Next stop on Golf Channel Am Tour: Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort

If you like to play in tournaments – and I’m not talking charity scrambles – and you haven’t checked out the Golf Channel Am Tour yet, I encourage you to do so. The tour goes to all kinds of great venues all over the country, including Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort, where the Western Classic will be conducted this weekend.

The Western Classic is one of the Golf Am Tour’s major championships and it’s the second time this year that the Am Tour has been at Paiute. In February, all three courses at Paiute played host to the Duel in the Desert 2012, where Melvin Barnes of Raleigh, N.C., and Pete DeTemple of Washington D.C. teamed up for a one-stroke victory.

This weekend’s event, which runs Aug. 4-5, is a 36-hole stroke-play individual event. Each player will get one round each on the original Sun Mountain Course and Wolf Course.

The Sun Mountain Course is a cool Pete Dye design with wide rye grass fairways, seven holes with water, traditional Dye railroad-tie bunkers, and a lot of opportunities for movement on the leaderboard. It’s also considered tame for a Dye Course, but it’s still plenty tough. (There’s no such thing as an easy Pete Dye.)

The Wolf Course, also known as the signature course and also a Dye design, is the newest course at Paiute. When played from the tips (which it won’t be in the event), it’s the longest course in Nevada at more than 7,600 yards. You hardly ever draw an even lie, and the 15th features an island green (sound familiar?).

The Golf Channel Am Tour actually winds up on Dye’s most famous course Sept. 10-13. The 72-hole Am Tour Championship, which players qualify for in individual flights through points in the various events (more points in the majors), will be played at both the Players Stadium Course and Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

And although the Western Classic is sold out, you can still get involved and register for the Am Tour at any time and start playing in events, many of them in your local areas. Membership lasts a year from the time you register and averages out to less than $17 a month, plus tournament entry fees.

For more information, visit www.gcamtour.com.