Tar Heel Tour comes to WCCC

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on October 7, 2008 1:46 PM

• Print
• Email

The EGOLF Tarheel Tour is returning to Walnut Creek Country Club.

The next-to-last regular-season tournament begins today with a practice on the par-71, Ellis Maples-designed course. First-round play tees off Wednesday at 8 a.m.

A field of 144 players will vie for a top prize of $26,000 and $150,000 overall.

"Our players and staff look forward to playing at Walnut Creek as much as any venue on our schedule," said EGOLF Tarheel Tour president David Siegel. "General Manager Jerry Bosquet, Director of Golf Jay Hill, and their members roll out the red carpet for us and create an atmosphere that makes our players and staff feel at home."

Walnut Creek is playing host to the EGOLF Tarheel Tour for the second time this season and fourth overall since 2007.

"Simply put, this is a championship-caliber golf course that offers players multiple looks and options on each hole, and that is not always easy to find," said Siegel, who views the conditioning at Walnut Creek as nothing short of immaculate.

"The greens, the fairways, the rough and even the bunkers are absolutely perfect every time we come here. There is just something about a flawlessly-conditioned golf course that sticks in a player's head, and we certainly have that at Walnut Creek."

A good measuring stick for any tournament golf course is the champions it produces through the years. At the 2007 Championship at WCCC, three-time Canadian Amateur champion Richard Scott outlasted Jeff Curl down the stretch to claim his firstst EGOLF Tarheel Tour title. Among the players finishing in the top 10 that week was current PGA Tour player Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey, who recorded a T8 finish before successfully navigating all three stages of PGA Tour Qualifying School in the months after.

The Walnut Creek Classic in May of 2008 proved to be a bit of a coming-out party for a former college star. Jonathan Moore, winner of the 2006 NCAA Individual Championship, burst onto the EGOLF Tarheel Tour scene with birdies on his final two holes to earn a spot in a playoff with Kyle Gallo, which he would eventually go on to win.

Moore, who was a member of the victorious United States Walker Cup team in 2007, has played the EGOLF Tarheel Tour throughout 2008 in hopes of better preparing himself for a future on the PGA Tour.

A new twist to the EGOLF Tarheel Tour's fall series is the EGOLF Points Race and the S&K Menswear Fall Finale Series. The EGOLF Points Race, which is being conducted over the year's final four events, was designed to reward players for their performance down the stretch of the Tarheel Tour season and heading into this fall's PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament.

Players accumulate points based on finishes and participation over the final six tournaments with $50,000 in prize money being distributed among the top 10 at season's end and the winner receiving $20,000.

The S&K Menswear Fall Finale Series awards points to players based on their finishes in the final four events of the season culminating at the Tour Championship next week in Charlottesville, Va. David Robinson, who became the first player in tour history to eclipse the $100,000 mark in season earnings, enters the tournament with a slim lead over Blake Adams in the S&K Fall Final Series.

The series points leader after the EGOLF Tarheel Tour Championship will walk away with $500 from S&K Menswear as well as a $500 gift card.

The tournament is free to the public.