By Jon Levy - Staff Writer

February 15, 2010

It seems each week on the 2010 PGA TOUR more and more former Gateway Tour players are finding their way into the Top 10. Four weeks ago at the Bob Hope Classic, four Gateway Tour Alumni completed the task. Then at the Farmers Insurance Open the very next week, three more did so. And at the Northern Trust Open last week, another four inched their way into the prestigious and lucrative Top 10 places.

So, how’d our Alumni fare this past week at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro Am?

Another five former players -- J.B. Holmes (T2), Steve Marino (4th), Tom Gillis (T8), Blake Adams and Matt Jones (T10) -- got the job done to make for a fourth-straight week of three or more former Gateway Tour players earning Top 10’s on the PGA TOUR.

Not bad. Not bad, indeed.

Starting with Holmes and his one-shot-shy-of-champ-Dustin Johnson-15-under-par-effort, the finish at the ‘clam bake’ comes right off the heels of last week’s T3 in L.A. But, perhaps more importantly, Holmes has earned over $900,000 in just the past two weeks alone and, if he continues the positive momentum he’s quickly accruing for the remainder of the season, he’ll play his way right back on to the United States’ side of the Ryder Cup this fall.

After a stellar performance playing for Captain Paul Azinger’s ’08 squad in his native state of Kentucky, it’s an easy bet Holmes is acutely aware each and every good finish on the PGA TOUR can seal his fate for a ticket to Wales in September.

Moving on to Marino, who -- similarly to Holmes -- notched his second-consecutive Top 5 in the past two weeks, the former Gateway Tour Championship winner has now vaulted to $534,272 in earnings on the year. Add to that a current 17th place standing in FedEx Cup points and, of course, a possible Ryder Cup future most certainly as motivation in his eyes as well, and Marino should be set for a stellar 2010 PGA TOUR season himself.

As also should be the case for Michigan native, Tom Gillis, who played The Gateway Tour as recent as last year.

The tie for 8th at Pebble was Gillis’ first of the season and just second-career on the PGA TOUR. But for a player who made $364,539 on the Nationwide Tour last year via a win and seven other Top 9 finishes after starting the season with conditional status -- after also buying into two Gateway Tour Beach Winter Series events and winning them both -- something tells us his four-for-four cuts made and good play at Pebble isn’t a fluke.

Time will tell, of course, as it also will for the futures of the final pair of Gateway Alumni in the Top 10 this week: Blake Adams and Matt Jones.

While the tie for 10th is Adams’ first-career Top 10 on the PGA TOUR as a rookie in just his fourth TOUR start after graduating No. 3 in the 2009 Nationwide Tour class, Jones’ perhaps comes as less of a surprise as he’s fashioned six-career Top 10 bouts and over $1.6 million in his TOUR tenure since 2008, including a T8 already this year at the Bob Hope.

That said -- with the strong Nationwide Tour contingent (and, of course, those who’ve garnered invaluable experience playing The Gateway Tour) now playing on the PGA TOUR -- Top 10s, and wins, for that matter, right out of the box for recent Nationwide graduates hardly comes as a shock to anyone in the know.

Likewise, as each of the 58 former Gateway Tour players playing on the 2010 PGA TOUR have already proven they have some serious skills; is it really a shock any see the success they do?

Stay tuned as The PGA TOUR season continues this week with the Accenture World Match Play Championship in Arizona, and Mayakoba Classic in Mexico.


Click here for full field results of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, from pgatour.com…