Charlotte, N.C. –The first Nationwide Tour exemption of the 2012 season will be awarded at the upcoming Championship at St. James Plantation on April 11-14, 2012. The unrestricted exemption, first announced on December 17th of 2011, will be for the Nationwide Tour’s South Georgia Classic presented by First State Bank and Trust Company, to be contested at Kinderlou Forest Golf Club in Valdosta, GA on April 26-29, 2012.

The South Georgia Classic exemption will be the 12th Nationwide Tour exemption granted to the eGolf Professional Tour since the start of the 2009 season. In addition, the tour has been awarded a total of five exemptions into European Tour events since the fall of 2010.

The winners of the past three South Georgia Classics are former eGolf Professional Tour players, with South African Garth Mulroy claiming the 2009 title, Australian Ewan Porter winning the 2010 title and Ted Potter Jr. grabbing his first Nationwide Tour title this past May. The Potter victory spawned an incredible 2011 for the lefty, as he went on to earn over $400,000 en route to a second-place finish on the Nationwide Tour money list.

With his win at The Championship at St. James Plantation in April of 2011, 2010 eGolf Tour leading money winner Jason Kokrak won the tour’s exemption into the 2011 South Georgia Classic, but failed to make the cut. That event, however, marked the start of a magical year for Kokrak as the four-time eGolf Tour winner claimed two Nationwide Tour titles on his way to earning $338,092 to finish fourth on the season-ending money list.

Both Potter and Kokrak are full members of the PGA TOUR in 2012.

"We are excited about continuing our relationship with the eGolf Professional Tour. Jason Kokrak won the exemption last year and the South Georgia Classic was his first start in a year in which he played his way from the Nationwide Tour onto the PGA Tour," said South Georgia Classic tournament director David Fox. "There are many deserving players on the eGolf Tour and we are looking forward to providing the opportunity for one of them to compete in our Nationwide Tour event."

The exemption will be set up in the form of a tournament-within-a-tournament qualifier at the tour’s Championship at St. James Plantation on April 11-14, 2012. The participating player who finishes the highest in the tournament will be granted the exemption. Proceeds generated from the exemption will go to the tournament’s official charity, the Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County, GA, dba South Georgia Medical Center.

“We are thrilled to again offer this exemption with the South Georgia Classic presented by First State Bank and Trust,” said eGolf Tour president David Siegel. “A multitude of our past and current players have had vast amounts of success in Valdosta, and I’m sure the winner of this exemption will continue that tradition.”

The 2012 Championship at St. James Plantation will be contested at both The Reserve Club and The Founders Club at St. James Plantation in Southport, NC. The 72-hole event is expected to include a field of 216 players from multiple countries and over 30 states, with an estimated purse of $235,000. To sign up for the Championship at St. James Plantation, the South Georgia Classic exemption, or both, please click here.