The 25 Nationwide Tour 'Graduates'

The Nationwide Tour has proved to be an excellent spawning ground for the PGA Tour. Among the players who've "graduated" from the developmental tour and made it to the big time are 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson, 2009 British Open winner Stewart Cink, and 1996 Claret Jug winner, Tom Lehman.

When it was originally named the Ben Hogan Tour in its first season in 1990, the typical event purse was $100,000. After three seasons Nike acquired the title sponsorship and held it for seven seasons (1993-99). The tour name was changed again to the Buy.com Tour, which lasted for three seasons (2000-02) before the naming rights were purchased by Nationwide Insurance in 2003.

The 2010 class has, as usual, several fine prospects, including top money-earner Michael Sim, the 24-year-old Scot who, after venturing up the leaderboard in the 2009 U.S. Open, ended up in a tie for 18th. With three wins this year, Sim earned $644,142 to handily take the top spot in the Nationwide earnings.

Here's a complete list of the players who will be on the "big boys'" tour in 2010. Of course, it'll be up to them to keep their PGA Tour cards by finishing in the top 125 next year.

1. Michael Sim - $644,142
2. Chad Collins - $415,114
3. Blake Adams - $399,749
4. Derek Lamely - $374,998
5. Tom Gillis - $364,529
6. Chris Tidland - $354,510
7. Josh Teater - $326,438
8. Cameron Percy - $320,715
9. Roger Tambellini - $307,482
10. Matt Every - $300,936
11. Justin Bolli - $284,537
12. Garrett Willis - $269,856
13. Kevin Johnson - $266,915
14. Garth Mulroy - $263,126
15. Jerod Turner - $237,993
16. Alex Prugh - $233,325
17. Jeff Gove - $221,231
18. Henrik Bjornstad - $218,652
19. Chris Baryla - $217,680
20. Steve Wheatcroft - $213,165
21. Rich Barcelo - $199,975
22. Craig Bowden - $198,208
23. Vance Veazey - $193,243
24. Mathias Gronberg - $191,743
25. Fran Quinn - $191,467