Nationwide Tour 20th Reunion Party

Heartwarming.  That’s the way to describe the casual get-together that marked the 20th anniversary of the Nationwide Tour on Monday of The Players week. Appropriately, as the low budget tour, it was held in the parking lot.  There was a cookout, beer, some wine and memories traded back and forth, laughs shared.

The gathering centered around The Truck, which is the official Nationwide Tour van that goes from event to event carrying caddie bibs, walkie-talkies, walking sign boards and more.  Inside The Truck, it’s easy to see traditions that have started. The Truck, you see, has taken on an almost human personna.

Tim “Lumpy” Herron and Charley Hoffman, now on the PGA Tour but former Nationwide players, leaned against the shelving at the back of the truck beneath framed  tournament flags drinking adult beverages and talking about old times.  Without mentioning names, they remembered who used to go through the locker rooms appropriating golf balls.  And then they brought up Putter Boy, who does the same thing with putters.  In the early days of the Nationwide Tour, it was more of a financial challenge to make it through the season than it is today. Today’s purses pay almost what the regular PGA Tour did 20 years ago. It’s real money.

“Johnson Wagner was one of the guys who was on our plasma program,” according to PGA Tour nationwide staffer Timmie Sheridan.  “Johnson promised that when he won he would get a plasma TV for The Truck.  He won in Omaha on a Sunday.  The van showed up in Rochester, and Tuesday, here comes Johnson Waggoner with a brand new plasma TV.”

Winners also sign The Great White Cooler, a four foot by two foot by two foot beast typically containing beer, which is then raffled off to Nationwide Tournament Directors at the end of the year.   

Joe Chemycz, media official for the Nationwide Tour, explained how former Nationwide player Zach Johnson started the tradition of posting winning flags which are framed and attached to the walls of The Truck.

“When Zach Johnson won The Masters, we didn’t know he was going to win The Masters, and we couldn’t get it ahead of time,” Chemycz said, “ Not like Brian Gay who won by such a large margin at Heritage.”

But on his own, Zach Johnson signed a Masters flag and sent it to the guys in The Truck.  They framed it and put it on the wall.  Boo Weekley, who opened the first adult beverage at the gathering, sent back flags from his Verizon Heritage victories and also sent them from The Ryder Cup. 

Most of them have more than an autograph.  Nick Watney’s from this year’s Bob Hope Classic said “Thanks for making a dream come true.  Nick Watney”