Storylines: Players face hard course; new Tour sponsors

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NATIONWIDE TOUR RETURNS TO PANAMA FOR SEVENTH STRAIGHT YEAR -- After a two-week break following season-opening visits to New Zealand and Australia, the Nationwide Tour will be in Central America at the Panama Golf Club this week for the seventh year in a row. This is the first time Panama will not be the Tour's opening stop. CLARO Panama is the tournament's new title sponsor. CLARO Panama operates under America Movil, the largest mobile telephone company in Latin America and fourth largest in the world in terms of subscribers.

PANAMA GOLF CLUB / TOUGHEST TEST -- The par-70, 7,123-yard Panama Golf Club played to a scoring average of 71.683 last year, giving it the distinction of being the toughest course on the Nationwide Tour in 2009. This was the third time in six years (2004, 2008-09) the club was the most difficult test on Tour. The field of 138 includes 14 leading players from the final 2009 Tour de las Americas money list.

TWO CHIQUITA BRANDS ALIGN WITH HALL OF FAME HOSTS RICE AND MUNOZ -- Last week was a big week on the title sponsor front for the Nationwide Tour with Chiquita Brands International. The Cincinnati-based company signed on to become the title sponsor of the Tour's San Francisco Bay-area event (Fresh Market Classic at TPC Stonebrae) and a new tournament to be played at TPC River's Bend, just north of Cincinnati (Chiquita Classic). Elevating the stature of both events will be a pair of Pro Football Hall of Fame members, Jerry Rice and Anthony Munoz, who will serve as honorary chairmen in San Francisco and Cincinnati, respectively. Another Hall of Famer, hockey's Wayne Gretzky, serves as host of the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic in Canada.

CAMERON BECKMAN UPS ALUMNI WIN TOTAL TO 265 -- Cameron Beckman's victory on Sunday in the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun was the fifth Nationwide Tour alumni win on the PGA TOUR this year and 265th overall. Only one player among the top-19 finishers in Mexico has not been a Nationwide Tour member at some point in his career.

NEXT WEEK A BUSY ONE FOR CAMILO -- Coming off Sunday's third-place finish in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, 2005 Nationwide Tour graduate Camilo Villegas has a full agenda ahead of him next week. The Colombia native was pivotal in bringing the Nationwide Tour to his homeland and will play an active role in the inaugural Pacific Rubiales Bogota Open presented by Samsung (March 4-7) at the Country Club of Bogota. Villegas will play in the Tuesday pro-am, conduct a youth event and officially welcome the Nationwide Tour to Colombia at that evening's social function, along with other Colombian dignitaries. On Wednesday, he will board a plane for South Florida and on Thursday, tee it up in the PGA TOUR's Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens near his Jupiter home. Villegas friend, NASCAR star Juan Pablo Montoya will also be on hand Tuesday as host of the Juan Pablo Montoya Celebrity Pro-Am. Montoya is a native of Bogota. Camilo's younger brother and fellow University of Florida graduate, Manuel Villegas, will play in the tournament. Manuel enjoyed his best finish, a 6th, three weeks ago in Australia at the Moonah Classic. It was only his fourth Nationwide Tour start.

BOBBY GATES ATOP MONEY LIST IN AUSTRALIA, TOO -- Michael Hill New Zealand Open winner Bobby Gates of The Woodlands, Texas, not only owns the top spot on the Nationwide Tour money list, he sits comfortably atop the PGA Tour of Australasia's Order of Merit through the completion of that tour's 2010 summer season. Gates has accepted membership on the Australasian Tour that came with his New Zealand win. He has indicated he will compete in select PGA Tour of Australasia events at the conclusion of the Nationwide Tour season in October with an eye on capturing the Order of Merit. Should he be successful, the 24-year-old Texas A&M graduate would become eligible to compete in select World Golf Championships events, the British Open, and possibly the U.S. Open in 2011. Moonah Classic (Australia) champion Jim Herman is No. 2 on the Australasian Order of Merit.

CATCHING UP ON A FEW ITEMS -- "Storylines" has been dark for two weeks and would like to make sure its readers are aware of a few recent Tour-related items:

• When 2009 Nationwide Tour Player of the Year Michael Sim finished runner-up in the PGA TOUR's Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines on Jan. 31st, he jumped 15 spots to his highest ranking ever in the Official World Golf Ranking, 35th. He is currently 39th.

• Alex Prugh is off to the best start of all 25 Nationwide Tour graduates of last fall on the PGA TOUR. The two-time University of Washington All-American has made the cut in all five of his starts, which includes a 5th, a T5 and a T10. He is currently 17th in FedExCup points.

• Four Nationwide Tour players competed in New Zealand and Australia, then immediately returned to America to compete in the following week's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on the PGA TOUR -- Jason Gore, Kevin Chappell, Jamie Lovemark and Kyle Stanley. Gore was the only one who successfully combated the jet lag that accompanies the 19-hour time change from the last stop, Australia, by making the cut.

NEXT WEEK -- The Nationwide Tour makes its first trip to South America for the Pacific Rubiales Bogota Open presented by Samsung (March 4-7) in Colombia. Camilo Villegas will serve as host.