WPGA LAS VEGAS PRO-AM
EVENT PARTNERS

Hearts Division Champions – Bisbee’s Golf Center
Buzz Holland, JB Moseley, Jeff Bisbee, Jim Hanson & John Durkin

Diamond Division Champions – North Shore Country Club
Keith Llanas, Dave Riebau, Joaquin Diaz, Chad Sloden & John Francis

The WPGA Las Vegas Pro-Am came to a close late last week. It was a another terrific week of golf, fellowship, and a whole lot of fun. The field was fortunate to have a nice week of weather and the courses offered some great playing conditions. It marked the ninth straight year the event has featured at least 48 teams.

For the first time ever the tournament would feature two completely separate divisions of play. The sold-out 50-team field would be split in two divisions of twenty-five. Divisions were created by random draw during the 2024 WPGA Las Vegas Pro-Am entry lottery. An opportunity to feature some of the top private Las Vegas clubs in the course rotation was too good to pass up, which was the main reason why the event required two overall competitions.

The 2024 edition featured a return MGM Grand for the lodging. As for the golf, all 250 players would get the opportunity to play Cascata and Las Vegas CC.  The third course would differ though, the Diamond Division would feature the Jack Nicklaus designed SouthShore CC. On the other side of the draw the Hearts Division visited the Robert Trent Jones Sr and Jr. co-designed Southern Highlands GC.

Golfers from eleven different states partook in the trip, while the professional field featured forty PGA members and ten PGA associates.

With relatively calm conditions throughout the event the winning teams would have to go low to claim the titles this year. In the Hearts Division the Bisbee’s Golf Center team of Jeff Bisbee, Buzz Holland, JB Moseley, Jim Hanson and John Durkin would get the job done by a narrow one-shot margin over the Ryan Helminen led squad. They would card rounds of 121, 128 and 141 to accumulate a 50-under-par 390 total. The scores would produce second place daily finishes on the first two days and a seventh place finish on day three. It is the fourth title that a team from Bisbee’s Golf Center has won in the past 21 years. It also was the lowest three-round total by a winning team since 2018.

As for the Diamond Division the winning team would come from North Shore CC in Mequon. Joaquin Diaz would lead the team of Keith Llanas, Dave Riebau, Chad Sloden and John Francis to victory. Llanas would turn out to be the star of the week as he would contribute numerous net birdies and net eagles to the team score on all three days. Their scores of 134, 134 and 128 would give them a 42-under-par 396 total. The winning mark was good enough to hold on by four shots over the Dan Hastreiter and Ryan Ranguette led fivesomes.

The list of the daily team winners across the two groups were:

  • Hearts – Monday – Cascata – 2 Net – Ridgeway CC (Helminen)
  • Hearts – Tuesday – Southern Highlands – 1 Net / 1 Gross – Horseshoe Bay GC (Christianson)
  • Hearts – Wednesday – Las Vegas CC – 1,2,3 Net – Golf Galaxy Appleton (Brodell)
  • Diamond – Monday – SouthShore – 1 Net / 1 Gross – Blackwolf Run (Hastreiter)
  • Diamond – Tuesday – Las Vegas CC – 1,2,3 Net – North Shore CC (Diaz)
  • Diamond – Wednesday – Cascata – 2 Net – New Berlin Hills GC (Grossman)

In addition, the event also featured daily low professional stableford events. Earning the win in those competitions were:

  • Hearts – Monday – Cascata – Ryan Helminen
  • Hearts – Tuesday – Southern Highlands – Michael Crowley
  • Hearts – Wednesday – Las Vegas CC – Ryan Helminen
  • Diamond – Monday – SouthShore – Matt Hartmann
  • Diamond – Tuesday – Las Vegas CC – Joaquin Diaz
  • Diamond – Wednesday – Cascata – Andy Hansen

A big thank you goes out to our event partners, The Suter Ward Group at Morgan Stanley (Vince Suter), TaylorMade Golf (Steve Ploch & Hunter Mahler), and adidas Golf (Matt Flaten). They are a key part of the event and the WPGA values everything they do to enhance the trip.

Las Vegas Pro-Am Results – Hearts Division
Las Vegas Pro-Am Results – Diamond Division