According to Kittanning County Club board of trustees member Steve Steighner, the Amateur Open event scheduled for this weekend has been cancelled.
by KP Intern Kyle Predmore
Saturday was set-up to be a historical day for golf lovers in Armstrong County and the Kittanning County Club. The Armstrong County Amateur Open was supposed to make its debut, making it the county’s first amateur event. Due to low numbers during registrations, the event has been cancelled.
The event originally was set up with a max number of 72 participants allowed with two different divisions: 49 and younger alongside a 50 and over division. According to Timothy Nypaver, the Kittanning Country Club’s general manager and PGA Professional, he believes around 8 total signed up for the event.
“We thought it would have been a good thing to have, but for whatever reason, there wasn’t a huge response to it,” Nypaver said in a phone interview. “To me, the only reason I can think of is that there was not enough good golfers around here in Armstrong County to compete in an event like this. I would not have another guess as to why the turnout was low.”
Nypaver eluded that the idea of an attempt next year for another tournament isn’t out of the question, but isn’t too sure where the members will take everything from here.
“Obviously the morale of the guys that put all the effort into it is a little low right now,” Nypaver said. “The individuals who set it up were pretty surprised by the low response to the event. I am not sure if they’re going to give it another shot next year or sweep it under the carpet at this point.”
With hopes to fill the 72 spots, Nypaver said the original “low number” they would be willing to proceed with the event was around 40. However, as the deadline for registering got closer and closer, that number changed.
“The more we waited and the closer to the deadline we got, the entries just weren’t coming in,” Nypaver said. “It was decided that even if we could get 20 people registered for the event, we could still have it.”
With a low number of people signed up for the event, it was decided to extend the deadline in hopes of last minute or even late individuals trying to get in on the tournament.
“We even waited until beyond the deadline for entries to see if some miraculous thing happened,” Nypaver said. “At that point, we were hoping to get 20 people for the event. However, nothing really materialized from that. Unfortunately, we had the cancel the event.”