bragging rights on the line
Longs, SC—Matt Harmon, Will Wilcox and Michael Welch have done it. Now, Michael Lavery hopes to follow in their footsteps.
Lavery, a former UC Irvine golfer, enters this week’s Victoria Texas Open presented by Jim and Carol West at Victoria Country Club in Victoria, Texas, with his sights set on earning a Nationwide Tour exemption by winning “The Race for the PHS Wichita Open Exemption.”
Harmon, Wilcox and Welch have taken advantage of the six Nationwide Tour exemptions secured by the NGA Hooters Tour in 2010. Welch played in the Fresh Express Classic, Wilcox earned an exemption into the Fort Smith Classic and Harmon played in last week’s Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic.
The fourth of six exemptions will be given to the NGA Hooters Tour member that accumulates the most money in the Bentonville, Ark., Miami, Okla., Pearland and Victoria, Texas, events. With three events complete, Harmon has earned $31,523 and leads second-place golfer Lavery by only $350.
Harmon had three top-10 finishes, including a win, to earn an exemption into last week’s Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic for being the season-long money leader. Harmon missed last week’s NGA Hooters Tour Texas Honing Open and is not be in the field this week, leaving the door open for Lavery.
Even with Harmon away last week, Lavery wasn’t able to capitalize in the Texas Honing Open. Lavery slipped to 55th with a final round 76, leaving him $350 short of taking the lead. But Lavery, a former UC Irvine golfer, does have reasons to be optimistic about his chances. In the past four events, he has a win and a seventh-place finish.
Behind Harmon and Lavery, there’s a gaggle of golfers still contention to gain the exemption with a win in this week’s Victoria Texas Open. A win by any golfer inside the top-20 position in the exemption standings could earn them a chance to tee it up on Nationwide Tour. And, of those 20 golfers, 10 of them have at least one victory on the NGA Hooters Tour.
In addition to the stout field of past winners, the Victoria Texas Open will feature nearly 40 Texas natives, including three amateurs.
The first round of the event starts on Thursday, July 15 at 7:30 a.m. and admission is free to the public. For more information, visit www.HootersTour.com.
The NGA Hooters Tour is the 3rd largest men’s 72-hole professional golf tour in the country behind the PGA and Nationwide Tours and boasts an impressive list of alumni.
Stewart Cink, the 2009 British Open Champion; Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters Champion; Shaun Micheel, the 2003 British Open Champion; Ben Curtis, winner of the 2003 British Open; Jim Furyk, winner of the 2003 US Open; Lee Janzen, a two-time US Open winner; John Daly, a British Open and PGA Champion; Tom Lehman, winner of the British Open; David Toms, a past PGA Champion; Chad Campbell, the 2003 Tour Championship winner; Vaughn Taylor, a two-time Reno Tahoe Open winner; and Craig Perks, winner of the TPC, tested their mettle on the NGA Hooters Tour before tasting success on golf’s grandest stage.
All told, the NGA Hooters Tour’s alumni have an incredible 11 “Majors” to their credit. The NGA Hooters Tour has helped hundreds of professionals acquire their PGA, Senior PGA, and Nationwide Tour cards. In fact, 48% of the players that earned their 2010 PGA Tour card, and 53% of the players that earned full exempt status on the Nationwide Tour started their careers on the NGA Hooters Tour.
