Golf Interact, a grass-root start up founded by entrepreneur and developmental tour pro, Michael Rush, will be a new player in the developmental professional golf segment. Golf Interact has one simple goal in mind and that is to be a leader in the golf industry. The company started with their first brand, Swing Thought, and its mission is to deliver simplicity and real results to players of all ages and ability levels.
Myrtle Beach, S.C. – September 15, 2014 – Today, Golf Interact, LLC announced the acquisition of the NGA Pro Golf Tour and the rebranding of the longest running developmental tour in the United States as the new, SwingThought.com Tour. The SwingThought.com Tour will be the second brand brought to market by Golf Interact. Swing Thought, the first brand by Golf Interact, focuses on helping golfers simplify the game they love through simple game improvement products, and giving golfers of all ages and ability levels, a game ownership platform.
Michael Rush, Founder and CEO of Golf Interact, on the acquisition commented, “This deal gives Golf Interact a strong position of influence in the industry that allows us to deliver our Swing Thought mission throughout the US, and other golf markets around the world. The NGA Tour is widely recognized as the leading tour in developing players to compete at golf’s highest level. We are fortunate to build our company and launch our platform around such a strong group of people and brand following. The SwingThought.com Tour will meet long-term expectations, and desires of players, sponsors, and fans. We are excited about the plans we have in place and in time the SwingThought.com Tour will be the segment leader. One immediate example, this fall, people will see the Swingthought.com Tour partnering with the Big Break, by Golf Channel, as part of the prize package for the show winner. In addition to the new SwingThought.com Tour offering, Swing Thought will be launching a diverse range of products during our first year of the tour. Swing Thought and the SwingThought.com Tour are just the tip of the iceberg for Golf Interact. The two most critical aspects of any venture are passion and vision. Robin L. Waters, our SwingThought.com Tour President and his staff, possess these key principles that will help us reach our long-term goals as a company. We will be making several exciting announcements in the coming weeks about our company and what we plan to do to help grow the game millions of people love and invest in. Special things take time and we have been after it for a while now, this is a major milestone for us, and will accelerate our growth and impact, but it is just the beginning.”
“For many years we have strived to make players the priority and position ourselves as the number one tour in developmental golf. Our staff works hard to provide players with an atmosphere that most closely mirrors what they will face at golf’s next levels,” stated NGA Tour President Robin L. Waters. Robin goes on further to say, “With the acquisition of the NGA Tour by Golf Interact, and their goal to acquire other tours and run more events across the country will definitely make it much easier for players to be in the vicinity of more PGA and web.com qualifiers. We feel very fortunate to have been acquired by a group who is as passionate and committed to developmental golf as we are. This is a win-win for all parties involved, especially for the players so they can once again compete for substantial earnings.”
For 25 years the NGA Pro Golf Tour (formerly the NGA Hooters Tour and the Rick TC Jordan Tour), has prided itself in developing professional golfers to compete at golf’s highest levels. Hundreds of NGA Tour alumni have moved up to golf’s premier tours where they have claimed countless victories, among them 16 major championships won by such NGA Tour alumni as Zach Johnson, Bubba Watson, and Keegan Bradley. The success achieved by so many NGA Tour alumni is a true testament to the model used by the NGA Tour which consists of week-long 72-hole walking-only events, just like those found on golf’s premier tours. One only needs to look at this past season’s Web.com Tour money list where the top 25 finishers earn PGA TOUR cards. Among those earning their cards for the upcoming 2014-2015 season are 2013 NGA Tour Player of the Year Jon Curran, 2013 NGA Tour Rookie of the Year Blayne Barber, 2013 NGA Tour Golf Achievement Award Winner Jonathan Randolph, and fellow 2013 NGA Tour players Zack Sucher and Tony Finau. Former NGA Tour players that also secured their cards for the upcoming season include Derek Fathauer, Kyle Reifers, Ryan Armour, Byron Smith and Bill Lunde.
NGA TOUR alumni include 2012 and 2014 Masters champion Bubba Watson, 2011 PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley, 2010 PGA TOUR Player of the Year and 2003 US Open Champion Jim Furyk, 2007 Masters Champion Zach Johnson, two-time U.S. Open Champion Lee Janzen, British Open and PGA Champion John Daly, and recent PGA Tour winners like Michael Thompson, Ted Potter Jr, Gary Woodland, Russell Henley, Mark Wilson, George McNeill, Scott Stallings, Scott Piercy and many more.
For more information on the new SwingThought.com Tour visit swingthought.com (new site coming soon), ngatour.com, or call 800-992-8748.
Contact:
RyanWaters@NGATOUR.com
