Gary Hester Wins Putters League’s 1st AMA Event

Words by Putters League Atlanta co-founders Bryan Akers & Amanda Farahany

Thank to everyone who came out and played in our first annual Putters League Championship, last Saturday July 15th at The Fringe in Roswell, Ga. With over 30+ confirmed we were excited to see the nearly thirty that attended in the heat wave that pushed near 100°!!!

We also had representatives from six states. Competitors from Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, and Minnesota showed up for their chance to take home the crystal trophy and first place medal.

Gary Hester took home that crystal / medal combo. This is Gary’s fourth 1st place in a row at The Fringe’s Chattahoochee Gulch course amongst several other 1st place awards this year (including WPL and Popstroke)! The champ played all 5 rounds under par for a finish at -12. Mossy Creek Mini Golf owner Kyle Cutshaw (TN) finished second (-7) and GA pro & general putting legend Gary English took the bronze (-2).

Co-Founder Amanda Farahany took the gold in women’s (+11) followed up by Susan Crane (TN : +36) and Kelly Miller (GA : +39).

The Amateur division was won by Al Tiangco (+2), followed up by Alex Everette (+14) and Gene Moore (+20).

We also want to give special thanks to a few people who really made this event special.

So many thanks go to Kyle Cutshaw. Kyle is the brain trust behind the Summer Swing series, and as afore mentioned the owner of Mossy Creek Mini Golf in Jefferson City Tennessee. Not only has he been hosting huge minigolf events, he has been advising us from the beginning over a year ago when we wanted to start putting together tournaments in metro Atlanta. We are so happy that he was able to come, compete well, and brought with him his adorable family and some serious putters from his home course. Thanks Kyle for everything. We are looking forward to the second tournament for the Summer Swing at his course Saturday August 26th. Check out Kyle and his family’s course at www.puttmc.com and

Another friend that contributed so so much is Tom Loftus. As the representative (all the way from Minnesota!) and co-founder of the American Mini Golf Alliance, Tom was a major influencer and huge amount of help as he took photos and videos, let us bounce ideas off of him, and arranged Putters League’s involvement into the AMA. Thank you Tom for all you did for us that entire week! For more info on the AMA and to join, visit amaminigolf.com and check in on your points awarded! There may be some upcoming tournaments and opportunities to climb their leaderboard with us soon (wink wink!).

Alas, we want to give a special thanks to Barb and the team at Aurora Cineplex & Area 51 – The Fringe for being so supportive of mini golf, the growth of the sport, and of course its locals. Without you letting us do whatever we want, organized mini golf in metro ATL wouldn’t be a thing.

More soon on our tournament in October and looking forward to seeing all of you once again soon! As our friends at Puttcast say, “putt when ready!”