The Nationwide Tour is no longer...wait, what?

Had a nice surprise when I checked out PGATour.com today. After almost ten years of checking the Tour website and clicking on "Nationwide Tour" when I wanted to see what was happening on the Triple-A circuit, the word "Nationwide" was nowhere to be found.

That's because the PGA Tour today announced a change in its Triple-A title sponsorship. After ten years as title sponsor of the minor league circuit, Nationwide Insurance is giving way to Web.com.

The change is effective immediately, so the Nationwide Tour is now called the Web.com Tour. Everything has already changed on the PGA Tour website, where I already saw an article in which PGA Tour player Jeff Overton refers to the Tour as the "Web.com Tour."

So what changes for me in my coverage? Nothing much. All I have to do is figure out how to change my blog title. "Life on the Nationwide Tour" will have to change to "Life on the Web.com Tour."

I'm already being tempted to type "Buy.com Tour," in reference to a former name of the Tour, before Nationwide took the reins almost ten years ago. I wonder if others will have the same problem.

I also wonder if the Tour has been planning this for a while, and if signs that would normally say "Nationwide Tour" will instead say "Web.com Tour" this week in Evansville. I'm trying to think of other things that need to be changed, and I'm sure there are plenty. I guess I'll see soon enough.

Either way, now I guess I can say I covered the final "Nationwide Tour" event in Wichita. And I'll be covering the first "Web.com Tour event" here in Evansville. That works too.

I still feel like I'm going to keep referring to the Tour as the Nationwide Tour. That was its name ever since I started following golf, and I have talked about the 'Nationwide Tour' countless times in conversation. It's going to be weird to adjust.

It took me ten years to explain to friends what the Nationwide Tour was. Hopefully it doesn't take another ten to explain the transition. And especially since "Nationwide" didn't necessarily imply a title sponsor, it might be tricky to explain that the Web.com Tour is indeed the same tour.

But Web.com? Welcome to the world of golf. I know the Tour wanted a new title sponsor badly, and I'm really happy it got one. Most importantly, the ten-year sponsorship should help the Tour's financial position for a while.

Now the name "Nationwide" gets lumped with the names Nike, Hogan, and Buy.com, as past sponsors of the Triple-A circuit. Very weird.

The times, they are a-changin'.