January 27, 2010

By Jon Levy - Staff Writer


This past weekend at the Bob Hope Classic -- where low scores abound and the stars come out to play -- four former Gateway Tour players finished within the Top 10, as the event saw a Monday finish due to a potent storm pounding the Coachella Valley during the scheduled second round.

Finishing just one stroke behind Bill Haas’ winning 30-under par mark, former Gateway Tour long-bomber, Bubba Watson, led the Gateway Alumni pack with his runner-up finish; the fourth in his PGA TOUR tenure. Watson took home over $370,000 for the week, and after earning over $1 million in each of his years on TOUR since 2006, he’s well on his way to bust past that mark again this season and make an impact on the world’s most prestigious competitive golf circuit.

Next, Aussie, Matt Jones -- after making $775,899 and $593,313 in ’08 and ’09 on the PGA TOUR -- took home his fifth-career TOUR Top 10; a T8, worth $150,000. Jones missed the cut in his season opener, the Sony, but he’s quickly made up for lost ground and now vies for perhaps his best season yet on the PGA TOUR since playing The Gateway Tour.

Finally, former Gateway Tour players, Kevin Streelman (T10) and Brand Snedeker (T10), chimed in with their first Top 10’s of the season, worth $115,000 each. Neither player a stranger to the spotlight on TOUR, Streelman trails Snedeker in career earnings, ($2.49 million compared to over $6 million) career Top 10’s (seven compared to 17), and has yet to win on TOUR as Snedeker has (The Wyndham Championship; 2007), but Streelman perhaps strolls into the ’10 PGA TOUR season with the most confidence as he won $1 million in last year’s inaugural Kodak Challenge (click here for a recently posted story, from pgatour.com, on his Kodak victory and upcoming title defense this season).

Regardless of whose confidence level stands higher, however, each player -- as well as Watson and Jones -- has had a great start to the year, with a whole season of possibilities remaining ahead.

Stay tuned again this week as a large contingent of former Gateway Tour players tee it up at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, as well as The Gateway Tour’s newest crop of Nationwide Tour Alumni kicking off their seasons at the Michael Hill New Zealand Open…

Click here for full field results of the Bob Hope Classic, from pgatour.com…