2020 KICKS OFF FIRST
USAPA-Sanctioned
Pickleball Tour
I
t’s early in the new year, but there’s one easy
prediction for 2020—pickleball competitive play is
about to rise to a whole new level.
This year marks a milestone for pickleball
with the launch of the APP (Association of Pickleball
Professionals) Tour, the sport’s first USAPA-sanctioned
tour for professional and amateur players in the U.S.
and Canada. Kicking off with the $25k Hilton Head
Open in mid-March, the roster for the APP Tour’s first
year includes 12 tournaments across the U.S. and one in
Canada, a mix of first-time and established events with
purse prizes ranging from $25k to $75k per event.
For the first time ever, professional and amateur
players will have the opportunity to earn points at
every APP Tour event they play. Top-performing players
who compete in the minimum required tournaments
and acquire the requisite points will qualify to compete
at the season-ending championship—the $40k APP
Masters—in Punta Gorda, Florida, in October. During the
eight-month tour, all players will be able to track their
standing on the weekly Onix Dura Standings List.
“The APP Tour offers all players—professional and
amateur level—a complete story: a beginning, middle
and end to an entire season of exciting, competitive play,
42
TO SUBSCRIBE, CALL 888.308.3720 OR GO TO THEPICKLEBALLMAG.COM
with the finale being a season-ending championship in
which everyone has the opportunity to qualify,” says APP
Tour founder and CEO Ken Herrmann.
Herrmann’s original vision for the APP Tour was a
multi-city schedule, focused on Midwest and Southeast
locations where no professional pickleball tournaments
were already being played or experienced by local fans.
“I wanted to create a series of tournaments that would
co-exist with the great events already taking place,
not compete with them.”
To bring that vision to life, he partnered with Dana
Joseph, along with Rick and Bridget Witsken, to create
United Pickleball Management (UPM), which manages
the tour. And to ensure that the tour would meet both
pro and amateur players’ needs, one of the team’s first
steps through UPM was to establish the APP Advisory
Committee, a 17-member group chaired by Steve
Kennedy, one of the top senior professionals and an
Engage lead clinician.
“It’s always been our priority that the APP Tour
represent the voice of both pros and amateurs,” says
Joseph, who also serves as the APP tournament co-
director. “This tour gives aspiring amateur players
the same path as the pros—a yearlong goal to improve