The 16th annual Gentlemen’s Club Challenge presented by Innova Champion Discs, is right around the corner! Both the am and pro weekends sold out last year for a combined 375+ players and because this event always gets bigger and better, we can expect much of the same this year. Online registration will be available via DiscGolfScene.com starting around 5:00pm PDT on Saturday, December 20th.  

This unique Las Vegas A-tier is split into two consecutive weekends in February. The amateur divisions will take to the course on Saturday, February 14th and Sunday, February 15th. The pro divisions will follow one weekend later, with Friday added to make it a three-day tournament for their divisions. 

Although the GCC is an A-tier, it has the look, feel, and meets many of the same requirements as a National Tour event. Each player will receive a professional caddy book that includes detailed pictures and descriptions of each hole and any specific rules or issues of interest. Both the ams and pros alike are expected to abide by the National Tour dress code, as outlined in section 3.4.D of the Competition Manual for Disc Golf Events. The GCC will also have plenty of the most important factor of any well-run large event, volunteers. Oh yeah…and did we mentiona that, it's in Vegas, baby!

Sunset Park is the course for competition once again, and the layout is a great warm-up for the Memorial Championships. Many of the top pros you'll see at that event, now just two and a half months away, will be here duking it out all weekend before they head down to Scottsdale, AZ. The course is flat and dry and usually accompanied by a strong breeze with temperatures in the 60s or 70s. The dry grass alone is enough to cause a disc to skip much farther than what most players are used to. Add to that an abundance of out-of-bound lines and the already difficult holes become that much harder to deal with.

A 27 hole layout has been designed for the amateur divisions with an average distance per hole of just under 350 feet. It will include two island holes, a hangman hole, and the infamous 865’ finishing hole. The professional divisions will play a modified version of the same course, taken down from 27 to 18 holes. With 470 feet being the average distance per hole for the pro layout, you can expect to see a lot of crushed drives, gigantic skips, and mind-boggling rollers. Below is a video of Will Schusterick's #29064 ace on the island hole last year. 

The amateur divisions will be competing in a true amateur format, what most would refer to as trophy-only. Win or lose, they'll be taking home a ridiculous players pack, already valued at $200+. There are plenty of other ways to take home some goodies as well. There will be an abundance of CTPs available, a raffle with $1000+ worth of prizes already in the works, and of course, the Las Vegas Disc Golf Club's (LVDGC) annual silent auction.  

A large chunk of the added cash for the pro purse, which is on pace to once again hit the $10,000 mark, comes from the silent auction. You can find more information about the auction on the LVDGC's website, or simply download the silent auction PDF.

Innova Champion Discs went above and beyond this year, providing over $20,000 in merchandise to the LVDGC for the event. All players (ams and pros alike) will receive a 2015 GCC/Innova dri-fit polo and the amateurs will take home a handfull of custom-stamped Innova discs and minis in their players packs.   

V and Saxe Theaters, just as they did last year, are donating nearly 800 tickets (2 tickets per player) to see one of their famous Las Vegas shows. Based on face value, that’s roughly a $40,000 donation! Other sponsors include Vibram Disc Golf, NOMAD Disc Golf, Prodiscus, Legacy Discs, and DiscGolfValues.com. Last year's combined value of $75,000 in sponsorships might just be broken this year, as more and more donations continue to come in.

The Las Vegas Disc Golf Club has been growing the Gentlemen's Club Challenge since the inaugural event 16 years ago. “To help put last year’s $23,000 purse in perspective, the GCC was the 9th richest PDGA event in 2014, making it not only the richest A-tier in the United States, but an event that paid out more cash than a few of the National Tour stops!", says Jeff Jacquart (#10749). Jeff and his fellow co-tournament director Scott Merritt #27053 will be running the show once again this year at Sunset Park. 

Once again, online registration via DiscGolfScene.com for the 2015 Gentlemen's Club Challenge will open on Saturday, December 20th at 5:00pm Pacific Daylight Time. More information can be found on the Las Vegas Disc Golf Club website.