Golf writer Andy Reistetter is on site at The TOUR Championship Presented by Coca-Cola at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, GA. Next week he is heading to the inaugural Saboda Classic in San Jacinto, CA to catch some of the action on the Nationwide Tour. With only five events remaining in the 29 event Nationwide schedule the race to be a "Top 25 Gold" graduate and earn the prize of a 2010 PGA TOUR card is as hot as can be.
How closely have you followed the Nationwide Tour this year?
If you were at THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida where the PGA TOUR is headquartered you saw the tractor trailer (see article picture) celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Nationwide Tour.
If you have been tuned into the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedEx Cup you know how well the 2008 graduating class of the Nationwide Tour has done on the PGA TOUR this year.
Marc Leishman was supposed to be in Midland, Texas this week defending his title in the WNB Golf Classic. Instead the 25-year old Aussie who finished 19th on the Nationwide Tour last year is playing in the TOUR Championship at East Lake as one of the 30 best golfers this year on the PGA TOUR.
Talk about an impressive rookie season.
He started getting noticed with good play back in May in Texas with solid back-to-back performances at the Valero Texas Open and the HP Byron Nelson Championship finishing T5 and T8 respectively.
But it wasn't until the playoffs that he really got hot.
He entered as No. 93 on the FedEx Cup points list and shot a second round 62 in The Deutsche Bank Championship, the second playoff event at TPC Boston. Then he eagled the last hole on Sunday to finish T15 and make the field for the BMW Championship.
At Cog Hill's Dubsdread course Leishman had his best career event ever. On a golf course which was recently upgraded by Rees Jones in hopes of landing a U.S. Open or even possibly becoming the venue for 2016 summer Olympics if Chicago is the chosen city he shot four rounds in the 60s and finished T2 with Jim Furyk eight strokes behind Tiger Woods.
In the first round of the Playoff Finale the rising star was admittedly a little nervous.
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