Champions Tour/ Nationwide Tour

[The Shtick]

As part of the rebranding initiatives, the Senior PGA Tour is being renamed the Champions Tour and the former Buy.Com Tour will be known as the Nationwide Tour starting in 2003.

What do you think about these changes?

[Kilroy]

Originally posted by The Shtick
As part of the rebranding initiatives, the Senior PGA Tour is being renamed the Champions Tour and the former Buy.Com Tour will be known as the Nationwide Tour starting in 2003.

What do you think about these changes?

While the Senior tour name change appears on the surface to be purely cosmetic, I wonder if they will allow "younger than 50" players. Perhaps The Greg Norman's who can't compete with the kids but are too young for "Seniors". I recall hearing about some discussions like that some time ago.

As for the Buy.com, that sounds like a sponsorship change. I think the Buy.com sponsorgship fell through, and they have been looking for a new sponsor for some time now.

Gad, I have not been watching Golf Central lately

[statsfreak]

The change to the Buy.com is due to a sponsorship change. Everyone I'm sure remembers the Nike Tour, and I don't even remember what it was prior to that, but it seems as if that tour changes labels on a fairly regular basis. It would have been good (at least in my opinion) if they could have given it one of those compound names which resulted in at least some reference to continuity such as is the case for some PGA tournaments like the Worldcom Greater Hartford Open, the Mastercard Colonial, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro/Am. Maybe they could have called it the National PGA Wannabe Tour!

As for the Seniors becoming the Champions Tour, does that mean if you never were a "champion" you can't play? That would thin the field down a bit wouldn't it.

[The Shtick]

About the Champions Tour

The Champions Tour is a tax-exempt membership organization of professional golfers age 50 and older. Since its inception in 1980 as the Senior PGA Tour with just two events and purses totaling $250,000, it has grown to more than 30 official events offering $57.9 million in prize money.

The Champions Tour operates under the umbrella of the PGA TOUR. Its primary purposes as a component of the PGA TOUR are to provide significant competitive and earnings opportunities for players age 50 and older; to protect the integrity of the game; and to help grow the reach of the game in the U.S. and around the world. In addition to providing competitive opportunities for its membership, Champions Tour events also generate significant sums of money for charity. Earlier this year the Champions Tour and its tournaments surpassed $100 million in contributions to charity since 1980.

About the Nationwide Tour

A series of professional golf tournaments conducted by the PGA TOUR, the Nationwide Tour is regarded as one of the top tours in the world. It began in 1990 as the Ben Hogan Tour, became the NIKE TOUR and later was renamed the Buy.Com Tour. Nationwide, one of the country's largest insurance and financial services organizations, signed a five-year agreement beginning in 2003. In 2002, the Tour consisted of twenty-eight events in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Purses on the 2002 Tour totaled $12,750,000. The top fifteen players each season qualify for the PGA TOUR the following year. As is the case with all PGA TOUR and Champions Tour events, charity is an important component of the Nationwide Tour, with events having raised more than $22.5 million for charity in their first twelve years.

Regarding to the Champions Tour, Commissioner Finchem stated in his address that "on this Tour, the players who not only have won golf tournaments, but who commit themselves to charity and things outside of the golf tournament week after week, and we see those individuals as champions."

Essentially, what (in my view) is that they are trying to sort of merge these "tours" together as opposed to "graduating" from one tour to get into the next.

[statsfreak]

Absolutely Shtick. That's what Tim Fincham (sp?) has said they want to do, present them as some sort of seamless stage for golf excellence. But the reality remains that the Nationwide Tour is still a staging ground for players wanting to play on the PGA and the Champions Tour is an income opportunity for those who can no longer earn a living on the PGA, or who never did.

[em69]

Champions Tour?? Interesting...considering most of the seniors have never one on the PGA Tour. Wonder how they decided on that name.