PGA Tour players squeeze Nationwide Tour players

There is no PGA Tour event this week, nor was there one the previous three weeks for those who failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup, leaving tour players on the outside looking for playing opportunities in order to prepare for the Fall Series on which many will depend to retain playing privileges for 2010.

So where do they turn? This week, many turned to the Nationwide Tour event in Boise, Idaho, the Albertsons Boise Open, which doesn't necessarily sit well with Nationwide Tour players who are forced to the sidelines as a result.

Chris Langrill, in his story on the subject in the Idaho Statesmen, reports that the Boise Open field has 31 players with exempt status on the PGA tour, Bill Lunde among them. Lunde, who qualified for the FedEx Cup playoffs but failed to advance beyond the Barclays, stands 120th on the PGA Tour money list, putting him on the top-125 bubble heading into the Fall Series.

"It's either stay at home for four weeks and get ready for the fall season or come to Boise and stay competitive," he tells Langrill. "With the playoffs, that's why you're seeing so many guys here who are exempt from the PGA Tour." Lunde says he'd heard grumbling about the influx of PGA Tour players.

I endorse the solution offered by Langrill channeling some PGA Tour players: "Tell the Nationwide players to make more birdies and it won't be a problem."

Playing better always solves a host of problems.

-- John Strege