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Golf Channel Am Tour

Golf Addict said:
Dear Competitive Golfer,

Interesting comments on Golf Channel AM Tour. I have been a member for four years. Yes it does cost more, but if you want a long-term competitive golf environment then you can't beat this tour for the amateur.

I play a ton of Regional Pro-Am and Amateur events in The Northwest and California. They are great one- time events. The GCAM Tour has well organized tours in 60 cities with over 9,000 players. Some of the newer ones have some growing pains. When we started in Seattle many years ago, we had some growing pains. The Golf Channel (The Company) has some professional folks who know how to run tournaments, particularly the regional 2 day events. I have played the Nationals the last three years in it has been a blast even though I have gotten my brains beaten to oblivion. I took a 9 on the 17th at Sawgrass last year (average senior did it in 12 strokes).

I have also won eight times. The money is in the optional skin games. After you play a couple events your GC scores is your handicap. This pretty much eliminates sandbagging. In four year years, I have only rarely seen a "newbie" win by blowout. The point is you play for the entire season not just a single event. Everyone's goal is to get to the nationals and win.

Bottom line. There is golf and there is competitive golf. If you want to get better play competitive golf. In the 40+ tournaments, I have always enjoyed the competition and the company.

If you want to sandbag or do not want to learn the rules this tour is not for you. Otherwise take a second look.

For those who want to play Golf week Tour all the power to you. I read there rules and apparently once you get to a triple bogey you pick up for that hole. Great for slow play but I have never played a USGA event where you can pick up.

Hit em straight.
Golf Addict
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thanks nice to hear..
 
Play with a couple guys that participated in the AM tour last year. They said it was OK but ended up paying double what they would have idf they just played a normal round. And the "Major" was worse. There needs to be some measure of reward if your playing well. but they were just paying more to play golf.
 
Golf Addict said:
Dear Competitive Golfer,

Interesting comments on Golf Channel AM Tour. I have been a member for four years. Yes it does cost more, but if you want a long-term competitive golf environment then you can't beat this tour for the amateur.

I play a ton of Regional Pro-Am and Amateur events in The Northwest and California. They are great one- time events. The GCAM Tour has well organized tours in 60 cities with over 9,000 players. Some of the newer ones have some growing pains. When we started in Seattle many years ago, we had some growing pains. The Golf Channel (The Company) has some professional folks who know how to run tournaments, particularly the regional 2 day events. I have played the Nationals the last three years in it has been a blast even though I have gotten my brains beaten to oblivion. I took a 9 on the 17th at Sawgrass last year (average senior did it in 12 strokes).

I have also won eight times. The money is in the optional skin games. After you play a couple events your GC scores is your handicap. This pretty much eliminates sandbagging. In four year years, I have only rarely seen a "newbie" win by blowout. The point is you play for the entire season not just a single event. Everyone's goal is to get to the nationals and win.

Bottom line. There is golf and there is competitive golf. If you want to get better play competitive golf. In the 40+ tournaments, I have always enjoyed the competition and the company.

If you want to sandbag or do not want to learn the rules this tour is not for you. Otherwise take a second look.

For those who want to play Golf week Tour all the power to you. I read there rules and apparently once you get to a triple bogey you pick up for that hole. Great for slow play but I have never played a USGA event where you can pick up.

Hit em straight.
Golf Addict
Click to expand...

Yep, Golfweek does have a rule that you pick up after triple bogey. For the D flight. Different strokes for different folks. The Golf Channel has a rule that you don't even the hazard areas on one course. You play one club length from where the ball went in with a one stroke penalty to keep the pace of play moving.

I'm sure there are just as many happy golfers swinging away on the Golf Channel Tour, or whatever they may play as there are on the Golfwek tour. There are some things I wish Golfweek would adopt from the Golf Channel Tour and some things that Golfweek does would probably go over well with the Golf Channel crowd.
 
...hate to revive an old thread but, is anyone else on THP playing in the AM Tour this year? i joined the NJ Local about a month ago, first tourney coming up in March. I signed up for the Bensalem Open (Philadelphia Local Tour) and was wondering if any other locals would/may be there or in any tourneys?
 
When I played Golfweek and eGolf before that sponsorship changed we always played with a 3 over rule for all flights period. Some events are played in early spring and it can be 35 degrees and raining and the wind blowing 20 MPH or more here from time to time so it is easy for even a good player to blow up a score.
I will probably play some Golfweek this year, the GC Am Tour and the I-tour are both too pricey for me. I can play a full season of events on the Golfweek tour for what a handful of events cost on the others.
 
Seriously considering joining the Golfweek tour in DC. Looking at the "C" flight which I would be in, appears they had 19 people last year in that flight for the DC tour. Rates are much better than the GC am tour.
 
Charles D said:
Seriously considering joining the Golfweek tour in DC. Looking at the "C" flight which I would be in, appears they had 19 people last year in that flight for the DC tour. Rates are much better than the GC am tour.
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If they run things the way they do here which is likely you will need a handicap to enter the first event but then they will develop your Golfweek handicap based on your actual play over the course of the season, this could move you up or down, usually just up though unless you have an injury or whatever along the way. Doing that eliminates sandbagging and puts people in the flight they belong in.
 
Always wanted to join but never thought that it was all that affordable. I think I'll start putting some coin away for next year. Can't swing it this year.
 
TMSHACKS said:
Hello,

I know a few people on here have participated in Am Tour and wanted to know about it.

I am registered for this season and cant wait to get started.

What Should I Expect?

How Many Tourneys did you participate in last year? ; Any Majors?

* Also I think it would be cool to keep this thread updated throughout the season and have people update results and news/cool bits of info from your matches/tourneys. I will ? .

