My wife is the coordinator for our city's women's Interclub Golf Association this year. There are eight clubs and each club sends its best four players for monthly tournaments. My wife checks handicaps, sets the pairings, keeps the cumulative scoring (scratch and handicap), coordinates with the various clubs, and arranges for trophies. As you might expect, some clubs are much stronger than others. The job of coordinator rotates each year to a different (host) club.
But here's the question. The last event of the season, coming up in November, is called a "field day" and all the women who have competed are invited to play at the host club one last time for fun. My wife is trying to come up with some format of play that would be interesting and enjoyable to the women. It doesn't count toward the final standings.
I was wondering if you were in her shoes, what types of formats would you be considering as a final field day event? We're thinking you've probably seen lots of events and might have some fresh ideas.
Thanks so much!!
Lou Lou
Dear Lou Lou,
A few years ago I designed a tournament for my local golf association that has become popular over the years because it is exciting, fun, and challenging. I called it the “Ryder Cup,” and here is how it works.
Two competitors play as partners, and the format changes every six holes. There are six holes of better ball, six of scramble, and six of selected drive-alternate shot. This is a gross tournament, played in flights.
The better ball is your standard, four-ball competition. Each player plays his own ball, and only the better score needs to be recorded.
During the scramble, each player hits a tee shot, and then for each successive shot they decide which was the better shot and play both balls from that spot. For scrambles, I generally allow players to place the ball within one foot of where the ball landed, no closer to the hole. Players must keep the ball in the same condition – if the ball is in the rough, for example, then they must play their next shot from the rough.
For the selected drive-alternate shot, both players tee off. They select the best drive and then alternate that ball to the hole. They may not change balls to use their preferred brand. Player A tees off with a Precept and Player B hits his tee shot with a Titleist. The players decide to use Player A’s drive. Player B will hit the next shot, and both players will continue alternating shots, using Player A’s Precept, all the way into the hole.
For the better ball and selected drive-alternate shot formats, I would recommend playing the ball down, unless conditions dictate otherwise.
Whether you run this tournament with tee times or as a shotgun, you should place a highly visible sign on the tee where the format changes, e.g., BEGIN SCRAMBLE HERE. It is also helpful to draw two thick lines on the scorecard after each set of six holes (between 6 and 7, and 12 and 13), and print the title of the format under each grouping. This would be essential to avoid confusion if you are running your tournament as a shotgun.
I always ran this as a gross tournament in flights. For each pair, I would combine 60% of the lower handicap with 40% of the higher handicap, and then use that number to place each team in a flight. The competition is then straight gross in each flight. Try to group your flights with a relatively small spread of handicaps – it is always more important to keep the spread small than the number of teams in each flight even. This is a fair competition, is easy to score, and yields lots of winners.
Ideally, you want to schedule the better ball for the easiest stretch of six holes and the scramble for the toughest. However, if you are playing the tournament with tee times, you do not want to play alternate shot on the first six holes. So if your first six holes are of medium difficulty, then start with the better ball, play the scramble on the hardest six, and the alternate shot on the easiest. If your tournament is a shotgun, you don’t have the luxury of all this fine-tuning. Some players will have to start with the alternate shot format. It’s not ideal, but they will survive and still have a good time.
This format encourages players to bond as a team, and is consistently well-received. If you do try it, please send my some feedback.
Linda
Copyright © 2009 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
