Nike Tour bought out by
Buy.com; Prize money to increase

By Ryan Finley,
Staff Writer

The Nike Tour is now the Buy.com Tour. Fans should get used to it: the five-year contract with the online mainstay will ensure higher purses for what’s often referred to as the PGA’s minor-league system.

A few weeks ago, the Internet moguls at Buy.com announced that they had bought the naming rights from the Nike people and will increase the average tournament purse to roughly 350,000 dollars, an increase of 55%.

Todd McCorkel, a former Nike Tour player, is excited by the change in the guard.

“I feel like it’s five years too late,” joked McCorkel, who played on the Nike Tour in the mid-1990’s and currently coaches the University of Arizona women’s golf team. “The way golf is growing in the United States, it’s about time.”

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem agreed, saying, “It’s time for this tour to take its own position in golf, not as a qualifying tour but as a force for bringing the best for golf fans.”

• Buy.com takes over Nike Tour • Feature story on Todd McCorkel • Past articles by Ryan Finley

“As little as four or five years ago, you had to finish in the top ten just to break even,” McCorkel said. “The average cost would be about $1,100, and that was the prize money for 10th place.”

The former professional believes the recent popularization of golf has brought a larger talent pool to both the PGA and Nike/Buy.com Tours.

“In the world of golf, the 100th best golfer in a given tournament will not be paid nearly as much as the 100th best infielder in baseball,” McCorkel said. “Maybe the golfer will bring in 50,000 in endorsements, but the baseball player will bring in an even two million.”

The purchasing of the Nike Tour by the Buy.com people will try to bring a living wage to the world’s primary developmental tour, where such players as Tom Lehman, David Duval, and UA alumnus Jim Furyk began their careers.

McCorkel hopes that the increase in purses might even give some Buy.com Tour golfers a chance to take a vacation from golf.

Todd McCorkel

While some golf fans have been taken aback by the kind of money available on both tours recently, McCorkel thinks that talented golfers are finally getting their due in the world of the overpaid athlete.

“If you look at the kind of money Tiger (Woods) is making, it's nothing, really,” he said. “Look at the money Ken Griffey, Jr. and Albert Belle get paid. Tiger’s the best player in the world and he makes less than them. It’s about time golf catches up with the rest of the world’s sports.”

Now that the Nike Tour is the Buy.com Tour, professional golfers can focus on the sport instead of making ends meet.