FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS / POLICIES
The GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour listed some of the most frequently asked questions from previous seasons. If your question is not here or if you would like an answer clarified, please feel free to email the Commissioner, Tim Patterson, at tpatterson@theaagt.com.
What is the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour?
What does it cost to join the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour and what do I receive?
What does it cost to play in each Atlanta tournament?
When are the tournaments held?
How many tournaments do I have to play?
Can I play in tournaments on other GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tours?
How do I register for tournaments?
What is the tour policy for registration, payment and withdrawals?
Are guests allowed in tour tournaments?
By playing on the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour of Atlanta, will I lose may amateur status?
Am I required to have a USGA handicap index?
What is the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour's pace of play policy?
Does the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour allow distance measuring devices?
The GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour is the country's largest and BEST amateur golf tour. Our aim is to provide each player with top quality, professionally organized tournaments throughout the year and during the post season. Not only will we build and improve the tour each year, but our goal is to make your tournament experience as close to that of a PGA TOUR event as possible. We expect the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour to be considered the top Amateur circuit in Atlanta. The 2008 season will be the seventh year in operation for the Atlanta tour.
Membership on the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour is open to all amateur golfers with a verifiable, active and official USGA handicap index. We limit our membership to the first 300 APPROVED applicants. Seniority on the tour, previous years' point standings, previous tournament participation and attitude are major factors in determining the approved applicants.
What does it cost to join the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour and what do I receive?
The cost to join the tour is $199. Click here to join.
Memberships are valid for 365 days and are automatically renewable. Your membership in the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour will include a shirt, hat, towel, handicap service, a membership card and other assorted sponsor goodies. The Tour also provides members with timely updated statistical information such as driving accuracy, G.I.R., driving distance, putts per round, scoring average, etc. on the national website. More importantly, your membership entitles you to play in as many of our tournaments as you wish, as well as open tournaments on other GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tours around the country and the Regional Majors and National Tour Championship. This will help those that may be traveling or have to miss a tournament for one reason or another to make up their tournament and not lose points. The only stipulations are that a player cannot earn points in more events than his home tour has on their schedule and a player must play in more tournaments on his home tour than he does on the road. In other words, if your home tour has 22 tournament rounds, you can only earn points in your first 22 tournament rounds and you must have at least one more home tournament round than road tournament round. A player can continue to play in GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour tournaments to keep their game sharp for the post season and they can also win prizes and skins, they just cannot earn any more order of merit points.
What does it cost to play in each Atlanta tournament?
The cost for each 18 hole regular season tournament in Atlanta is $120 to $140 for the public courses on Saturday or Sunday and $160 to $200 for the private course weekday tournaments. All costs include greens fee, cart fee, range balls and $25 toward the prize pool. The 36 hole regional Majors are individually priced and include $40 to $50 toward the prize pool.
When are the tournaments held?
The local Atlanta season runs from March thru September. The private club tournaments will be held on Mondays or Tuesdays, the day the clubs are closed. All of the public and semi-private course tournaments are held on Saturday and/or Sunday.
The National Championship will be held in October. Click here for post season tournament information.
How many tournaments do I have to play?
There is no minimum or maximum number of tournaments you must play. In order to qualify for the post season events, you must play a minimum of 5 rounds. The more events you play, the more opportunities you have to earn order of merit points which are used to determine the qualifiers for the post season events.
CAN I PLAY IN TOURNAMENTS ON OTHER GOLF CHANNEL AMATEUR TOURS?
As a member of the tour, players may participate in any tour event for which they are qualified. Any tour member can compete in as many events as he/she wishes but for purposes of qualifying for the national championship, can only accumulate points for the same number of events as on his/her local schedule (local schedule includes the regional major events for that region). For example, a member can play 25 events around the country, but if the local schedule has 12 events, only points from his/her top 12 events will be counted towards winning his/her local flight to qualify for post-season play. Also, a tour member must play more events on his/her local tour than the total of away tournaments.
How do I register for tournaments?
All tournament registrations are accepted via the internet. Tournament registrations normally open 30 days prior to the tournament. Click here for Event Registration. Click on the ‘Registration’ link for the event that you wish to register for. Enter the email address and password that was setup during the membership registration. The system will refresh with all of the information entered from the Member Profile. Complete the registration process with the appropriate payment method. If you are using a credit card for payment, be sure to click "Finish" only one time so multiple charges are to applied to your credit card.
WHAT IS THE TOUR POLICY FOR REGISTRATION, PAYMENT AND WITHDRAWALS?
Only GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour members may participate in tour tournaments. All entries must be received prior to the entry deadline, which is on the Tour Schedule and the Event Registration page for the tournament. Tournaments have a limitation on the number of entries and therefore will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Participants may pay online via credit card during tournament registration. If a participant has a credit card on file with the Atlanta tour office, they may also choose cash or check during tournament registration and pay at check-in. If cash or check is chosen during online tournament registration and the participant requests during check-in that the charge be applied to a credit card, a $25 processing charge will apply.
Players can withdraw from a tournament with full credit up till 7 days prior to the tournament date. For withdrawals after the deadline date, the following charges will apply:
$25 fee to withdraw on day 4, 5 or 6 before the tournament (i.e. Sunday, Monday or Tuesday before a Saturday tournament)
$50 fee to withdraw on day 3 before the tournament (i.e. Wednesday before a Saturday tournament)
$75 fee to withdraw on day 2 before the tournament (i.e. Thursday before a Saturday tournament)
If
you withdraw the day before the event, the day of the event or if you fail to show up for your
scheduled tee time, you forfeit your ENTIRE
entry fee.
