Enter this June’s highly-publicised Peugeot Challenge Cup golf tournament at Belmont Hills and you risk forfeiting your amateur status for a minimum of a year, local golf’s chief administrator has claimed.

Bermuda Golf Association president Bob Legere yesterday went public with his concerns about the new event after reading that the male and female winners would receive free entry into a major Pro-Am in Paris, France this coming August.

According to Legere, under strict international regulations applied in relation to amateur status, no amateur is allowed to enter a tournament knowing they will be competing for a prize with a value in excess of 500 pounds sterling.

Unless the winner would be expected to pay their own way to Paris, the cost of travel, accommodation and the entry fee would end up being far greater than that and would therefore be illegal, Legere suggested.

The only way an amateur could safely get way with playing the Peugeot Challenge Cup, he added, was if they waived their right to the prize before the tournament began.

The BGA president said he felt compelled to speak out given his experience of three previous incidents where talented local juniors with or in search of college golf scholarships had unknowingly made themselves ineligible by entering tournaments where it had been possible to win prizes greater than the permitted value.

There’s also a strong possibility that keen part-timers who enter the Peugeot Challenge Cup would be prevented from competing in any amateur event both locally and overseas for a period of 12 months or more — including the prestigious Bermuda Amateur Strokeplay and Matchplay competitions — because under the rules they would technically be classified as pros, Legere said.

“I have personally had to deal with three incidents in the past where we’ve had excellent junior golfers enter a tournament such as the Peugeot Cup who discovered after the fact that they were now labelled professional and had put their college golf scholarships at risk,” he said.

“I had college coaches on the phone to me asking what on earth was going on and why this had been allowed to happen. As a result I had to wade through a huge amount of bureaucracy in order to get things back to normal.

“The last time it happened it took me about six months to get the situation ironed out and with Peugeot Cup now coming onto the calendar I feel it is important to let everybody know what the rules are and what will happen to your amateur status if you enter.”

When contacted yesterday, however, Peugeot Challenge Cup co-ordinator Alex Madeiros said he was “confident” the event did not violate the amateur status rules — but added he would be seeking urgent clarification of that fact from Promo Golf, the French promoters who are organising the Pro-Am in August.

He conceded, however, that the information printed on the entry form for the Cup — which costs $250 to enter — was misleading in that the winners do not in fact gain automatic entry into the Pro-Am as stated.

Instead, their names will merely go into a draw along with hundreds of others from other countries to decide who gets the two Pro-Am berths on offer.

However, under amateur status rules, entry into a prize raffle “where golf skill is a condition of entry” and where the value of the prize is more than 500 pounds is once again illegal.

“I’ve listened to Bob Legere’s concerns and will be speaking to Promo Golf very shortly to clarify exactly what is going on,” Madeiros said yesterday.

“What I would say though is that while this is the first time this event has been held in Bermuda, it’s been in existence since 1985 and is played in around 25 countries worldwide.

“As far as I am aware there hasn’t been a problem with a rule violation since the tournament began, so while I’m grateful to Bob for bringing his concerns to my attention, I’m confident the event is reputable.

“I’ll be speaking to Promo Golf in the morning and I will then comment further on the issue.”