Have any of you guys given this amatuer tour a try?

I played in 1 event. It was overpriced for the course and there was no competition in the champ flight. I did here the tour champ next year is at TPC Sawgrass, might be worth playing just to make it there.

I played last year (2008) but decided not to this year (09). I thought it was over-priced, poorly run and way too slow. 6 hour rounds were common...I'm used to playing in just under 4, even in tournament conditions. The courses chosen around here were nice, but never all that amazing. To tell you how over-priced it is, you can play my former home course for ~$150 (public rate) and they wanted almost $200. I realize they gotta make money and there's a trophy in there too, but the former club was so desperate for public play they were cutting anyone with 8+ players huge deals...no way they were paying over $100 per person.

I may play next year, just so I have somewhere to play and something to do...it's over priced, but at least it's something.

-mini

I did it this year, played in about 10 events and just got back from the national championship deal.

I would not disagree with either of the two previous posters but I didn't have a bad experience. I am an 8 handicap and that flight is probably the biggest and most competitive. In LA, we would routinely have 40+ people in that flight for an event.

You pay more than you would to just play a round at the course, and sometimes the courses aren't tournament quality, but for the most part it is OK.

It is what it its. If you want to play weekend rounds with your friends then do that. If you are looking to play with something on the line to push yourself than it does that too. I shoot way better Mon-Fri than I did in 90% of the events, which I guess I should have expected having never played competitive golf ever before. So in that respect I learned alot about myself and my game by playing in the events, and that made it worth it to me in the end.

i know this isnt answering the OPs question, but i think its kind of cool. I saw on the golf channel the other day, that the person winning one of the flights in the championship...is 10 years old. yeah.

Yeah I don't mean to say I had a bad time, just not quite what I was used to nor what I normally experience in a tournament. 6 hour rounds are pretty bad, but you either deal with it or you don't.


If it weren't for the AJGA, we'd probably see a lot more of that.

-mini

I played a nice executive course last year, and got paired with a 12 year old girl and her father. He was coaching her, and she was like #6 in the USKids stuff.. She's played all over the country. I played from the tips and she from the forward tee's and she beat me by 4 strokes... Pretty humbling. Girl had a short game!

Some of those kids are flat out good!

Guys that have played...does your state golf association not run a very solid tournament schedule?

Some discussion of the GCAT in this thread from earlier this year:

http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=201339