By Jon Levy - Staff Writer

March 8, 2009

Another week completed on the PGA TOUR, another top-10 by a former Gateway Tour player. The latest to accomplish the feat?

34-year-old, Michael Connell, who scored a T6 at last week’s Honda Classic to account for his best-career finish on the PGA TOUR and a healthy payday of $194,600. Not bad, considering Connell had recently played The Gateway Tour while bouncing between years spent on the PGA & Nationwide Tours looking for weeks this past one at PGA National.

The message?

The Gateway Tour’s mission is to provide its players an environment where they can build the skills necessary to compete on the PGA TOUR, and Connell is yet another player who we’re proud to say has spent some time on the Tour honing those skills.

Skills that, after finishing T19 at q-school Finals last fall to gain his fully-exempt PGA TOUR card in 2010, seem to have planted him firmly on the right track to finally stop that between-tour bouncing.

Just as Aaron Watkins, a former Desert Series member, is looking to do following his 2009 PGA TOUR season that included $263,000+ in earnings and a top-10 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Watkins may not have kept his TOUR card this year, but, with a full Nationwide card in his pocket and undoubtedly a missing taste of PGA TOUR life on his mind, his T37-T21-MC season-start, followed by a near win last week at the Pacific Rubiales Bogota Open in Colombia, says he may well be on the fast-track for regaining that PGA TOUR membership in 2011.

Locking horns with 48-year-old PGA TOUR veteran, Steve Pate, through 72 holes of the Nationwide Tour’s first-ever stop in Colombia, Watkins fell victim to the six-time PGA TOUR winner -- now the oldest player to ever win on the Nationwide Tour -- with a three-putt bogey on the second playoff hole. Even though the victory didn’t go his way, Watkins’ $65,000 payday has vaulted him all the way from 46th to sixth on the money list, which, needless to say, puts him in fine shape as the tour comes back to the States for the remainder of the season.

Watkins was one of five total former Gateway Tour players who finished within the top-10 in the Colombia.

As it played out, former players William McGirt (T3), Andrew Buckle (T6), Fabian Gomez (T10) and Zack Miller (T10) also accomplished the task, seeing each player account for their best finishes on the year to date.

Starting with McGirt, whose 9-under performance in just his second-career Nationwide Tour event not only earned him his first Tour paycheck, but a healthy $31,200 one to boot that now puts him 18th on the money list and in fine territory as he enters the Mainland-stretch.

Similarly, Buckle, a seasoned Nationwide Tour and PGA TOUR veteran who has earned over $1.2 million between each tour since 2003, moves to a solid 12th on the money list, as last week’s finish comes as his second top-10 in the first four events (adding to a T9 at the Michael Hill New Zealand Open).

And, finally, for Gomez and Miller, whose 6-under performances snuck them into a five-way tie for 10th to earn just under $14,000 each, each will hit the upcoming U.S. swing at 24th and 44th on the money list, respectively, certainly also in decent shape with the bulk of the 2010 Nationwide Tour schedule remaining.

On that note, stay tuned as a large number of former Gateway Tour players tee it up again on the PGA TOUR this week at the World Golf Championships - CA Championship and Puerto Rico Open, while Gateway Tour Alumni on the Nationwide Tour take two weeks off before returning for the Chitimacha Louisiana Open, March 25th-28th.


- Click here for full field results of the Honda Classic and here for full field results of the Pacific Rubiales Bogota Open, from pgatour.com…

- Click here for the story pgatour.com posted on Watkins’ playoff loss to Steve Pate…