Huntersville, N.C. – After opening the 2015 east coast season with events in Hilton Head Island, S.C. and Southern Pines, N.C., the eGolf Gateway Tour returns to home base this week for the ninth annual Nova Tax Group Open, to be contested at the P.B. Dye-designed NorthStone Country Club in Huntersville, N.C. on March 17-20, 2015.

The setting for the $100,000 Nova Tax Group Open is one of the tour’s best in NorthStone Country Club. Since the club’s inception in 1997, NorthStone has stood tall as one of the most enjoyable layouts in the Charlotte region, as Dye’s knack for creating a veritable plethora of challenging holes gave way to a tremendous design with a number of risk/reward shots.

Dotted with perfect Zoysia grass fairways and new Mini-Verde greens, NorthStone lulls the vast majority of players into sleep with three benign opening holes before diving into the teeth of the layout – specifically the lengthy, uphill par-4 fifth and the daunting, downhill par-3 seventh, which plays to a green surrounded by rocks and water.

On the closing nine, Dye again put forth a number of daring shots, with the demanding approach to the par-4 12th wreaking havoc on a number of rounds, and the greens at the par-3 13th and par-3 17th sitting on the edge of a lake, and at an angle – a la Nos. 15 and 17 in the infamous “Bear Trap” at PGA National Resort.

“The beauty of NorthStone is that no lead is safe. Like his father Pete, P.B. tests every ounce of nerve and bravado our players have coming down the stretch,” said eGolf Gateway Tour president David Siegel. “The finishing holes provide an array of red numbers, as well as potential disaster, which sets up for a great event each year.”

Past champions of the NorthStone Open include Adam Webb of Ridgeway, Va., 2013 eGolf Tour leading money winner Frank Adams III of Laurinburg, N.C., Tim Madigan of Rio Rancho, N.M., 2008 leading money winner David Robinson of Sandersville, Ga., and Matt Cannon of Huntersville, N.C. – who has the most wins of any player in eGolf Tour history (16).

Featured players in this week’s Nova Tax Group Open field include:

Frank Adams III

Frank Adams III (Laurinburg, N.C.) – Perhaps no player is as comfortable at NorthStone as Adams, who earned wins at the north Charlotte venue in 2005 and 2013 – the later coming as part of a resurgent campaign which saw him collect his seventh career win and the tour’s money title for the first time in a lengthy career. The 35-year-old, who is a conditional member of the Web.com Tour this year, has a pair of top-25s under his belt in 2015, including a season-best T19 at the Mid Pines Classic.

Drew Weaver (High Point, N.C.) – The tour’s 2012 leading money winner is off to a hot start in 2015, posting a T3 at the season-opening Palmetto Hall Championship and a T2 at the Mid Pines Classic – the latter coming courtesy of a playoff loss to winner Scott Harrington. Weaver, the 2007 British Amateur champion and a member of the 2009 U.S. Walker Cup team, won twice during a dominant campaign in 2012 before adding a fourth career win at last year’s Spring Creek Classic in Virginia. In three career starts at NorthStone, the 27-year-old has just one made cut – a T12 at the event’s 2013 edition.

T.J. Howe (Osceola, Pa.) – A former Penn State star, Howe has played well in the early half of 2015, picking up a pair of top-10s in the tour’s west coast series in January before notching T8 and T16 finishes at Palmetto Hall and Mid Pines, respectively. The Charlotte, N.C. resident has four career wins on tour over the past two years, including three during a “Hello World” 2013 season which put him on the proverbial mini-tour map. With 12 top-25s in 18 starts last year, Howe may have asserted himself the most during the summer months, where he carded a pair of 61s at the Mimosa Hills Open and the Sapona Ridge Classic, resulting in career win No. 4 at the former and a T3 at the latter.

David Mathis

David Mathis (Wake Forest, N.C.) – A longtime veteran of the tour’s “Tarheel Tour” days, Mathis is making his first start since 2007, when he claimed the River Run Classic title just five minutes down the road from NorthStone at Web.com Tour host River Run Country Club. The 41-year-old notched wins on the Web.com Tour in 2008 and 2010 to earn his PGA TOUR card in 2009 and 2011, respectively. All told, the former Campbell University star spent four years on golf’s biggest stage, nabbing a career-best T5 at the Reno-Tahoe Open in 2013.

Other players of note in the field at NorthStone include 2014 leading money winner Ryan Nelson (Charleston, S.C.), Palmetto Hall Championship winner Chris Epperson (Hilton Head Island, S.C.) and three-time tour winner Matt Ryan (Santa Clarita, Calif.).

The first round of the 2015 Nova Tax Group Open will begin at 8:20 AM on Tuesday (3/17) morning. Following the completion of 36 holes, the field will be cut to the low 35 percent and ties for the final two rounds of play. As always, the tournament is open to the public and free of charge.