For a golf club company that calls the Nationwide Tour its home, winning the Nationwide Tour Championship is like finding the "holy grail."
On Sunday, a 35-year-old player from Wales helped the company do just that, and helped him secure the # 1 position on the official Nationwide Tour money list. It was the second year in a row that the # 1 player on the Nationwide Tour played Nickent hybrids.
The winner of Nationwide Tour Championship at Barona Creek, a long time Nickent user, claimed his fourth victory on the Nationwide Tour Sunday, his second of the year after winning Nickent’s "homecoming" event at the Mark Christopher Charity Classic three weeks ago.
The winner earned 8 Top 10 finishes with his 4DX Ironwood, made the cut in 17 of the 25 events he played and finished with $445,421. He finished with a 20-under 264 total on the Barona Creek course, breaking the tournament record of 18-under 270 set by Nickent staff player Chris Couch in 2003. Along with fully exempt status on the PGA Tour, the Welshman secured a spot in The Players Championship as the money champion.
"It’s nice. I didn’t come in here with any goals of getting into the No. 1 spot," admitted the winner. "I figured I had to win. I just had a fun week."
Five players in The TOP 25, who all earned their cards to move up to the PGA Tour next year play Nickent clubs, including the #1, #7, #10, #14, and #23 ranked players.
The victory at the Nationwide Tour Championship was Nickent’s 7th win on the Nationwide Tour this season. They also experienced three PGA Tour wins, including a dramatic victory at the US Open at Oakmont. Over the last three seasons on the PGA Tours, Nickent has been a part of 23 victories.
"For some reason, Nickent seems to have a lot of mojo," said Nickent CEO Michael Lee. "We have won over 20 times in the last three years, so it really validates the just how good the products are. We know we can go head-to-head against anyone in performance, and one of the best ways to prove that is to show up in the winner’s circle."
Four Nickent Golf staff professionals (Brad Adamonis, Scott Gardiner, Vance Veazey and Jeff Klauk) finished in the Top 60 on the final money list to secure their fully exempt cards for 2008.
Nickent started signing a stable staff players for the first time this year, with the majority of them being on the Nationwide Tour. Their goal was and is to get their full line of products in the hands of the players and to foster relationships they can take to the PGA Tour. Although they had a staff of 17 Nationwide Tour professional staff players this season, the majority of players that play Nickent golf clubs are not endorsed to do so.
Their strategy has helped them grow with PGA Tour stars such as Jeff Quinney and Ryan Armour. It has also helped the company known for their hybrids get every category of club in play on tour, including drivers, fairway woods, irons, wedges and putters. Nickent’s popular 4DX Driver won twice this season on the Nationwide Tour and is headed up to the "big tour" in the bags of one of the TOP 25 players on the money list. Their 4DX Driver and 4DX Fairway Woods were easily the fastest growing woods on the Nationwide Tour in 2007 and numerous sets of irons and wedges were put into play staff and non-staff players alike.
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