HOOTERS TOUR VISITS BOOTHEEL GOLF CLUB

Southeast Missouri golf fans can get their first closeup look at a professional golf tour event when the Sikeston BootHeel Golf Club host the NGA/Hooters Professional Golf Tour Thursday through Sunday.

The Hooters Tour, the No. 3 men's professional golf tour in the country behind the PGA and Nike tours, will be making its first ever visit to the area with the $100,000 KFVS-12 Golf Classic. The Sikeston stop marks the midway point of the 22-event Hooters Tour.

Admission is free but you must have a ticket to enter the course. Tickets are available at several area merchants in Cape and Sikeston and are also free at the BootHeel Golf Club.

First round action for over 160 golfers begins Thursday at 7:30 a.m. The field will be cut to 60 following the second round Friday. The fourth and final round will be Sunday when the winner earns $15,000 of the $100,000 purse. The runner-up earns $8,500.

This tour, which started in 1989 under a different title, has been sponsored by Hooters since 1994. The tour is considered a springboard for golf's young talent to compete for significant money while perfecting their skills.

"It's very comparable to the Nike Tour as far as the leaders go, but the depth of the field is probably not as strong," said BootHeel golf pro Steve Roberts. "Guys are trying to hone their games enough to either make it to the Nike or PGA tours."

Although not in the same league as the PGA Tour, the Hooters Tour does have a distinguished list of former golfers that have gone onto succeed in the PGA. A few familiar names on the PGA Tour -- Tom Lehman, Lee Janzen, John Daly and Scott McCarron -- all had stints on the Hooters Tour in the early part of their careers.

A few Tour players have even broken into the starting field for this weekend's U.S. Open in Bethesda, Md.

"There are seven current players on this tour who have made it to the U.S. Open this year," said Roberts. "So there's a good caliber of players here."

Roberts will be one of a handful of local players from Southeast Missouri competing this week. Others from the area are Nick Accardo from Jackson, Dexter golf pro John Barge, and Barry Faulkner and Glen Alexander of Sikeston. Missouri pros Kory Bowman (Springfield) and Jason Schultz (Columbia) will also be on hand.

Last year's Hooters Tour Player of the Year and top money winner Trey Coker headlines the event in Sikeston. Other players of note are Steve Ford, Zoran Zorkic and Bobby Cochran. Ford played in the Masters, Zorkic is one of the top five money winners this year and Cochran is the brother of PGA pro Russ Cochran.

Several events, including a youth clinic and pro-am tournament, were held this week with a large turnout for both. The youth clinic was the largest on the tour this year. The pro-am competition concludes today.

"The golfers are very pleased with how they've been treated," said Roberts. "The whole area has accepted them. There's more people out here watching them than they're used to."