New Events to Create More Opportunities, Rewards for SNGA Players
Points have always been vital when it comes to SNGA tournaments in crowning the Players of the Year. Well, those points will take on an added bonus in 2024 as two events will create more opportunities and rewards for top players. –by Bill Bowman, Las Vegas Golf Insider
And these aren’t ordinary events. One, set for Aug. 22-24, 2024, is the Mid-Am Team Championship while the second one, set for Nov. 24-25 at Arroyo and Red Rock CC, is going to be a 48-player shootout for the top point finishers in each division.
The Mid-Am team event, which will be held at The Wolf Course at the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort, is a national tournament.
“It’s a four-man team event,” said Kenny Ebalo, SNGA president and this tournament’s director. “We expect 20 to 24 teams representing somewhere around 16 states.”
Points are being awarded in SNGA events for those who qualify for Mid-Am status (25-and-older) and those players will accumulate points through the state amateur in mid-July.
“It’s part of the process of giving back to players,” Ebalo said. “We added the points race for players to qualify for the Southern Nevada team which will give players added incentive to maybe add a tournament or two to their schedule to try to make this team.”
Ebalo, who played on the Southern Nevada Team in 2023 along with Josh Goldstein, Craig Erickson and Daren Johnson, said those players’ experience in the event was the driving force behind the process of adding a points race for players to qualify.
“It’s a great chance for players to play in bigger events,” Ebalo said. “A lot of these guys may not even know these events exist and this helps get the word out. And those three had a great time and this is a way for more players to get the chance to take part in an event like this.”
Ebalo added the tournament is scheduled in Vegas for the next three years.
“And, I’m hoping it’s for a lot longer than that,” Ebalo said with a laugh.
In the end, this event is one that will give players the chance to test their game at a higher level.
“This is a reward for a lot of our players that are Mid-Am players who may not have had a chance to play a national event,” Ebalo said. “They know there are great players in the area but they haven’t had the chance to play with them and this will give them that chance.”
Then, in mid-November, there will also be a shootout tournament that will incorporate the SNGA’s top players in each of the four divisions.
Forty-eight golfers (the top 12 in the points race in the Championship and Net Divisions along with the top six in the Senior and Silver net and scratch divisions), will tee it up in a two-day tournament. The setting of the Arroyo and Red Rock CC, which is used for U.S. Senior Am qualifying, will be a highlight.
“We’re going to take the top players from the points lists and go into a shootout,” said Tim Brand, Assistant Executive Director for the SNGA. “It doesn’t matter if they finished 11th or 12th … everyone starts from scratch and if they win the shootout, they win first-place payouts.”
Brand said the scheduling gave the SNGA a chance to add in the event in 2024.
“The Clark County Amateur at Boulder Creek used to be in late November,” Brand said. “Now it’s at the end of October and that gave us a little extra time at the end of the year.” The historic City Am also moved to June, which allowed the County Am to move up.
Hence the shootout idea.
“We decided to try to incentivize the players,” Brand said. “The Player of the Year may already be decided earlier in the year but trying to qualify for this event will give players something to aim for later in the year.”
Brand said he expects there to be a lot of scoreboard watching as the season winds down.
“We want people looking at the points list saying ‘This is how many points I need to get into the top 12,’ ” Brand said. “If someone wins a tournament late in the year, especially if it’s a major, they can vault up the list pretty quickly. This gives those players who have lost the chance to be Player of the Year something to play for. They may add a tournament or two into their schedule to try to get into the shootout.”
More information on both events will be available at snga.org in the coming months. Stay tuned and get those games fine tuned.