Exceptions will be made for emergency situations like hospitalization,
death in the immediate family, etc.
This is necessary to insure a smooth and orderly event, and to give those
on the waiting list (if any) an opportunity to play. If a player withdraws
from of a tournament and has pre-paid for the
tournament via credit card, the player has two options. Apex Golf
Solutions can:
1) hold a credit for the player to use toward future tournament entry fees; or
2) refund the tournament entry fee to the credit card minus a 5% transaction fee.
To withdraw from of a tournament, you must email Tim Patterson and receive a reply that your tournament entry has been cancelled/withdrawn.
ARE GUESTS ALLOWED IN TOUR TOURNAMENTS?
Guests are allowed only in the rare instance of a tournament not selling out and only in local tournaments that are not Regional Majors, the Atlanta Tour Championship and post season events. Guests are eligible for skins games only if they possess an active and verifiable handicap index. Guests will not be awarded Order of Merit points, nor may they participate in the prize pool.
By playing on the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour of Atlanta, will I lose may amateur status?
We are an AMATEUR golf tour for all skill levels. We will not compromise anyone's amateur status. The prizes are in the form of gift certificates to a retailer or in the pro shops of the clubs we play and no certificate will be over the $750 USGA limit. We do offer a skins competition at each event but the USGA has determined that skins competitions are a form of gambling and do not affect amateur status. You can be assured that by playing on the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour, you will not lose your amateur status.
Am I required to have a USGA index?
ALL PLAYERS MUST HAVE AN OFFICIAL USGA HANDICAP INDEX. If you do not currently have a USGA handicap index, an official USGA handicap service from GOLF CHANNEL's GameTracker/NGN is provided as part of your tour membership. Also, if you want to be a part of the GHIN network, Atlanta Amateur Golf is an associate club under the Georgia State Golf Association. The cost is $42 for the year and we can either set you up new in the system or transfer your existing GHIN number. For tour purposes, the provided GameTracker/NGN index will suffice. If you plan on playing in any GSGA tournaments, you will need to use the GHIN system. Email us at tim@atlantaamateurgolf.com for more information.
20% of the players in each flight are eligible for prizes (rounded down). A maximum of 4 spots are awarded prizes. Here are the breakdowns: 6 to 9 players - 1st place; 10 to 14 players - 1st and 2nd; 15 to 19 players - 1st, 2nd and 3rd; 20+ players - 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. $25 of each player's entry goes toward the prize pool. For example, with 25 players in a flight, the prize fund would be $625 and 1st place would receive a $320 gift certificate along with a trophy. To determine the amounts of gift certificates dependent upon the number of players in a flight, access our Prize Pool Allocation table. Also, we pay 100% of our skins money back to the players.
What is the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour's pace of play policy?
The specifics of the tour's pace of play policy can be found by clicking here.
Also, here are some tips for all players to observe to help us in our pace of play:
Plan your shot while walking to your ball or while others are playing.
Be ready to play when it is your turn
Walk briskly between shots or drive the cart without undue delay.
Proceed directly to your golf ball; don't follow others unless assisting in a search.
Take several clubs with you to your ball so you won't have to walk back to the cart.
Don't step off yardage for every single golf shot, develop an "eye" for distance.
Be efficient with your pre-shot routine and take only one practice swing.
Play a provisional ball if you think the original might be lost outside a water hazard or out of bounds.
Does the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour allow distance measuring devices?
Yes, the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour allows the use of distance measuring devices per a local rule listed on the Conditions of Competition given to each player at each tournament. The USGA adopted a new Decision which went into effect January 1, 2006, which allows this change.
Per Rule 14-3/0.5, any device that gauges or measures other conditions that might affect a player’s play (e.g. wind or gradient or direction) is not allowed. These devices are banned regardless of the capability to disable them during play. Any member possessing one of these devices during event play will be disqualified from the event and their Tour membership is subject to cancellation.
Go to the Tour Registration page. We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover or you can print the registration page and mail us a check.
What are the differences between our tour and the other amateur golf tours in Atlanta?
Apex Golf Solutions owns and operates the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour in Atlanta. Mr. Tim Patterson is the Commissioner for the Atlanta tour and he can be reached at tim@atlantaamateurgolf.com or at 770-356-9253. Players wishing to join the tour and/or register for individual events should access the Tour Registration and Event Registration pages. For more information on the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour, access the national website.
Let's tee it up and have some fun !!!
By signing and mailing or electronically submitting a member application and/or tournament registration form to play on the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour and/or in a GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour event, the participant understands and agrees that there are certain dangers involved with the participation in a golf event, including but not limited to being struck by lightning, getting hit by a golf club, suffering from heat exhaustion, heart attack or injury from uneven terrain, all of such risks participant assumes and solely accepts, and waives all claims of injury to body or property against the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour and Apex Golf Solutions. Further, the participant agrees that while on the premises of a GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour event ("Event"), the participant, and any guest, relative or anyone else affiliated with participant, shall be present at their own risk and that the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour and Apex Golf Solutions shall not be liable for any claims for injuries or damages whatsoever to person or property of the participant or related person arising out of or in connection with the participation in the Event or presence at the Event. Participant agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the GOLF CHANNEL Amateur Tour and Apex Golf Solutions from all claims by or liability to participant or affiliated persons.
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