Reno, NV – For the first time since its inception in the summer of 2013, the Fallbrook, CA-based eGolf Tour West will come together with the Charlotte, NC-based eGolf Tour to run a co-sanctioned event this week, with the inaugural ArrowCreek Open on July 1-3, 2014 bringing together some of the top talent from both tours to compete for a purse of over $100,000. The real carrot, however, is an exemption into the PGA TOUR’s Reno-Tahoe Open, which will be awarded to the tournament winner after the conclusion of the event’s third and final round on Friday afternoon.

The ArrowCreek Open will be contested on the Legends Course at host ArrowCreek Country Club – a 1997 Arnold Palmer design featuring panoramic views of both the mountains and downtown Reno. The award-winning venue is one of two courses at ArrowCreek, with Fuzzy Zoeller’s Challenge Course serving as the other 18-hole layout.

“We are excited to partner with eGolf Tour West for this exciting joint venture at ArrowCreek,” said eGolf Tour president David Siegel. “Our players compete throughout the year with an eye on playing their way up to the Web.com and PGA Tours, so to have one of them sit three days away from what could be a life-changing spot in the Reno-Tahoe Open is certainly exciting.”

The Reno-Tahoe Open spot will be the 15th invitation to a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event awarded to the tour since the start of the 2009 season. In addition, the tour has been granted a total of four exemptions into European Tour events since the fall of 2010.

“In 2009, we became the first tour to secure multiple exemptions into Web.com Tour events, so to watch that groundbreaking start give way to our first PGA TOUR exemption this week is a thrilling progression, and one that should continue to establish eGolf as the de facto No. 3 tour in the country,” Siegel said.

The ArrowCreek Open field will be one of the year’s strongest on both tours, with eight of the top 10 players on the eGolf West money list, and five of the top 10 players on the eGolf Tour money list, descending on Reno to compete. Players of note in this year’s field include:

Seamus Power

Seamus Power (Waterford, Ireland)

The eGolf Tour’s current leading money winner with $46,664 in earnings, Power earned the third win of his career at the Cowans Ford Open in March. The former East Tennessee State star has been a study in consistency thus far in 2014, posting top-6 finishes in each of his eight starts, including a runner-up at the Columbia Open in May and a pair of T3s at the Championship at St. James Plantation and the Sedgefield Classic. Power, 27, nearly ended the streak two weeks ago at the Mimosa Hills Open, but closed with an 8-under 62 to earn a share of fifth place. He has posted 25 of 28 rounds at par or better this year, and has notched 15 straight rounds in the 60s entering the week in Reno.

Kevin Lucas (Folsom, CA)

Lucas has been the Seamus Power equivalent on eGolf Tour West this year, posting seven top-10 finishes in eight starts to sit atop the money list with $36,823 in earnings. The former University of Nevada golfer, who will be competing in somewhat of a home game this week, won the rain-shortened Oak Valley Classic in February, and picked up a pair of T2 finishes at the Championship at Morongo and the Championship at PGA West. The 25-year-old’s lone round above 71 in eight tournaments came at the Championship at Southern Dunes last September, where he followed up a first-round 65 with a 5-over 77 to miss the cut.

Jake Higginbottom

Jake Higginbottom (Australia)

The 20-year-old Higginbottom will be making the first of four straight starts in eGolf-sanctioned events at the ArrowCreek Open. Higginbottom’s stature as one of Australia’s best amateurs was cemented via a win at the prestigious Riversdale Cup in 2012, as well as a selection to the Golf Australia National Squad. Later that same year, he became the first amateur in more than half a century to win the European Tour’s BMW New Zealand Open – a tournament featuring past champions such as Peter Thomson, Corey Pavin and Ian Baker-Finch. The New South Wales native turned professional two days after the win.

Ryan Nelson (Charleston, SC)

Nelson, 36, has five wins on the eGolf Tour over the past three years – the most of any player during that stretch. The married father of two is currently seventh on the tour’s money list this year, posting top-25 finishes in each of his eight starts – including three top-5s. The Pacific Northwest native and former University of Portland star competed in both the 2011 and 2013 U.S. Opens.

Other notable players in the field at ArrowCreek include four-time eGolf Tour winner T.J. Howe (Osceola, PA), recent eGolf West winner Jesse Mueller (Mesa, AZ), 2014 eGolf Tour winner & 2011 Western Amateur champion Ethan Tracy (Columbus, OH), and Golf Channel’s “Big Break NFL” cast members Isaac Sanchez (Folsom, CA) and Will Lowery (Charlotte, NC)

Local players of note include Joshua Ralph (Reno, NV), Trent Virden (Reno, NV), Josh Weeden (Reno, NV), Scott Smith (Fallon, NV) and Andrius Trijonis (Washoe Valley, NV).

The event will be the 11th of 15 regular season events on the eGolf Tour, and the penultimate event on the 2014 eGolf West schedule, which will both give way this fall to the inaugural Million Dollar Championship Series – a series of four tournaments highlighted by $1,000,000 in overall prize money.

eGolf’s 2014 Million Dollar Championship Series will feature guaranteed purses of $225,000, $225,000, $250,000 and $300,000, with the winner of the fourth and final championship series event receiving a $50,000 first-place prize. The four-event series will kick off with the River Hills Championship, to be contested at River Hills Country Club in Lake Wylie, SC on August 27-30, 2014.

Opening-round play at the ArrowCreek Open will begin on Wednesday, July 1st at 7:30 AM, with players competing in threesomes off of Nos. 1 and 10 tees. Following the conclusion of 36 holes, the field will be cut to the low 35 percent and ties for Friday’s final round of play. The tournament is open to the public and free of charge. For more information on the event, or the eGolf Tour, please visit www.egolfprofessionaltour.com.