Starting a golf league- question/suggestions

[LeviScot5]

Hey everyone,

My buddies and I are going to start a golf league. Most of us have played baseball/beer league softball our whole lives, but we’re ready to finally save our bodies , continue to destroy our livers, and start up a golf league.

-We have 16 committed, barring nobody bails at the last minute. If we have less than 16, we plan on doing individual head 2 head, Stableford league. For now, we want to run 2 man teams.

- Since most guys do not have established handicaps, we are going to use the first 2 weeks to establish handicaps and try to form the most even teams.

- Suggestions for team scoring??

- Also, we will have 16 weeks, so I planned on 2 weeks establishing handicaps, then a 6 week (first half), 7 week second half, week 16 championship. End of season Ryder Cup tournament.

- Any suggestions about adding to this format would be greatly appreciated.

- Tips on a Ryder Cup tournament?

- Thanks

[jdl]

My league has 2 man teams, with 3 points per hole. 2 singles matches, Player A on team 1 vs Player A on team 2, B vs B. Then the third point is a team point, low net for each team.

There's tons of other options to consider, you could do combined score instead of low net for the team point, etc.

Also with such a short season (similar to ours) we use best 4 scores of last 6 rounds to calculate handicaps.

 

Ryder Cup sounds fun, I've always wanted to try setting that up but have never gotten around to it.

[ddetts]

> @jdl said:

> My league has 2 man teams, with 3 points per hole. 2 singles matches, Player A on team 1 vs Player A on team 2, B vs B. Then the third point is a team point, low net for each team.

> There's tons of other options to consider, you could do combined score instead of low net for the team point, etc.

> Also with such a short season (similar to ours) we use best 4 scores of last 6 rounds to calculate handicaps.

>

> Ryder Cup sounds fun, I've always wanted to try setting that up but have never gotten around to it.

 

We do similar, 2 man teams A vs A and B vs B player. But we do match play for that league. 10 points per match, 1 point for a hole win & 1/2 point for halves. Then 1 additional point to the player that won the match. It's a lot of fun. We have 28 teams, in two fights by handicap.

[SNIPERBBB]

Match play is more interesting and can keep things moving along if your playing with guys that you can beat by 20 strokes for 9....

 

I'm trying to get our company league to do a net stableford individual competition along side the match play as many times your opponents don't show up so it really gimmicks the point standings.

[jdl]

> @SNIPERBBB said:

> Match play is more interesting and can keep things moving along if your playing with guys that you can beat by 20 strokes for 9....

>

> I'm trying to get our company league to do a net stableford individual competition along side the match play as many times your opponents don't show up so it really gimmicks the point standings.

 

We added a "ghost player" in the instance where an opponent doesn't show. That "ghost" inherits the handicap of the player who didn't show and shoots a net 41 (9 holes). So the person playing them won't get all the points, but if they play reasonably well they should win their match. But play bad and you could face the indignity of losing to the ghost!

[ddetts]

> @jdl said:

> > @SNIPERBBB said:

> > Match play is more interesting and can keep things moving along if your playing with guys that you can beat by 20 strokes for 9....

> >

> > I'm trying to get our company league to do a net stableford individual competition along side the match play as many times your opponents don't show up so it really gimmicks the point standings.

>

> We added a "ghost player" in the instance where an opponent doesn't show. That "ghost" inherits the handicap of the player who didn't show and shoots a net 41 (9 holes). So the person playing them won't get all the points, but if they play reasonably well they should win their match. But play bad and you could face the indignity of losing to the ghost!

 

I like that idea! I think right now our league awards 7 points, not the full 10 for a forfeited/no show match. That's their simple attempt to keep forfeits somewhat fair.

[LeviScot5]

Really good ideas! Thanks guys

[Imp]

Few things I've learned helping run some leagues over the years...

 

A league generally means there's going to be some kind of winner not only every week, but at the end of the season. What's the end result? What does the winner "get" and need to achieve in winning the year? Is it a team prize or individual? Start there and work backwards.

