South Carolina Gets Another Professional Golf Tournament

The Palmetto State is devoid of professional football team, unless you count the Charlotte Panthers. The Savannah Sand Gnats play in the border city of Savannah, but hey, Savannah is still in Georgia. The New York Knicks spend the preseason in Columbia, but even if they moved to the state's capital city permanently it wouldn't be much cause for celebration. And the state's real sporting passion, college football, hasn't been too successful this decade, just ask Tommy Bowden.

But South Carolinians love their golf, and tourists love golf in South Carolina. Every year millions of visitors flock to Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and Kiawah Island to hit the links. So who needs an exclusive NFL franchise, give SC another golf tournament. 

Thursday, the Nationwide Tour did just that. The private Daniel Island Club in Charleston has been named the home of the Nationwide Tour Championship from 2009-2011. The official name of the tournament will be the "Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island." The 2009 dates will be Oct. 22-25.

This was especially good news for a Charleston community that had just lost the LPGA's Ginn Tribute after a short two-year stint in the city. Earlier this year Ginn and the LPGA Tour cancelled the post-Memorial Day tournament that had been hosted by the Arnold Palmer-designed golf course at RiverTowne Country Club.

The Nationwide Tour Championship will be the finale for the Nationwide Tour, essentially a feeder tour to the PGA circuit, and conclude a year-long competition to identify the 25 players who earn PGA Tour cards for the following season based on the Tour's final money list. The field is limited to the top-60 money winners through the final full-field event of the season. The Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island will be one of only three events offering a $1 million purse and $180,000, both of which are the largest on Tour.

"The partnership we have put in place for the Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island is a terrific one," said Nationwide Tour president Bill Calfee. "With 25 PGA Tour cards on the line, the Nationwide Tour Championship historically has been the most suspenseful week of the year on the Nationwide Tour. A number of players' futures are literally riding on every shot."

Daniel Island Club is home to 36 holes of championship golf; the country's only private pairing of golf courses by Tom Fazio and Rees Jones on the same property. The Nationwide event will be held on the Rees Jones-designed Ralston Creek Course, considered a true Lowcountry classic. 

Ralston Creek, Daniel Island's second 18-hole masterpiece, is a par-72 course playing 7,446 yards from the championship tees. Opened in 2006, the course was named among the nation's top new private courses by Golfweek and Golf Digest magazines.

This isn't the first time the state of South Carolina will host a professional golf tour's season-ending event. The PGA Tour Championship was played at Harbour Town in 1989, and the Senior PGA (now Champions) Tour Championship was played in the Myrtle Beach area for seven years, from 1994 - 2000.

In fact, this isn't the Nationwide Tour's first visit to Daniel Island. In Oct. 2006 The Palmetto Pride Classic was played there. Unfortunately, the tournament originally scheduled for a five-year run was cut short and only made that initial stop in Charleston.

This year's Nationwide Tour Championship will be played next week at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. 

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