The Iowa Golf Association has made some changes to it’s flagship event, beginning in 2018.  The Iowa Amateur will hold two qualifiers to identify golfers who will join the exempt players into the final field at the Tournament Club of Iowa.

The payment structure has been adjusted to encourage more players to try to qualify.  Those who enter a qualifying event will pay $85.  The players that make it through qualifying to play in the championship proper will then pay an additional $65 fee ($150 total).  Players who are exempt will enter the championship proper at TCI directly and will pay the full $150 entry fee at the time they enter.

Additionally, the field size at the championship proper at TCI will be reduced from 156 to 132 players.  This was done to to insure adequate pace of play during the championship, allow for more flexibility with weather and also to insure the necessity of the qualifying events.

“In the past, when we would bring 156 players to the championship proper, we would schedule qualifiers and then either cancel because we only had 156 total players enter, or we would have 80-90% of those in the qualifiers making their way through to the championship, which seemed a bit silly,” stated IGA Executive Director Chad Pitts.  “This would cause undue strain on the member courses that had agreed to host when we would cancel a qualifier.  Sometimes, that meant they could have hosted another outing or event on those days.”

“Granted, we may still have to cancel or have a very high qualifying rate even with reducing the field to 132, but the chances of it happening are drastically reduced”, added Pitts.

The qualifying events will take place at Coldwater Golf Links in Ames on July 11 and Amana Colonies GC in Amana on July 13.  The championship proper will be contested at Tournament Club of Iowa in Polk City from July 23-25.  You can find entry information here.