Golf Digest launches a new amateur tournament

The National Championship will be held at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort.

Omni Hotels & Resorts

CNN
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The Masters is over for another year but there is another tournament to look forward to on the horizon.

Golf Digest is launching a new national, two-person team best-ball tournament allowing amateur golfers to compete for a $1,000 cash prize as well as inclusion in an upcoming issue of the magazine.

The Golf Digest Open will consist of eight regional qualifiers contested by 400 teams over the summer before 32 teams will advance to a two-day national championship on October 30 and 31st.

“We’ve just launched and we’ve already seen registrations. We think we’re going to sell out real fast,” Joshua Stern, Golf Digest’s Vice-President of Business Operations and Marketing Partnerships, told CNN’s Don Riddell.

The top two teams from each qualifier in both the Gross and Net divisions will play in the national championship, held at the brand new OMNI PGA Frisco Resort in Texas, which is set to host a number of prestigious events, including the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2025 and the men’s PGA Championship in 2027.

There, the teams with the lowest cumulative 36-hole score in each division will be crowned champions.

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Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

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“It’s going to feel very competitive because we’re doing gross and net divisions so the opportunity for a golfer of any skill to participate and actually win their local qualifying tournament and get into the national championship will be high,” Stern said.

Timed to coincide with golf’s expansion after the Covid-19 pandemic, the Golf Digest Open “could become the new national amateur tournament,” Stern added.

The entry fee for the qualifiers is $500 per player, covering greens fees, cart fees, practice range access, breakfast and/or lunch, and a gift, while entry for the National Championship costs $1,000 per player including green fees, two-nights accommodation at the resort and meals for the duration of the national championship.

The tournament begins on June 12 at The Standard Club in Atlanta, a Golf Digest Best in State course, and the Mesa Country Club, which was designed by the man who built the famed Torrey Pines Golf Course. Among the other courses hosting events are Kemper Lakes Golf Club, host of the 1989 PGA Championship, and Aviara Golf Club in California, which hosts the annual LPGA Tour event.

Golf Digest shares parent company Warner Bros. Discovery with CNN.