Somewhat O/T - Match Formats For Groups

[Ryan Crago]

Hey All,

For each of the last few years, a couple buddies and I have made a winter golf trip to Bandon (from Vancouver, BC), usually including a round in Portland and Seattle along the way.  

For this year's pilgrimage, we've expanded the group to 8, and being the ever-present social coordinator, I thought putting together some sort of multiday match together would be good fun.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what kind of match/betting format might work best?  Initially I was thinking 4 person teams, doing a simple high ball, low ball each day, and accumulating points for the 5 days.... but I thought it might be good to open the floor to see if there any fun ideas out there.

for background, the skill range of my group varies from semi-retired Canadian Tour professionals, to 15 handicaps.  

We're planning to play one round at each of Sahallee, Pumpkin Ridge, Bandon Dunes, Trails, Pacific, and the Sheep Ranch as the topper.

And suggestions for a game for the sheep ranch would be good too! I assume we'll probably play an eightsome there, which might make for some good possibilities.


rc.

[THuckaby2]

Ryan:

Great questions!  Odds are this group comes up with some good ideas.  I've run these for years, and well... I can't think of any great way to do this with 8 players over 6 rounds, based on teams.  I find odd partners/based formats to be fun (ie alternate shot, chapman, etc.), but given you are playing each of these courses once, I doubt your guys will want to go that route.  So assuming you all want to play out your own ball, well not much better to do than high/low, better ball, things like that.

As for Sheep Ranch, sadly I haven't played there, but all who have say a very fun thing to do is matches where the winner picks the next hole.  I'd say doing singles matches like that, specifying the number of holes to be played, would be VERY VERY fun - more so than an 8some would be.  The course surely does allow for this.

TH

ps - if you could add a 7th round, you could do this as an individual event, where everyone plays every other guy exactly once.  Just a thought - that would be a blast.  You could also do it individually as a bracket event like baseball tends to do where it takes two losses to be eliminated - that would mean though however you do it that some guys are playing "just for fun" at the end.  Just a thought though.

[Jason Topp]

Ryan I love organizing this kind of thing.  Here are my ideas:

1.  Mix up the groups and formats.  In my experience on these trips if a person starts poorly they continue poorly.  Try and figure out a way for a guy playing his worst can still be competitive. Mixing up the teams and formats gives reason for hope.  It also reduces the irritation factor that gets magnified on these trips.

2.  Finish with a Ryder Cup style team event.  Set it up so that most of the points are in final round singles matches and that they will come down to the end.  A good way to do that is to play best ball for the front nine (or first 18) and then singles matches for the back nine (or second 18).  With 8 guys, a front nine sweep will only result in a 2-0 score, leaving hope for the team that is behind.

3.  Have people pay for the bets up front.  If someone is getting creamed it eases the pain.  If someone breaks even, it feels like he won.  If someone wins, it feels like more money.

4.  I really like the Masters as a bet for a trip, especially for a group of 8.  Six 3 hole stroke play tournaments.  Everyone contributes $35 (or $15 or whatever the price range of the group is) to the pot.  

     For the first five tournaments, each person has $5 (or $2) on the line.  Low score wins.  In the event of a tie, you simultaneously start the next tournament and hold a sudden death playoff.  

     Winning a tournament qualifies you for the Masters.  If someone fails to qualify, he has to either give up the entry fee for the Masters ($10 or $5) or buy in with an extra $10 (or $5).

    With eight people, there are a lot of playoffs.  Also, someone playing poorly always has the chance to scrape it together for three holes.  Winning the Masters always means you win a fair amount of money.  No one has to mortgage the house to play.

Have fun!

[Ryan Crago]

thanks guys.. some great ideas.  

i'll let you know how it works out, and i'll have my camera with me too for a few december bandon shots.


rc.

[Matthew Schulte]

We had a group of 8 go to Bandon for a week this past summer.  We too had a very diverse range of playing abilities.  We played a week long modified stableford game against a daily changing quota.  This was a spin off on a game suggested by Golf Digest.

Every player's starting quota is determined by subtracting their handicap from 36.  For example, a 6 handicap has a STARTING quota of 30 points.  We used the following points system (which prevents the nearly enevitable blowup hole from ruining someone's entire day):

Eagles: 7 points
Birdies: 4 points
Pars:    2 points
Bogeys: 0 points
Doubles or worse: -1 point.

The quota adjusts daily to prevent people from sandbagging but also does a good job of keeping people in the game.

If a player has an off day and comes up short of his handicap he gets a break the next day.  His quota goes down the following day by HALF the number of points he came up short of his quota.  For example, Day One quota: 30 points.  Day One Score: 22 points.  NET SCORE -8.  Day Two quota is: 26.  

However, to prevent sandbagging, if a player goes over his quota, his following day quota goes up by the ENTIRE number of points he was over on the previous day.  For example, his quota was 26 and he scored 30 points, his new quota is 30.

This system really did make a week's worth of golf come down to the last round for 5 of the 8 players in our group.  The only drawback is that the math can get a little confusing for some.    

[peter_p]

We just had eight down to Bandon. We played two man best ball, full handicap all three days, with gross birdies and KPs,
different teams each day. The high handicapper, a 22 who can can hit it 300, won all three days. I was able to turn his measly net 59 the first day into a acceptable 54. 15 Knuth points should knock him down to about a 15 next year.
 Next year is 12 or 16, and we may have an opening for S-S-M before Thanksgiving.

 

[ForkaB]

Shivas

Your game is far too easy to understand.  I think that Ryan is looking for something with a bit more complexity and spice.

[Bob_Huntley]

Shivas

Your game is far too easy to understand.  I think that Ryan is looking for something with a bit more complexity and spice.

Rich,

I did laugh out loud.

Bob