PHK is one strange creature, which makes him all the more wonderful. Used to joke, my job was keeping his photo off the front covers of magazines, cause nobody wants to walk into a convenience store and see that face staring back at them. Looking at him today, the beauty truly shines through. – JDW (circa 1995)
Dream audaciously. Have the courage to fail forward. Act with urgency. – Phil Knight
THE NIKE TOUR. THE NEXT BEST THING TO BEING THERE.
The record is clear. The game’s best minor league, better by far than Triple-A baseball, is greatly improved and rapidly evolving. Crowds continue to grow on the Nike Tour, the make-it-or-break-it Tour. The quality of play has soared.
The whole Tour has gotten better since Nike, Inc., the world’s largest athletic apparel company, became the Tour’s title sponsor. Better players, better courses, better cities. The Nike Tour is a good idea whose time had come. Philip H. Knight, Nike’s founder, is to be commended for his vision.
Better giving. Charitable contributions exceeded $1 million for the fourth straight year. Since 1990, total contributions – to more than 250 charities – approach $7 million with further growth and development expected. Demanded.
Better money. Purses have more than doubled since 1990, growing from $3.05 million to $6.12 million this year. Big money in anybody’s league. Fifteen players won $100,000 or more on the Nike Tour last year. Prize money is not the primary goal on the Nike Tour. Getting off this Tour is. Taking the next step. Getting to the Big Show, the PGA Tour. That’s always the goal.
Better events. The Nike Tour is a valuable and valid means for advancing players to golf’s highest level, the PGA Tour. The Nike Tour is now the desired competitive option to the foreign Tours, with an increasing number of high caliber players joining each year.
The best way to gain playing privileges to the PGA Tour is to finish among the year’s Top Ten money winners on the Nike Tour. There is no better place to learn how to deal with seeing your own name on the leader board.
The Nike Tour’s primary goal of providing young players a place to refine their skills and prepare themselves for life on the PGA Tour certainly has been achieved. Twenty-two members of the ’94 Nike Tour are now playing on the PGA Tour.
“The experience was invaluable,” offers Steve Rintoul, now in his second year on the PGA Tour. “Guys who have come off the Nike Tour have done very well on the PGA. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. There’s a lot of good players on the Nike Tour that you have to play against week in and week out. It’s a great proving ground.”
A record seven PGA Tour titles were claimed by former Nike Tour players in 1994. And Ernie Els, who played nine Nike Tour events in 1991, won the U.S. Open title. Ten years from now, the alumni from the Nike Tour will be the dominant players on the PGA Tour.
“There are some superstars out here right now,” NBC’s golf analyst Roger Maltbie said. “The difference is you don’t know who they are and I don’t know who they are. But we will, and damn soon.”
You’ve heard of John Daly. Used to terrorize the Nike Tour before he won the U.S. Open. Keep your eye on 27-year-old Monte Scheinblum, the 1992 national and world long-driving champion.
He’s in his third Nike Tour season and many observers say he’s longer than Daly. Some who should know say Scheinblum has the fastest hands ever seen.
1994 Nike Tour “Player of the Year” Chris Perry set a money record of $167,148 during a season in which he posted ten top-10 finishes, including first place at the Nike Utah Classic.
Consistent? Perry didn’t miss a cut in 24 Tournaments last year. He led the Tour in scoring. He’s gone to the PGA Tour.
Last year, Tommy Armour III became the Nike Tour”s first back-to-back winner. Tommy has won one PGA title in addition to more than a million dollars of big league paychecks. Jerry Haas pulled the same consecutive-win trick later in the year. Better yet, with another win earlier, Haas became the first Nike Tour player to capture three events in a single campaign. Both of these guys are gone, too, gone back to the PGA. Back where they belong.
Pick up the paper and check the PGA’s prize money list. Last time we looked, David Duval, who played the Nike Tour last year, was setting a PGA rookie record for checks cashed.
The penultimate stop on the road to greatness, possible fame and fortune, the Nike Tour, to be honest, is the first stop on your way back down from the top. Makes for some very hungry golfers. There are so many PGA Tour winners on the Nike Tour these days, it is difficult to count them all. As many as 40 winners and PGA veterans at any Tour stop. Morris Hatalsky, Tim Simpson, Tom Byrum, Robert Wrenn, to name a few.
Wrenn’s career earnings are $1,340,363. He is no beginner. He is no slouch. Byrum’s a millionaire. Simpson has $3,348,787 in career earnings. He’s won four PGA championships. Great golfers. Nothing minor league about these guys.
The sport is growing. The launch of The Golf Channel will bring an additional seven Nike Tour events to a national television audience. The golf is getting better.
And some of the best golfers in the world are here to prove it.
Thank you, Nike.
