By Jon Levy - Staff Writer

June 30, 2010


The media has had a field day with it: ‘Bubba’s Big Day,’ ‘One for Bubba,’ ‘Bubba Bounces Back,’ some of them said.

Referring to former Gateway Tour player, Bubba Watson, of course, who after 122 starts on the PGA TOUR, four runner-ups, two thirds, 16 top-10s and over $7.7 million in career earnings, ‘Bubba from Bagdad’ (Fla.), as another publication put it, won his first event on TOUR and has aptly been spotlighted by the media for more than just his Southern first name.

Watson is, after all, a likeable guy, not to mention the driving distance leader on the PGA TOUR this year at 305.9 yards, which, at no better time could he have proved than on his 72nd hole last week.

After holding the tournament lead through 70 holes, Watson double-bogeyed his 71st - the par-4 17th -- by hitting his ball into the water. But then, with a havoc-wreaking lash on the last, Watson smashed one 396 yards (admittedly aided by a cart path bounce) to within 50 yards of the hole, on his way to an up-and-down for birdie and regulation tie with Corey Pavin and Scott Verplank.

Almost holing his wedge on the first playoff hole to make birdie after that, Watson matched Verplank’s birdie-3 to knock out the 50-year-old Ryder Cup Captain, Pavin, before finally making a three-foot par-putt on the duo’s next hole to beat Verplank’s bogey and take his first TOUR title.

Phew. Considering that craziness, it’s been a long time coming for the former RJGT Gateway Tour member who has made over $1 million on the PGA TOUR every year since 2006. But one thing’s for certain through all of his close calls: It was well worth the wait.

“My problem was 'Why can't I win? Why can't I do this?' I don't ever envy anybody else, but I did a couple of years ago and it was wrong for me to do that,” Watson was quoted saying in one of pgatour.com’s tournament recap stories.

"My caddie stayed with me for four years even though I kept getting mad and pissy on the golf course. You never deserve anything. If it's in the will, it's in the will," he said.

Well, with $1.08 million newly deposited into his bank account last week, it was in the will.

Moving down the list of Gateway Tour Alumni to also fare well at TPC River Highlands, it was also in the will for fellow Gateway Alum, Kris Blanks, who secured yet another top 10 -- his third of the season and fourth of his career -- with a solid T9, worth $156,000. Blanks now reaches a more-than-respectable $966,749 on the year, which is more than $600,000 ahead of last year’s total earnings, and moves to 57th in FedEx Cup points.

Each week, The Gateway Tour likes to chronicle the successes of its former players succeeding at the highest levels of professional golf. They were, after all, in the same shoes as our current players at one time or another.

Simply explained, that’s an easy motivator to continue the understanding of how close Gateway players are to breaking through to the big-time. A putt here or there; a tournament played in contention won or lost -- it’s those experiences all Gateway Tour Alumni on the PGA TOUR and Nationwide Tour have encompassed to help them reach the elite levels of professional golf.

It’s great for the Tour to see former players like Watson and Blanks, among a host of others, consistently finding their way onto the leaderboards of the PGA TOUR. What’s more, though, in seemingly every Nationwide Tour event played, multiple players in the top 10 have played The Gateway Tour at some point.

Last week’s Mexico Open Bicentary was no exception. Three former Gateway Tour players: B.J. Staten, Kevin Chappell, Fabian Gomez, completed the task with 2nd, T9 and T9 finishes, respectively.

Through 13 events of the 2010 Nationwide Tour season, 13 former Gateway Tour players sit within THE 25. The following players rank within that all-important number of which, come season-end, will determine who graduates to the PGA TOUR in 2011:

Kevin Chappell (3rd)
Tommy Gainey (4th)
Bobby Gates (5th)
Fabian Gomez (7th)
Martin Piller (8th)
Justin Hicks (9th)
B.J. Staten (12th)
Ewan Porter (14th)
Brian Smock (18th)
Aaron Watkins (20th)
William McGirt (21st)
Gary Christian (22nd)
Chris Nallen (25th)

Keep it up, guys!


Click here for full field results of the Travelers Championship, here for full field results of the Mexico Open Bicentary and here for a full list of THE 25, from pgatour.com…