Race to the Finish on The NGA Hooters Tour

News >> Pettitt Looks For Repeat

PGA Q-School Bonus Battle Tightly Contested

Longs, SC—How important is the final stop on the NGA Hooters Tour this season? You need to look no further than the entry list to find the answer.

With players finishing in the top 10 in the point standings getting their PGA Tour Q-School fees reimbursed, the top 12 players in the point standings are entered in this week’s Woodcreek Classic Sponsored by Woodcreek Development at The Members Club at Woodcreek & WildeWood in Elgin, S.C.

Philip Pettitt Jr., of Murfreesboro, Tenn., currently has a slight edge in the season-long standings. Pettitt leads Michael Thompson by 32 points coming into the last event of the season. While Pettitt is still searching for his first win of the season on the NGA Hooters Tour, he has seven finishes of T10 or better and is coming off a T5 in last week’s Kandy Waters Memorial Classic. Even if Pettitt finishes second this week, he could lose his spot atop the point standings with a win by Thompson.

But if Pettitt can repeat his performance of a year ago at The Members Club, the former UT golfer will have no worries. Last year, Pettitt fired a course record, 11-under par 61 at The Members Club to finish at 24-under par 264 to earn his first professional win by two strokes over Ryan Blaum.

Mathematically, the top eight still have a chance to finish atop the points standings. Russell Knox, who is in eighth place in the season-long standings, is 490 points behind Pettitt coming into the final event of the season. With 500 points being dolled out to the victor, a win and a misstep by his competitors would vault him into the point lead.

While the battle for the top spot will likely be settled between those in the top seven or eight, there will be a dogfight going on for the 10th and final spot. Matthew Anderson is currently 12th in the standings, just 255 points out of ninth.

In addition to a stout field of players battling for a spot in the top 10, 13 players in the field this week have at least one win on the NGA Hooters Tour this season. Matthew Harmon, the tour’s leading money winner and two-time winner, is the only player in the field with multiple wins this year.

The first round of the Woodcreek Classic will start at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 9th. 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; Lucas Glover, the 2009 US Open Champion; Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters Champion; Shaun Micheel, the 2003 PGA 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 12 “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.

via Hooters.com