About two years ago, Southern Nevada Golf Association president Kenny Ebalo floated the idea of creating a Las Vegas Women’s City Amateur tournament. Before long, the concept for a Las Vegas City Am Week was born. –-By Brian Hurlburt, Founder
Ebalo was inspired to create the week as SNGA executive director Ann Sunstrum was researching past men’s City Am champions for the creation of a perpetual trophy. Ebalo asked if there had ever been a women’s city am held, and when Sunstrum and WSNGA member and rules official Sue May both said they didn’t think so, Ebalo went into action.
“We had created a perpetual trophy for the Las Vegas Men’s City Amateur and when we were going back through the history as Ann did all this research, we found out there hadn’t been a women’s city am,” Ebalo says. “I said, ‘well, that is something we should probably be doing,’ and then as it kind of went from there. Then I asked, ‘What would happen if all of the City Am events were played together in one week?’ I talked with Ryan Humphreys at Las Vegas Golf Club and he said they were open to it.”
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Now folks are already looking ahead to Las Vegas City Am Week 2023 when the juniors, women, men and senior men will play their City Am events in addition to having the annual Las Vegas Champions Classic charity event played during the week.
“I think the week is something golfers are going to look forward to for years to come, and it was great that we made it happen this year,” Ebalo says. “A lot of great champions came out of it and the scores were really good. I know the field for the first women’s am was small, but I don’t think anybody would argue that having Allie Mulhall be the first City Women’s Am champ is a great thing. And Cameron Barzekoff winning the men’s am championship division in dominant style at -19 to follow up the Nevada State Amateur win at the same golf course was impressive. And I salute all of the other net and gross champions, as well. We couldn’t have done it without our tournament staff led by Tim Brand.”
Click to the following links for complete stories and video of each event.
Las Vegas Women’s City Amateur
