12-407: The Bowmaker Tournament was an invitation pro-am golf tournament played from 1957 to 1970. Except in the first and final years the tournament was held at Sunningdale Golf Club . The main event was a 36-hole stroke play event for the professionals played over two days. There was also a better-ball event for the professional/amateur pairs. The Bowmaker Tournament finished in 1970 but was replaced by
24-613: A cash prize) but who do not make a full-time living at the activity. In sports with a highly regulated system of professional qualifications and limitations, it may be applied to competitors whose careers move between professional and amateur status with their performance in any given season or string of seasons. As an adjective, the term may also refer to an open contest or series of contests (e.g., "pro–am tournament", "pro–am tour") in which professionals and amateurs compete without distinction; those limited to "professional–amateur" players and barring full-time pros; or those of
36-463: A contraction of professional–amateur ) refers to a sporting event where both professional career athletes and amateurs compete. It could also refer to a collaboration between professionals and amateurs in a scientific discipline such as astronomy . In reference to individuals, the term also has another meaning: it implies someone that is intermediate, indeterminate or fluctuating between amateur and professional status, an idea more related to
48-606: A professional partner. In this case, the teacher is usually also the dance partner. All of the most relevant international dance sport associations, including the World Dance Council , World DanceSport Federation , and International Dance Sport Association, offer pro–am competitions as parts of their international events. The world's oldest dance competition, the Blackpool Dance Festival , featured its first pro–am event in 2014. Chains of franchised pro–am studios, like
60-767: A proving ground for amateurs aspiring to official pro qualification. Minor League Baseball , and its conceptual equivalents in other sports such as the AHL in North American ice hockey and Conference National play in English football , can also been seen as a form of well-organized pro–am play in the semi-professional sense. There are also a few pro-am tennis events, such as the annual Necker Cup organized by Richard Branson , where tennis pros are invited to compete against amateur enthusiasts. In dance sport , pro–am provides an opportunity for an amateur to take part in competitions with
72-535: A semi-professional or minor league level, short of the top competitive ranks in the sport. Pro–am competition is especially common in golf , and in track and field . Cue sports is another field in which pro–am play is common; an example in the open, mixed-play sense is the International Pool Tour in eight-ball . And in snooker , the International Open Series was a no-pros tour and
84-610: Is often held in Blackpool (five times between 1989 and 2012), but is not connected with the Dance Festival. The world's largest amateurs' dance festival is the annual Euro dance festival in Rust , Germany, where shows of professional dancers are combined with workshops for a wide range of dancers from beginners to professionals. It was depicted in the 1996 award-winning Japanese film, Shall We ダンス? , directed by Masayuki Suo and again, in
96-771: The Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens , Blackpool , England, since 1920. It is also the largest ballroom competition: in 2013, 2953 couples from 60 countries took part in the festival. As of the early 21st century the festival is held in May. It covers ballroom and Latin American dancing , American smooth and incorporates the British Open Championships in categories of adult amateur and professional couples and formation teams . In 2005, two new categories were introduced:
108-581: The Sunbeam Electric Tournament which had the same format and was also played the week before The Open Championship . The Sunbeam Electric sponsorship lasted for just one year. In 1972 and 1973 they were the sponsors of the Sunbeam Electric Scottish Open . In the 1965 tournament Kel Nagle started his final round with an albatross two at the 492-yard first hole. Pro-am Pro–am (or pro/am , pro am , ProAm ;
120-570: The Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire studios, are found nationwide in the United States. Pro–am dance sport has also started to break ground in Europe, with studios such as Agens Pro–am (Germany), and ProAm-Tanzen (Austria). Blackpool Dance Festival The 8-day Blackpool Dance Festival is the world's first and most famous annual ballroom dance competition of international significance, held in
132-757: The British Rising Star Amateur Ballroom and Latin Competitions. Two invitation events, the Professional Team Match and the Exhibition Competition, create much interest. The Junior Dance Festival, Blackpool Sequence Dance Festival which incorporates the British Sequence Championships , and British National Dance Festival are also held annually in Blackpool. The annual World Professional Dancesport Championship
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#1733107154354144-470: The similar socio-economic term " amateur professionalism ". A common synonym for this version of pro–am is semi-professional ( semi-pro ). Thus has the term pro–am long had various meanings and significances, depending upon the sport in question. Those who play at a highly competitive and strongly skilled level, but are not paid, are often called pro–ams. The term is also applied to competitors who do get paid in some events (e.g., tournaments with
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