What Was the Buy.Com Tour?

"Buy.com Tour" was the name of the PGA Tour's developmental tour for several years in the early 2000s. The tour still exists today (it's the Korn Ferry Tour as of this writing), but it had a couple different names before it was the Buy.com Tour, and several since. It was called the Ben Hogan Tour when the PGA Tour first created it. This tour's name changes each time a new title sponsor comes on board and pays the PGA Tour for the naming rights.

Golfers who play the PGA Tour's developmental circuit, such as those on the Buy.com Tour from 2000-2002, use the tour as a steppingstone to the bigger stage. The Buy.com Tour was like the Triple-A level in baseball: the final step before advancing to the majors (for those good enough to make that leap).

The tour used the name "Buy.com Tour" in the 2000, 2001 and 2002 seasons. Following the 2002 season, Buy.com departed as title sponsor and we replaced by Nationwide Insurance, at which time it became the Nationwide Tour.

The Buy.com company no longer exists, and the Buy.com brand and URL were later purchased by another company; the URL now redirects to that company. Buy.com was an Internet discount retailer, originally of computers and electronics but later of a wide array of merchandise — an early competitor to (and driven out of business by) Amazon.com.

Top Golfers on the Buy.com Tour

These were the top players on the Buy.com Tour during the three full seasons played under that name:

• 2000: Spike McRoy won the Player of the Year Award and topped the money list with $300,638. The Top 15 players on the year-end money list graduated to the PGA Tour. Those players were McRoy, Mark Hensby, Tim Clark, Briny Baird, Ian Leggatt, Chris Smith, Kent Jones, Tripp Isenhour, Paul Gow, John Riegger, David Berganio Jr., Jeff Gallagher, J.J. Henry, Kelly Grunewald and Jeff Hart.

• 2001: Chad Campbell was the Player of the Year and money-list leader with $394,552. Three golfers earned automatic promotions to the PGA Tour for winning three tournaments: Campbell, Heath Slocum and Pat Bates. The Top 15 golfers on the year-end money list graduated to the PGA Tour. In addition to Campbell, Slocum and Bates, those golfers were Rod Pampling, Deane Pappas, John Rollins, Tim Pretrovic, Jonathan Byrd, Jeff Gove, Brenden Pappas, Bo Van Pelt, Matt Peterson, Richard Zokol, Jason Hill and Michael Long.

• 2002: Patrick Moore was the Player of the Year and money-list leader with $381,965. He also earned the three-win promotion to the PGA Tour. The Top 15 players on the year-end money list graduated to the PGA Tour. In addition to Moore, those players were Arron Oberholser, Doug Barron, Steven Alker, Cliff Kresge, Jason Gore, Todd Fischer, Marco Dawson, Darron Stiles, Aaron Baddeley, Jason Buha, Patrick Sheehan, Gavin Coles and Tag Ridings.