Development Tour

presented by Addie and Baylor Kirchgessner Foundation

The Development Tour is a tournament series we have created to introduce youth participants to competitive golf. Those participants who are interested in golf beyond just programming classes and want to learn on-course play will benefit the most from these tournaments! We created this tour in order to foster a safe environment to learn competitive golf. This tour seamlessly integrates the game of golf with our Five Key Commitments. In 2022 we hosted nine different tournaments across Metro Louisville. We host a variety of tournament types in this tour to allow participants a stress-reduced experience. In stroke play tournaments we encourage players to bring along a caddy. We also have team scrambles with other participants or family members! It is relaxed, fun, and a great place to start your competitive experience!

For any questions please contact our Director of Golf Blake Hardesty, PGA at [email protected]!

Schedule:

April 15th – Bobby Nichols Golf Course Tee Times Starting @ 4 P.M.

April 30th – Quail Chase Golf Course Shotgun @ 4 P.M.

May 27th – Iroquois Golf Course Tee Times starting @ 3 P.M.

June 18th – Long Run Golf Course Tee Times starting @ 4 P.M.

July 1st – Clear Creek Golf Center TBA

July 23rd – First Tee / Shawnee Junior Club Championship at Shawnee Golf Course Tee Times starting @ 2:30

August 12th – Charlie Vettiner Golf Course TBA

August 27th – Parent / Child Scramble at Shawnee Golf Course TBA

September 16th – Elk Run Golf Club TBA

October 1st – Development Tour Championship at Bobby Nichols Golf Course TBA

October 29th – Halloween Family Scramble at Shawnee Golf Course TBA

Policies and Procedures

First, we ask that if your participant has to cancel, that you cancel before the deadline to sign-up ends, unless it is an emergency situation. The Development Tour tournament events have become more popular and more participants want to sign up. If you no-show to an event or cancel the day of the event, this takes a spot away from participants who want to play but could not because all of the slots were full. If you no-show or cancel day-of (not an emergency) your participant will receive a warning. If this happens twice then the participant will be suspended from playing in other Development Tour tournament events. Part of our First Tee values are to create responsible and respectful youth. Part of playing competitive golf is showing up for your tee time. 

Another reminder is that once we send out the tee sheet, those tee times/pairings are confirmed and you cannot change. In competitive golf, youth must learn to play with different people you might not know, thus we want our youth to practice meeting and greeting new people. The same goes for our First Tee participants. We want them meeting new friends and getting to know different people as they play golf. In our stroke play events tee times/pairings are based off of age divisions. Players will play with other youth that are a similar age therefore playing the same tees helping pace of play. In scramble events, teams are created by our programming staff to ensure we have a mix of experienced, new, and younger players on teams that way one team cannot dominate the whole event and win. We try our best to pair everyone up so each team has a fair chance at winning. We understand many parents have multiple children and we will always pair siblings in consecutive groups, but we are trying to encourage our participants to meet and play with different youth. The only changes that are allowed after the tee sheet has been sent out must be approved by me and will be due to late cancellations/no-shows!

We will also be instilling a new pace-of-play policy. We would like our groups to play their respective nine holes in about 2 and a half hours. We will be enforcing the “Double Par Max Rule.” Once players reach a score of double par, they must pick up their ball and move on to the next hole. We will also be out monitoring pace-of-play and if a group gets out of position (too far behind the group ahead of them) they will get a warning, if they continue to be out of position they will be asked to skip a hole to get back in position and therefore will not qualify to receive an award at the end of the evening. If participants play in about 2 and a half hours, this should not be a problem!