Schooling the tour.

• Author: Dell, John
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION

Think of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and you'll likely think of basketball greats such as Michael Jordan, David Thompson, Christian Laettner and Tim Duncan. But the conference also has produced some top golfers. The PGA Tour is laced with players who honed their skills in it. Last season, 37 players with ties to the 12 ACC schools played in tour events.

When Webb Simpson of Wake Forest tied for seventh last fall in the PGA Tour Qualifying School tournament on two courses in La Quinta, Calif., the 23-year-old earned full-time status for 2009, becoming the newest tour member from an ACC school. While he played in a handful of tournaments last summer after graduating in May, he is considered a rookie this year.

Simpson credits competition he faced at Wake Forest with helping him make the tour so quickly. "There's no question it helped me develop," the Raleigh native says. He also praises coach Jerry Haas, himself a former PGA Tour player. "Coach taught us that you always have to try and improve, no matter what." Last year, Simpson won the conference individual championship at the Old North State Club in New London--a well-regarded course that finished second on this year's list of North Carolina's top 100 golf courses. The Tom Fazio design along Badin Lake has hosted the conference tournament 12 of the last 14 years. When all 12 teams meet for the tournament, it gives golf fans in the state a chance to see the next wave of rising PGA Tour stars.

Chip Conner, vice president of East West Partners, the developer of the course, keeps an unofficial tab of how former ACC players have fared on the PGA and Nationwide tours through the last several years. He is amazed at how many of them wind up playing on TV. "The thing that strikes me about all of those guys is how they conducted themselves while they were here. We are a little spoiled because we see these guys in college and how good they are then is amazing. They just get better and better once they get to the pros."

Old North State, which opened in the early 1990s, and its members have embraced the ACC Championship. Many volunteer during tournament week and follow the players around. The crowds are usually thin, so walking next to a Matt Kuchar, Bill Haas, David Duval, Carl Pettersson, Joe Ogilvie, Stewart Cink, Lucas Glover or D.J. Trahan was easy to do when they were playing in college. "For some reason, the ACC Tournament flies under the radar, but it's really a good chance to come see the...