Means to an end {HEADLINE2} While players enjoy the barbecues, bull sessions and good budsof the
PGA Tour, Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open: Really good field for Fall Series event: Stuart Appleby, Anthony Kim, John Daly, Davis Love III and Rickie Fowler.
Champions Tour: Administaff Small Business Classic, The Woodlands, Texas
LPGA Tour: Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia
Nationwide Tour: Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open
MIAMI -- The 300-mile drive from Omaha to Wichita last July was going to be a long one for Nationwide Tour rookie Keegan Bradley, who'd just missed his second cut in three weeks.
But he was happy to have fellow golfer Manuel Villegas along for the ride. The two squeezed into Bradley's Honda CR-V, packed with all of Bradley's belongings for his pending move to Jupiter, and much of Villegas' gear.
"My car could barely go 60 mph I had so much stuff in there," the 24-year-old Bradley recalled this week at the Miccosukee Championship.
"It was actually a lot of fun."
Such is life on the Nationwide Tour, where the atmosphere is often light and the camaraderie comes easy as golfers scratch out a living while trying to earn a spot on the PGA Tour.
Make no mistake, everyone on the Nationwide would rather be in the big leagues, where the money, attention and perks are better, but players make the best of their situation.
Carpooling and rooming together is fairly common on the Nationwide. It helps cut costs on a tour where purses are small and top-heavy -- the winner of this week's Miccosukee wins $108,000 while the fifth-place finisher gets less than $25,000.
The solidarity, however, goes deeper than dollar signs.
"Everyone on the Nationwide Tour has the game goal -- to get to the PGA Tour," Nationwide veteran Michael Putnam said. "We're all in the same boat, struggling to make a living.
"It's nice to have some camaraderie to smooth that part of golf out."
Putnam, 27, played full-time on the PGA Tour in 2007 and finished 141st on the money list with $422,359. With his first child due in two weeks, he hopes to get back next year. He entered the Miccosukee 16th on the Nationwide money list, with $212,417.
"It's obviously financially a better life," Putnam said of the PGA Tour. "It's fun because everything is times 10, the crowds, the money, the media."
Still, if Putnam earns back his Tour card -- and he'll need to finish in the top 25 to do so -- he'll miss the barbecues, bull sessions and good buds he's made on the Nationwide.
"I call it a traveling circus" he said. "We all know each other, go to the same spots, stay at the same hotels. On the PGA Tour everyone has his own little deal. Guys have their own lives, fly their private jet and don't travel with anyone.
"I made a couple of good friends (on the PGA Tour), but I've made better friends on the Nationwide Tour."
Bradley, nephew of LPGA Hall of Famer Pat Bradley, agrees.
"The camaraderie out here is great with guys and hanging out," said Bradley, who is 12th on the money list.
Many of the top PGA Tour players came from the Nationwide Tour, also known as the Ben Hogan Tour, Nike Tour and Buy.com Tour since its inception in 1990.
PGA star Camilo Villegas, older brother of Manuel (Bradley's road trip mate), has fond memories of his days on the Nationwide.
"It's definitely a little bit more friendly, it's less busy, it's less of a zoo," Camilo Villegas, the 2010 Honda Classic winner, said at last month's Tour Championship.
Jim Furyk has won 16 times on the PGA Tour, including the 2003 U.S. Open, since he left the Nike Tour in 1996.
The Nike Tour was perfect for him then, but now he has a wife and two kids. And last month he pocketed $11.35 million when he won the Tour Championship to clinch the FedEx Cup.
"I was six months out of college, I was young, single didn't have a lot of responsibility, so it was great," Furyk, 40, said of his Nike Tour days.
Some players on the Nationwide travel in RVs and host cookouts. In the fall, you might see half the field at a local sports bar watching college football.
Even practice is more relaxed, with guys betting a few bucks on the putting green. "You're not going to find that on Tour," Nationwide rookie William McGirt said.
McGirt, 31, has played in two PGA Tour events and can appreciate the benefits to both tours.
Players on the PGA drive a courtesy car, eat a catered spread and hit their brand of ball on the practice range, but relationships can be icy at times. Not so much on the Nationwide.
"Everybody is pulling for each other, that's the thing," McGirt said. "Every week guys come up and say, 'Play well this week. Get back in the 25.' "
But in the end, McGirt said, "the PGA Tour is the best tour in the world. Once you get a taste of life out there, you don't ever want to leave it."
~edgar_thompson@pbpost.com
