Top 2024 Finishes + A New Year Ready to Kick Off
Before we fully embraced 2025, we wanted to make sure to acknowledge some of the accomplishments of the competitors who played in events across the US including our new annual spirit award. Read through to the bottom to see confirmed events through March 2025, recent Puttcast episodes, and a player spotlight on Justin & Anna Seymour. Expect a new update soon with a discussion of the 2025 scoring rubric, World Adventure Golf Tour, and lots more. Gonna be the busiest AMA season to date!
After 30 events, Bryan Akers won the points race for the 2024 season. Mark “Highlighter” Novicki came in 2nd by only .5 points and Gary Hester was less than 2 points away from 1st place. All three played events in all 3 major tiers and each won at least one event. All three received custom trophies made by AMA co-founder Robin Schwartzman and Bryan received an Oculus VR headset courtesy of our sponsor, Walkabout Mini Golf. Well done gents! Here is the full top 10 for 2024. Head to the Rankings page for full details, points, and results.
Below we break down the top 10 players in each of our regions as well as the top overall women and junior players. The way we tallied points for each region is based on the total points scored in those events in each part of the US minus the participation points, and virtual events. Midwest region events were events in Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, and Minnesota. South region events in Branson, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Northeast events in Pennslyvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maine.
South Region
#1 Greg Newport | #2 Gary Hester | #3 Kent Cranford | #4 Randy Reeves | #5 Joey Baldasano | #6 David Lanham | #T7 Joey Graybeal | #T7 Rick Baird | #9 Jason Raby | #10 Kenny Jarnigan
Northeast Region
#1 Mark “Highlighter” Novicki | #2 Justin Seymour | #3 Griffin Weiss | #4 Anna Seymour | #5 Matthew Liles | #6 Kyle Courcy | #7 David Vayda | #8 David Biggy | #9 Landon Weiss | #10 Aaron Kaminski
Midwest Region Top 10
#1 Bryan Akers | #2 Mick Cullen | #3 Tom Loftus | #T4 Derek Hartmann | #T4 Shawn Brown | #6 Jeremy Inabinet | #7 Matthew Kraus | #8 Gary Hester | #9 Justin Gutche | #10 Matt Roalstad
Top Women
#1 Anna Seymour | #2 Amanda Farahany | #3 Mandy Ranslow | #4 Glenda Ryning | #5 Wendy Torroni | #6 Vanette Block
Top Juniors
#1 Griffin Weiss | #2 Kameron Haselius | #3 Eli Janik | #4 Jonah Hurley | #5 Maxwell Cullen | #6 Owen Pendleton
We continue to welcome for feedback on the 2025 season in our yearly competitor’s survey found at https://bit.ly/ama2024survey. We’d love to hear from all of our members and competitors who played in tournaments this year to help make sure we do our best to continue to make our events fun, welcoming, and fair.
2023 Spirit Award Winner
We introduced a new annual player celebration for the AMA, the Maxwell Cullen Spirit Award, this past fall. We gave the first award to Max Cullen (featured in this photo on the left with the trophy) for the good energy & positive spirit he brought to all of the AMA tournaments he competed in during 2023. We are accepting nominations for the players whose presence at AMA competitive tournaments contributes to a fun and inclusive environment for the 2024 season that just finished. You can use this nomination form for both last year & throughout the year to recommend and highlight players who you think should receive the award.
Upcoming Events
March 23 to 29 - Putt18 2025 AMA Tournament - Virtual
The December Puttcast episode is the audio from our annual AMA player’s meeting and the newest episode features AMA co-founders Tom & Pat on video talking about their favorite mini golf related books, board games and more.
AMA Members Spotlight
Our first player spotlight of 2025 features a couple that are also two of the top players based out of the Northeastern part of the US. Justin & Anna Seymour are always in contention to win any event they play and are regularly at the top of all the leaderboards. We asked the married couple about their history of the game, plans for 2025 and more.
Names
Anna Seymour and Justin Seymour
Where are you from?
Anna: South Windsor, CT
Justin: East Hartford, CT
How did you meet & how long have you been a couple?
Anna: We met at Manchester Community College in 2016 and were in the same classes as we were both majoring in Accounting and Business Administration. I borrowed a textbook from Justin and when I gave it back the following semester, that’s when we started dating (May 2017).
When did you start playing mini golf competitively?
Justin: I always loved mini golf and played in my first tournament when I was ~15 but didn’t start playing competitively until my mid-20s.
Anna: When Justin and I started dating in 2017, I learned that playing professional mini golf was one of his hobbies which I thought was super unique. I tagged along with him and it turned out that I liked it too.
AMA or other Tournaments you've regularly played?
Justin: Prodigy, Matterhorn, O Street summer tournament, Tabers, Dolphin, Farmington.
Anna: Prodigy, Matterhorn, O Street summer tournament, Tabers, Farmington.
Do you have a favorite one or two tournaments you like to play?
Both: O Street summer tournament and Tabers.
Any additional or new AMA tournaments you're planning to play in 2025?
Both: The O Street Winter Classic.
Favorite kind of hole(s)?
Justin: slope, no traditional obstacle holes that you have to get deuce putts on.
Anna: no moving objects, slope, ace-able holes.
What do you do outside of playing mini golf?
Justin: For work, I am currently an internal auditor at Mohegan Sun. Outside of work, I play professional poker, like taking walks, and relaxing.
Anna: I work in Finance at Travelers. Outside of work, I sing, play basketball and regular Golf, read, and like taking walks.
Goal for the 2025 season
Justin: I am really motivated to get two 1st place tournament wins and would love to come in top 3 in the AMA standings.
Anna: I want to work on being a more consistent player and staying focused on each putt even if the last one wasn’t up to par (no pun intended).
One word of advice to competitive putters?
Justin: 1) Never lose focus! Everyone is going to have a bad hole, it’s about how you rebound and stay mentally strong. 2) if you want to win a tournament, you have to put in the practice.
Anna: Stay positive and remember, you only control your putting, not everyone else’s!
