May 16 (Bloomberg) -- For Nationwide Tour golf pro David Hearn, the chance to win $121,500 and a BMW X5 this week in South Carolina is secondary to the opportunity to catch up with an old neighbor: Wayne Gretzky.

With celebrities like Gretzky and actors Joe Pesci and Luke Wilson competing alongside second-tier pros in the BMW Charity Pro-Am, the Nationwide Tour stop has become one of golf's most popular events. In contrast, the AT&T Classic, which also started yesterday, has become little more than a blip for the top-flight U.S. PGA Tour and will need a new sponsor next year.

Hearn was raised five blocks away from the boyhood home of hockey's all-time leading scorer in Brantford, Ontario, and Gretzky's number, 99, is incorporated in the 28-year-old golfer's e-mail address.

``I grew up watching him win Stanley Cups,'' Hearn said. ``So it's exciting for a guy like myself to be out on the course and see him around.''

While Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Ernie Els sidestep the AT&T Classic outside Atlanta, players from the Nationwide Tour quickly circle the BMW dates as a must-do.

``When you get to rub elbows with celebrities while playing golf, it's something new for us,'' said Brandt Snedeker, the 2007 PGA Tour rookie of the year, who played in the BMW event in 2005 and 2006. ``Everybody wants to play in it.''

Snedeker is among those skipping the Atlanta tournament.

Woods-Free Field

Woods hasn't attended the AT&T Classic in 10 years, while this year not a single player in the world's top 10 has entered. Stewart Cink is the highest-ranked competitor at No. 15. It's not too much of an effort for Cink to make the tournament -- he lives at the host course, the TPC at Sugarloaf.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem last week referred to AT&T as one of the tour's ``big problems.''

Tournament Director Dave Kaplan said he's entertaining potential sponsors this week and hopes to reach an agreement soon. He declined to name the companies interested. AT&T's sponsorship is due to expire.

``We've been proud of our association with the tournament,'' AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said.

The BMW Charity Pro-Am draws a similar mix of actors, celebrities and PGA Tour stars as the annual AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. That makes the tournament, played over three courses in North and South Carolina, attractive to the invited amateurs, up-and-coming pros and spectators, players said.

BMW Sponsorship

Munich-based Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, with its U.S. plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, has sponsored the event for seven years. Its contract runs through 2009, and tournament director Darin MacDonald said he's optimistic the company will extend it. The championship is the only one on the Nationwide Tour to award the winner a car.

Things are quieter 2 1/2 hours away in Georgia, where the field includes players such as Ryuji Imada, who won the BMW event in 2004 before advancing to the PGA Tour. Imada lost last year's Atlanta-area PGA Tour event on the fourth playoff hole to Zach Johnson.

The AT&T is a victim of the schedule, players say, because it falls in the middle of a seven-week run of high-profile events that include the Wachovia Championship, Players Championship, Memorial Tournament and U.S. Open.

``If you're a top 10 player and your goal is to prepare to win a major, no, you're not going to play Atlanta,'' said Ben Crane, the 2005 AT&T winner.

Prize Money

The event offers prize money of $5.5 million, compared with the $9.5 million purse of last week's Players Championship. In addition, many top European players, such as British Open champion Padraig Harrington, are competing in the European PGA Tour's Irish Open this week.

``It's like following a major,'' Kaplan said. ``There are a lot of things that are not in our favor. It's just timing.''

Sponsorship sales are down 10 to 15 percent this year, Kaplan said, without providing a specific dollar figure. Attendance probably will decline from the 2007 total of about 100,000, although pleasant weather might increase the turnout over the weekend, Kaplan said.

In contrast, the Wachovia drew 245,000.

Organizers managed to convince 53-year-old Greg Norman, who designed the Sugarloaf course, to enter this week. It'll be only his third PGA Tour event this year.

At the Nationwide event there's no such shortage.

NFL Players

With the host Thornblade Club course near Greenville, South Carolina, ex-National Football League players such as Sterling Sharpe are able to walk around the town without being harassed by autograph seekers.

Mostly, the celebrities say they just enjoy teeing it up with golf's next generation. Of the 240 active members of the PGA Tour, about 160 have been members of the Nationwide circuit.

``It's a great town, but I come here to be able to play with a guy who does this for a living,'' Sharpe said.

In Atlanta, for players such as Imada, who gets local support as a University of Georgia graduate, the scene is very different.

``It's unfortunate that none of the top players are playing,'' he said. ``The sponsors obviously don't like to see that.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Spartanburg, South Carolina at mbuteau@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 16, 2008 00:03 EDT