UTR Sports has launched a new year-round series of pickleball tournaments called the UTR Sports Pickleball Amateur Series with two Golden Ticket USA Pickleball Nationals Qualifying Events. The Amateur Series will be held across the United States in 2024 culminating in a season-ending championships. All Amateur Series events are USA Pickleball-sanctioned.
Winning a gold medal at one of the Golden Ticket events offers individuals pre-registration (Golden Tickets) to the 2024 USA Pickleball National Championships, to take place in Mesa, AZ from Nov. 10-17. There are 11 total Golden Ticket events in 2024 hosted by USA Pickleball, the Association of Pickleball Players (APP), and UTR Sports.
The first stop of the UTR Sports Pickleball Amateur Series will be in Rome, GA, on March 15-17, 2024, followed by Dallas, Texas, on April 5-7, 2024. View the full schedule and register here.
As part of the Amateur Series, the UTR Sports Golden Ticket events will take place May 29-June 2, 2024, in Macon, GA, and July 10-14, 2024, in Arada, CO.
“The UTR Sports Pickleball Amateur Series will give players all over the country the opportunity to compete in the best facilities against players at their level,” said Chase Hodges, UTR Sports Vice President. “The UTR-P Rating will ensure quality competition and our format guarantees players will leave having played in multiple matches. Players will have the added bonus of competing in our own season-ending championship."
The UTR Sports Pickleball Amateur Series will cultivate a world-class experience for amateur players and offer value that exceeds registration fees. UTR Sports will provide participants with guaranteed games, competitive matches, and quality playing environments.
Divisions will be split by age (19+, 35+, 50+) and include men’s and women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles. Groups will be assigned based on UTR Pickleball Rating (UTR-P). The UTR Sports Platform has always been anchored by the UTR Rating, the world’s most accurate tennis rating system. UTR Sports introduced the new UTR-P in 2023.
Players without match results will receive a provisional rating from P1-P5 based on questionnaire results. Once match results are logged, the provisional rating converts to a numeric rating from 1-10. Learn more about the UTR-P Rating here.
By using the UTR-P rating system, the Pickleball Amateur Series will take a level-based approach to player groupings to ensure high-quality, competitive matches. Players of all ratings are welcome. Players new to UTR Sports and without enough match results will still be able to register when their UTR Sports profile is created.
The format at each non-Golden Ticket Pickleball Amateur Series event will be groups of round-robin play of games to 11, with 8 games guaranteed. The top two finishers will advance to the gold medal match while the next two will compete for bronze (everyone will compete in a playoff match regardless of outcome). Medal matches will be best two-out-of-three games to 11. Golden Ticket events will follow USA Pickleball formatting and rules.
The event schedule will be singles on Fridays, mixed doubles on Saturdays, and gendered doubles on Sundays. Registration will cost $80 per player and $40 per division.