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Where: Champions Run, southwest of 132nd Street and West Maple Road
Purse: $725,000, winner's share $130,500
Television: Golf Channel daily (Cox Channel 63)
Defending champion: Ryan Hietala
Tickets: Grounds-only tickets, $10 daily or $40 for eight tickets; clubhouse-access tickets, $20 daily. Sold in advance at all Sam & Louie's New York Pizzerias in the Omaha area.
Sponsor exemptions
Brady Schnell: The Millard West graduate finished 10th, winning more than $45,000, on the Gateway Tour that ended its season last month.
Tadd Fujikawa: The 18-year-old Hawaiian has made the cut in three of the first four PGA Tour events he's played in 2009.
As much as he might regard Omaha, no Cox Classic champion wants to be back the next year at Champions Run.
But given how the past 12 months have gone for last year's winner, Ryan Hietala can't wait for his return in three weeks.
“This is going to be my favorite tournament,'' he said Monday at the Cox Classic press conference, “until I win the next one.''
Hietala believed last year's playoff win over David Branshaw, which ended a three-year span without a top-10 finish on the Nationwide Tour, would propel him to this year's PGA Tour.
A month after Omaha, he tied for second at the Utah Championship. But he fell outside the top 25 at season's end. And when Hietala finished in a tie for 40th at the PGA Tour's qualifying tournament, another year on the Nationwide Tour was his fate.
This season started with a tie for fourth at the New Zealand PGA Championship in March, only to miss the 36-hole cut at the next seven tournaments. Sometimes, he said, it was by only a stroke.
He made the cut two of the past three weeks, but Sunday at the Nationwide Tour Players Cup in West Virginia he shot 81 to finish last.
“I thought this year I would have more success, but I am starting to play better,'' Hietala said. “I just hit a wall last week. I've been on the road for so long. I haven't seen my wife for six weeks and I'm going home tomorrow.''
The recent struggles do bring questions for the 6-foot-5, 235-pounder from the Pacific Northwest who's now No. 88 on the money list at $29,177.
“It's tough when you talk to people and they ask, ‘Are you OK?' I'm fine. I know. I'm the only person who knows I'm OK,” Hietala said. “I tell my wife that, but she doesn't see the money coming in. But I know where I'm headed.''
The first half of the Nationwide Tour season has been dominated by Michael Sim and Kevin Johnson, each with two wins. Three wins in a season result in an immediate call-up to the PGA Tour. They are 1-2 on the money list, with the top 25 going onto next year's PGA Tour.
“It's not the 25 any more. It's the 23. Those two guys pretty well have their cards locked up,'' Hietala said.
Last week was emotional on tour following the death of Beth Smith, the wife of 1997 Cox Classic champion Chris Smith. In her memory, players and caddies wore black ribbons, “Chris Smith” was on most caddie bibs and stickers with the golfer's favorite number, 15, were worn.
Hietala said he normally plays Tuesday practice rounds with Smith, Bob Burns and Chris Anderson and often dinner afterward.
“I consider him a good friend and we, all of us on tour, can't imagine what he's going through,'' Hietala said. “All he has to know is everyone last week was behind him.''
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