Cheers..
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I play on it. It's lots of fun. Green fees are a bit stiff, but I can afford it and think it's worth it. Depending on what Flight you are will depend on what types you play with. I'm in the Jones Flight, so it's a healthy mix of fun and competition and lots of joking during there tournament but everyone also being respectful and attempting to use good etiquette. The lower handicap flights are probably a bit more serious, but I'm not sure. That's the rumor I hear. There's always that one jerk that takes it WAY to serious and looks for you to make mistakes so they can call penalties on you. They usually get blackballed and don't makes many friends. There's sort of an unspoken rule "It's about having fun". If you see someone forget to move their ball marker back, just tell them so nobody has to call a penalty on them and everyone gets along and has fun. We are not on the PGA Tour and not playing for money. It's about healthy competition and having fun.


Lots of people are playing to get points to qualify for Nationals at the end of the season. If you want points 1) play better 2)play more tournaments. DON'T try to get points by placing lower in tournaments by calling a bunch of BS penalties on your competition. That's a quick way to find nobody wanting to be paired with you and when they do, it's not going to be a pleasant round.


On my tour there's always two side games. A skins game and a closest to the pin on par 3s. It's a way to challenge you and make a couple bucks while playing.

If anyone has any Q, just drop me a line.
 
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Canuck227 said:
Play with a couple guys that participated in the AM tour last year. They said it was OK but ended up paying double what they would have idf they just played a normal round. And the "Major" was worse. There needs to be some measure of reward if your playing well. but they were just paying more to play golf.
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There is a measure of reward. Your goal is to gain points to qualify for Nationals and see how you do against people of your skill level from across the US. It's all about improving your game and seeing how good you can get and how far your can take it. I often get asked "How much money can you make?" The GCAT is not about the money or prizes. Anyone who's only interested in trying to make money, then it's not for you.
 
Charles D said:
Seriously considering joining the Golfweek tour in DC. Looking at the "C" flight which I would be in, appears they had 19 people last year in that flight for the DC tour. Rates are much better than the GC am tour.
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In my city, Golfweek is only $20 cheaper that Golf Channel, they only have half the number of tournaments, and the courses are "average" quality. My Golf Channel Tour plays on a few of the courses that the PGA Tour plays on.

Also as noted, if you get to triple bogey, you have to pick up on the GW Tour. That sucks. Great for pace of play, but does nothing to help your true handicap index. On Golf Channel, if you get a 15 on a par 3, that's what you write down. It's is what it is. Just like on PGA Tour.
 
I looked into this last year. I dont think I saw a single event in my area that had more than 5 or 6 people in it.
 
Same for me. Comes down to courses and TGC Am Tour is spread out all over a few states. The GolfWeek Tour has nearly all events within 1.5 hours or less.
 
Rockinar said:
In my city, Golfweek is only $20 cheaper that Golf Channel, they only have half the number of tournaments, and the courses are "average" quality. My Golf Channel Tour plays on a few of the courses that the PGA Tour plays on.

Also as noted, if you get to triple bogey, you have to pick up on the GW Tour. That sucks. Great for pace of play, but does nothing to help your true handicap index. On Golf Channel, if you get a 15 on a par 3, that's what you write down. It's is what it is. Just like on PGA Tour.
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Yes the Triple bogey max is for pace of play. Champ flight in our City you have to play out. As far as handicap, you must use ESC and wouldn't card a 15 or as you mentioned
 
this is something i am interested in but i think i want to concentrate on getting better this year and maybe getting back into the competition side of things next year sometime. Be interested to hear how other people liked this or didn't like it. there are a few events and decent courses close to me and that im familiar with.
 
Ive been giving the Golfweek tour a serious ponder. They play some seriously nice courses in my area

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CL how much does the golfweek one cost for the raleigh area. I'm always looking for tournaments and competition.

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$93 just to register and then around $75 per round. Absolute steal of a deal when they play Dormie

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I looked into the Am Tour but the travel was just too much for me right now. I dont see how a person could participate in the Am Tour and still hold down a fulltime job.
 
smgoldstein said:
I prefer local and state run tournaments and USGA qualifiers.
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Thats my plan too. Im going to stick to local tourneys. Im looking forward to playing some of the Columbus District tourneys and Ohio state tourneys. If I do well in those I may have to consider playing in some USGA qualifiers.
As much as Id love to quit my job and play golf as a career, my skills arent there quite yet and at least for now, golf is just a hobby for me.
 
Gaijin_Golfer said:
I looked into the Am Tour but the travel was just too much for me right now. I dont see how a person could participate in the Am Tour and still hold down a fulltime job.
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Gaijin...most of the tourneys are on weekends...in fact, all but 3 for me in the NJ local tour (they're on mondays). i work full time for the government.
 
I'm joining the GolfWeek tour here in Columbus. I got in on a $70 sign up fee, and they play some nice courses and private clubs. Will probably play 7-10 events this year.
 
MarcW said:
I'm joining the GolfWeek tour here in Columbus. I got in on a $70 sign up fee, and they play some nice courses and private clubs. Will probably play 7-10 events this year.
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I did the same for the DC region. Our first event is Mar 17. This will be my first time playing in a competitive format other than some 4 man scrambles I've played in. Looking forward to it.
 
Charles D said:
I did the same for the DC region. Our first event is Mar 17. This will be my first time playing in a competitive format other than some 4 man scrambles I've played in. Looking forward to it.
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I'm probably going to do this as well. Hollow Creek is a great course, and pretty damn tough! What part of Md are you from Charles? Thing that worries me the most is knowing all the rules. The guys I play with all play by the rules as we interpret them, but I know some rules we probably have wrong.. I mean, gee, there is only 6 million of them!
 
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