Established organizations offer thrills of tournament golf to average players
NIMAGA's hallmark is amateur golf, playing mainly for thrill of competing, plus plenty of good fellowship
Through his 35 years with the Northern Illinois Men’s Amateur Golf Association (NIMAGA), Roger Scott met his favorite golfing mates.
“I’ve found my best golfing friends as well as many people that I’ve gone on golfing trips with,” he said. “That statement is reflected with a lot of our guys.”
Scott is a past president of NIMAGA, which is about to begin its 49th season in 2008. He’s been deeply involved for most of those 35 years and plays as many events as possible. NIMAGA is run by its members, for its members, he says, adding that the organization's goal is to provide great competition – not large prizes.
"We do offer scrip awards to winners and high finishers," he explained. " But compared to other organizations, it isn't that much. The awards are mainly symbolic. We wanted to keep it pure amateur golf."
Scott says that NIMAGA has a 75 percent member retention rate. It is a not-for-profit group dating to 1960, when the Chicago District Golf Association (CDGA) was the only body of golf in the area offering an organized tournament schedule. Without a CDGA membership, there were few opportunities to play golf under tournament conditions.
NIMAGA was founded to rectify that situation and also raise money for sending people to compete in the USGA’s U.S. Amateur U.S. Public Links Championship.
“It’s difficult to qualify for because you have a handicap restriction to even play in the event, plus there might be 100 people attempting to qualify for four spots,” Scott said. “I think there were a few people who were very low handicappers, but this public event might be held far away and it was designed to try to help raise a few dollars to help them go to that public tourney.”
That was in the early days of NIMAGA. Now it focuses solely on providing fair competition at a fair and reasonable cost. Fees are kept low, covering green fees and a modest payout. There are 15 annual events, six of which are special events.
NIMAGA has opportunities for players of all handicaps. At the events, golfers are separated into divisions by handicap.
“When people hear we’re a tournament golf organization, they think ‘I’m not good enough to play in tournaments,’ because they think of single digit handicappers,” Scott says. “But NIMAGA has opportunities for players of all skill levels to compete.”
Events are played at courses all over northern Illinois. For the most part, NIMAGA takes no role in course set-up, leaving that up to the golf courses themselves. “We don’t play any one golf course very often,” Scott said.
Special events include a tournament of winners, senior event and a match against the Milwaukee County Public Links Association, which has been running for 31 years. The last five years, a match-play event against members of the Weekly Challenge Golf Tour was inaugurated, and sponsored by Chicagoland Golf.
There are two ways of financing a NIMAGA membership — a package membership or a regular membership.
The package membership includes membership fee, handicap service, entrance fees and green fees for the seven regular tournaments.
The regular membership includes the membership fee and handicap service. With a regular membership, though, one would pay the additional tournament entry fees, which usually ranged from about $55 to $150 for a two-day event in August.
An up-to-date NIMAGA schedule and contact information can be found in the Tournament Central section of Chicagoland Golf or at www.nimaga.org.
Weekly Challenge Tour offers true 'pro’ experience to amateurs, non-amateurs: rules officials, cash or scrip payouts
Born in 1991, a golf tour unlike anything Chicagoans had seen before was formed by retired Elmhurst dentist Jim “Doc” Griseto.
The Weekly Challenge Golf Tour was formulated based on the belief that average players should have an outlet to compete in professionally-run tournaments and have a chance to win some money or maintain their amateur status and play for scrip. Believing that nothing the filled that bill existed at the time, Doc jumped in with both feet, took to the fairways and created the Weekly Challenge Golf Tour.
Doc's game plan was to start slowly (and surely) so that he could keep the quality high – he was afraid if it grew too fast, he and his staff would be unable to provide the experience they promised. (Another tour – the Semi-Pro Golf Tour – had preceded the WCGT in Chicagoland and had been managed very, very poorly. Also, the old Chicago Golf Tour had problems with its manager and it, too, had faded away.)
The WCGT participation rate began with 25 players competing in six events in 1991. Only five years later, at the height of growth in the golf industry in 1996, i.e., Tigermania, the WCGT had just under 400 members.
One of the reasons for the WCGT's success is their marshals, who keep an eye on pace of play – in a non-intrusive fashion. In 2007, the average tournament round for all tournaments was 4 hours, 38 minutes. (See WCGT website for data, link below.)
This year, the WCGT expects to have a very respectable 300+ members, enthusiastic men and women, that can choose all or any of the 29 tournaments scheduled during the golf season.
At least eight rival tours have attempted to gain a foothold in Chicagoland in the 17 years since the WCGT began. None of them could offer the high-quality experience of the Weekly Challenge Tour, and soon gave up.
Accommodating both amateurs and non-amateurs (the WCGT avoids the word “professional” because none of their members make a living playing golf), with about a 50/50 split.
The majority of members are between 9 and 15 handicap, and each golfer competes within their own class. Three different options are available, roughly divided into eagle class (0-10 handicap), birdie class (11-16 handicap), and par class (17-30 handicap). They also have a scratch division. Over $150,000 in prize money and gift certificates were awarded in 2007.
Tournaments are run with rules as stringent and professional as the PGA Tour. This has proven to be another key to the success of the WCGT. By providing on-course marshals, starters, and rules officials each event is handled with the upmost seriousness. No 2-foot gimmees here. And NO SANDBAGGING (See WCGT website, link below).
To make it more convenient for members, they can register for each tournament online and get specifics about the golf courses. The WCGT also provides a website and a phone line where all results are posted the evening of the event.
Another noteworthy attribute is the flexibility of the playing schedule. An average of 90+ participants play in each event, so with such large fields players have four to five hours of tee times available. No one offers such a varied schedule. The WCGT can accommodate anyone’s schedule, family or work. They play different days of the week, on Saturdays and at golf courses all over the Chicagoland area. Each golfer is sure to find more than a few events that work for them.
The one-time yearly WCGT tour card fee pays for the current season, and allows golfers to choose from the events offered to create their own unique Tour schedule. You may play as many or as few events as you wish.
After joining and obtaining a Tour card, each player is charged an entry fee plus the green fee and cart that is negotiated at each event, often at a discounted rate. Of the entry fee, a major portion is added to the prize pool, and another part of the stipend pays for administrative staff.
In the last nine years over $1.45 million has been paid out in prizes and purse money. The WCGT is the longest-running, most successful tour of its kind in the U.S.
For more information about the Weekly Challenge Golf Tour visit the website at www.wcgt.com. This year’s schedule may be found in the Tournament Central section of every issue of Chicagoland Golf.
Inaugural Chicagoland Golf Cup Match In
October of 2003, the Northern Illinois Men's Amateur Golf Association
and the Weekly Challenge Golf Tour began what has become a tradition –
a one-day, Ryder Cup-style match pitting the best players from each
side.
There are two singles matches, and a team match going on simultaneously in each foursome, made up of two players from each team.
The
idea had been proposed several years earlier by Chicagoland Golf
publisher Phil Kosin, a member of both organizations. Kosin put up the
money for the traveling trophy, and the two squads have met for
intense, but friendly competition each year since. It has become a
honor to be named to either team, and many players set qualifying as
one of their pre-season goals.