 

Stableford is fun. Cumulative points over the course of the year. Payouts to top players over X rounds (ours is top 2 in 20 rounds, top 3 in 15 rounds and top 3 in 10 rounds). Keeps everyone involved and still rewards good play for those that couldn't commit to a full schedule. Of course, those that played all 20 rounds have a higher share of the pot than 15 and likewise 15 has more than 10). One thing we also do for stableford points (more like quota-ish) is we've changed the point structure. We base points on gross score, not net. Then, add in their handicap as points at the end. Makes things easier to tally while drinking (your choice here) afterwards. Our point structure is:

 

-3 Points - any time you get double par (Pick up once you hit double par)

-2 Points 4 over par (Par 5s)

-1 Point 3 over par

0 Points double bogey

1 Point bogey

2 Points par

5 points birdie

8 points eagle

12 points double eagle

18 points hole in one

 

It's worked well for years. :)

 

Then I also help run a rather large league. (So big we have substitutes for players that can't make it). It's team based individual match play (9 teams of 8 players each 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D flights on each team, with one team as a bye each week), and if one player is out, if one player on a team/foursome doesn't make it, and no sub, they play two individual matches instead (Plays one ball, but that one ball counts in both matches against the other two players). 1 point per hole, 1/2 for a tie. No extra points for winning a match. I would say you just have A and B flights and 4 teams of 4. (16 players, right? Can still do ABCD flights based on handicap, or if pairing team points, 2As and 2Bs). We have a mid, and year playoff where the top two teams of the half play in a playoff, and the winners play in the championship head to head match play for 18 holes year end.

 

But different than typical match play, because there are points per hole, you play all 9. No quitting once you've got more points than your opponent, you play for your teams points.

 

--kC

[jaredt22]

I was part of a league for several years, and actually ran it the last 2 years, before I moved to another state. We had 2-man teams (A player and B player), and played handicapped match play A vs A, B vs B, with 1 pt for each hole, and one point for total score, so 20 pts total (10 per player). We used 85% handicaps, rolling 5 week average, and throw out the high and low score. So, calculate the handicap using the 3 middle scores. It always seemed to come out pretty fairly. If one player didn't show up, then both players would play the other single player (with an adjustment). For example, if team 1 A player doesn't show up, then B players play each other, as usual, and team 2 A player also plays team 1 B player, but the team 1 B player takes a 2 stroke disadvantage (as sort of a penalty for not having a sub). Also, if a whole team didn't show, then we would just give the team that did show up a set 12 points (that amount used to be 13, then whatever the highest amount won that week was, then we settled at 12). We also had proximities on both par 3's, and each winner would win a course-logoed ball (which was provided by the course). The course also provided 2 1st place trophies for the winners. In the last few years that I started running it, I also gave end of year awards for the people that showed up every single week (custom wood bag tags), the person that scored the most individual points, minimum of 3/4 season attendance (Amazon gift card), the person that improved their handicap the most from 1st calculated to last calculated, minimum of >1/2 season attendance (tokens for the range), and the person who won the most proximities over the season (personalized, engraved, course-logoed, metal divot tool). We also had a mixed team 4-man scramble on the last week, where teams were divided as evenly as possible, and I would give a dozen premium balls to the winning team. Just some ideas, based off of how I ran things. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. But, there are a wide variety of ways to run and manage a league.

[DavePelz4]

We have 14 guys and a 15 event season. Ages are 30's to 70's and indexes from 5 to 30. Stableford format and you use your best 6 scores of the season to establish your point total. Some guys can only play 6 rounds because of kids' schedules, etc. It also keep everyone in the mix throughout the season. $100 entry fee, $20/event fee for skins/par 3's. We do a real-time handicap using just rounds from our competitions. Because we've done this for a few years now, we use the 5 best differentials of your last 10 scores. Keeps things a bit more recent biased. The final round has extra payouts where you can win your entry fee back so everyone has something to play for. The 3 of the last 4 years it's come down to the last shot on the last hole in order to determine the winner. We have an awards cookout, ugly trophy and the winner does the ceremonial lighting of the bonfire which is quite legendary.