The Nationwide Tour is visiting Charleston this week, with the first annual Palmetto Pride Classic at the Daniel Island Club's new Ralston Creek Course. I went to the event on Thursday because I wanted to get a feel for the Nationwide Tour (the limited coverage on The Golf Channel really doesn't reveal much of anything), take advantage of the beautiful weather, and get a good look at the course I'd heard so much about.

I would highly recommend a trip to a Nationwide event for anyone who enjoys golf. The tickets at the Palmetto Pride Classic are only $10, many of these players will be playing on the PGA Tour soon (if they haven't already), and the smaller crowds make the tournament much more visitor-friendly than the larger PGA events. I'm not sure if this is the case at all Nationwide events, but there was more interaction between players and the gallery (if one could call under 1000 people a gallery) that I expected to see.

Play was delayed for almost two hours due to heavy fog in the area, forcing most of the field finish the first round on Friday morning. As a result of the delay, I witnessed two things that I've never before seen on a golf course. On the tee at the 11th hole (the 2nd hole for the group we were following), a fairly straight par five on which all the players were hitting driver, Craig Bowden had the tee first. Bowden, who is currently second on the Nationwide money list, is maybe best known for being paired with Michelle Wie in the 2004 Sony Open. As he set up I noticed that he sets the club about four inches behind the ball at address; the next thing I knew, he had taken a swing, the ball had only advance about two inches forward and six inches left, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the club head flying down the fairway and eventually into the trees. Bowden held the shaft in his hands and looked as stunned as anyone. I've seen club heads fly as a result of broken shafts, but I've never seen one actually come unglued the way this one did. There was some brief discussion before a rules official was called to confirm what everyone already knew- Bowden was lying one less than a foot from where he started the hole. Rather than getting angry, feeling sorry for himself, or complaining about a bad break (no pun intended), Craig Bowden made everyone laugh about the situation. "At least I've got a good lie," he remarked, before pulling his three wood to play his second on this 586 yard hole, "I guess that also counts as a fairway hit." He hit three wood twice, wedged one up to about five feet, made the put for a fantastic par, and was tied for the lead going into the weekend. After watching him handle an equipment malfunction, seeing him interact with the group, and listening to him sincerely praising and supporting the other players, Craig Bowden became a player I will be pulling for in every PGA event next year.

Conversley, the fan-friendly atmosphere of the Nationwide Tour events is probably not beneficial to Hunter Haas (no relation to Jay Haas), as his scowls, complaining, and refusal to acknowledge the gallery had most of the spectators there believing him to be a first-class jerk. Fortunately he missed the cut, so he didn't have to endure the burden of playing golf over the weekend.

The Rawlston Creek Course has some beautiful holes, and at 7,446 yards is no easy test. But the first thing I noticed after seeing a few holes was that the pins seemed to be in almost impossible locations. "If these are Thursday locations", I said to my friend, "I'd hate to see Sunday." Later as we were walking down the 18th alongside one of the groups, I asked one of the players how this course stacks up against their normal venues. The course, he explained, is very similar to what they see on a weekly basis, and the difficult pins are no exception. "They don't want guys to score out here," he remarked, "but it doesn't matter, because they still do." I can only assume that the tour officials do this because, generally speaking, when the overall scoring is more difficult, the quality of the leaderboard tends to be better, making the caliber of the players graduating to the PGA Tour better.

Overall, the Nationwide Tour experience exceeded my expectations, and I plan to be back at the Palmetto Pride Classic every year that I get the chance.

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