New England Pro Golf Tour: Year in Review

Following four consecutive years of increased membership, purses and status as one of professional golf’s elite training grounds, the New England Pro Golf Tour enjoyed much of the same in 2005.

Cumulative prize money for the ten-event season, totaling more than $850,000, increased 20% over 2004. Ditto for the field size, which jumped from less than 70 in 2004 to near 100 this summer.

With increased competition comes increased depth, a truth reflected in the fact that the Tour failed to produce a multiple winner for the first time in its brief history.

On the financial ledger, six players surpassed the $30,000 barrier, another Tour first.

Rob Oppenheim, of Andover, Mass., collected $41,633.37 and paced the NEPGT bankroll, dethroning Geoff Sisk from his three-year reign atop the Tour’s helm in the process. He started the season like that one heavy-set guy who always sprints off the starting blocks in a marathon, claiming his second Tour win at the season-opening Atkinson Open on the strength of a course record 65 in the second round--one of six course records set on Tour this summer.

Oppenheim then kept Sisk, winless for the first time in Tour history, at arm’s length courtesy of six top 10s in his final nine events. He joined Sisk and Eli Zackheim as the only players to make every cut. Off the NEPGT path, he fired a career low 61 en route to victory in the New Hampshire Open.

Speaking of 61s, Brian Lamberti parlayed his own Roger Maris into victory at Sterling, his first Tour win. Ever shoot a pair of 66s and trail by five? That’s the deficit Brennan Webb, another first-time winner, faced after two rounds. Lamberti not only erased Sean O’Hair’s previous course record of 62, but his 54-hole total of 18-under set a Tour low.

Last fall, Mike Harris had a different kind of low. He missed 14 of 16 cuts on the Nationwide Tour then opted to skip qualifying school. Unsure if he even wanted to return to golf, he worked at his friend’s auto shelving business during the winter.

Once spring arrived, his game began to de-thaw. From the second week of June through the end of August, Harris bagged six victories, an exemption through the first stage of qualifying school via winning the Canadian Tour order of merit, and more than $190,000. Oh yeah, he also parlayed two PGA Tour exemptions into 21st and 66th place showings,

He is currently 273rd in the world, ahead of Paul Azinger and Rich Beem.

You can also add Nick Cook‘s name to the I would rather forget last Fall Club. Following a march to the round of 16 in the 2004 U.S. Amateur, the Shelton, Conn. resident turned professional in September and promptly missed a pair of cuts on Tour. Less than nine months later, his game sharpened, he went from missing cuts to cashing checks.

Nine events. Nine deposits. Over $30,000 in earnings. More importantly, he won twice, capturing his state open in August then defeating Jeff Seavey in a playoff at Samoset.

While the Brady-type bunch on the money list speaks to the quality of competition, the continually-expanding schedule speaks to the growing appeal of the Tour among the masses . From June to October, the Tour traveled to several major markets, including Atlantic City, Boston, Hartford, greater Providence and Worcester.

The sun has set on the 2005 campaign, but the future looks bright for 2006. Among the anticipated plans for next year, co-sanctioned events with the Tour de las Americas.

While the names of Woods, Singh and Mickelson dominate our golf lexicon, look no further than the NEPGT to realize the miniscule difference between the Guys on TV and the Golfing Gypsies playing in your backyard.

Just ask Sean O’Hair, a Tour alum.

In 2004, he recorded nine top 10s, earned more than $50,000 and finished second on the money list. During PGA Tour Qualifying School, he birdied his final three holes in the second stage and advanced to finals without a shot to spare.

We all know what he has done since, but one par on any of those final three holes and he would have been on the NEPGT this year, instead of playing his way into a Ridiculously Insane Tax Bracket on the PGA Tour.

That‘s the difference between Here and There.