By Jon Levy - Staff Writer


July 5, 2010


We keep saying it, but ‘it’s just a matter of time’ before former Gateway Pro Tour player, Jeff Overton, wins on the PGA TOUR. It’s got to be.

He has, after all, finished T2, T3, T12, MC and 3rd in his last five starts, with his most recent close call coming again last week at the AT&T National, where the 8-under 272 total he posted fell just two shots short of Justin Rose’s winning 10-under score.

Aided by a solo runner-up effort earlier in the year at the Zurich Classic, Overton now has three career runner-ups and two thirds on his TOUR resume, but hasn’t yet closed the door on a victory.

The good news? He’s earning a boatload of money -- almost $1.4 million in his last five starts alone, which knocks him over the $2.2 million mark on the year and to 13th in the FedEx Cup standings. That’s almost twice what he earned during all of last year ($1.19 million), and he still has a long way to go before the closing bell rings.

As far as that victory bell ringing, though -- and the freedom bell-patterned AT&T trophy he gave up to Rose -- Overton will have to wait for yet another day. But at least he has a $421,000 workweek in Philadelphia to aid those non-winning frustrations.

Regardless, The Gateway Pro Tour Alumni Update knows it’s just a matter of time before the former Desert Series player gets the job done.

Moving down the list of Gateway Tour Alumni who’ve found their way onto last week’s leaderboard, The AT&T National was yet another event on the PGA TOUR where multiple former Gateway Pro Tour players secured a spot in the top 10.

Finishing two shots -- and two places -- behind Overton, in solo fifth, was former Gateway Pro Tour player, J.B. Holmes. Holmes is continuing a fine 2010 campaign that, after starting the season with T3 and T2 finishes at the Northern Trust Open and AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, has seemed to yield a strong level of consistency, as he’s has made 15 cuts in the 16 events he’s played. What’s more, the Kentucky native has eight top-25 finishes, over $1.8 million in earnings this season and stands in 17th place in the FedEx Cup race. A win could certainly be in the near future for Holmes, too, as well as a Ryder Cup spot come September, with potential fellow Alum, Overton.

In any case, The Gateway Pro Tour is excited to see how the season plays out for two of its more touted Alumni, because it reminds us of the elite levels our former players can reach and encourages us that our current players aren’t that far off. Keep it up, guys.


Click here for full field results of the AT&T National, from pgatour.com, and stay tuned as former Gateway Tour players on both the PGA and Nationwide Tours tee it up again this week at the John Deere Classic and Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic…


Short Shots

- Former Gateway Pro Tour player, Sean O’Hair, kept his good play going at the AT&T by finishing within the top 15 to accomplish the feat in four of his last five starts. He failed, however, in keeping one fairly odd streak going: Apart from the missed cut he endured at Colonial in May, O’Hair finished tied for 12th in three straight events (the HP Byron Nelson Championship, Memorial and U.S. Open). He missed the mark by just one place last week at his home golf club, bettering the spot by one, with a T11 showing.