Member / Member Tournament Ideas???

[ALTSean]

Our club is looking to improve our Member / Member tournament and bring it to the level of the Member / Guest which is popular and has a waiting list every year.  What things have you seen that make a Member / Member successful?  

[mizuno player]

The member/member I ran at my old club was one of the most popular. 

 

Our format. 

Saturday front nine was a two man scramble. Had to use each person drive three times. 

Back nine was alternate shot. ( It didn't matter who holes the putt on the last green. One guy tees off on odds the other even. For some reason our guys kept thinking the guy that holes the final putt on the previous hole did not tee off. ) 

 

Sunday was better ball for all 18. 

Sunday we had the course first so we could do a shotgun start and have a big picnic lunch afterwards.  That made it a lot of fun. If there was a playoff we would have a large following. The shotgun and picnic afterwards really made it much more social. Before I changed that we would have teams finishing hours after the first groups. 

 

We had skins game both days and a super skin covering both days. 

 

Also, it was flighted based on team handicap. To have more involvement we had to do this. 

 

 

[me05501]

Two words: blind draw!

[UCBananaboy]

Have a practice round the night before and follow the round up with an auction for teams.

 

How we do it is that we auction each team off calcutta-style. The team itself has the option to purchase back 50% of themselves back from the team that buys them at auction.

 

We do minimum increments of $50 per team and the auction is a riot - lots of trash talk, drinks, and the typical shenanigans that arise during an auction.

 

So say Team A comprised of Bob/Dan are bought for $700 at auction by Kevin. Bob/Dan have the option to buy a piece of themselves back from Kevin (and Kevin doesn't have the option to say no) of up to $350 for 50% share.

 

Our member/member pays out prizes for Top 3 in each flight and winner of each flight (plus a skill challenge wild card spot for those who didn't qualify) go into a shootout where more additional prizes are awarded for the Top 3 finishers. 

 

We've had years where the winning teams didn't buy back their own team which amounted to losing several thousand dollars.

 

Typical format is a modified stableford system over 36 holes. Our Mem/Guest format is usually 9 holes of Alt shot, 9 Scramble, 9 Both scores, 9 Best Ball, 9 Shamble

[Kragster]

We do a spring and fall member/member.   Spring is more casual.   Two day ringer format  (two days of best ball, you take the 1 lowest score on each hole for both partners across both days)  There's a small party the night before w/ spouses allowed, small betting, I think we do a pari-mutuel for that one (basically like betting on horses, the fewer tickets bought on winning team, the more each ticket pays out) $5 a ticket.   

 

Fall is the bigger one, similar to our member/guest but not quite as crazy.  Stag night day before with calcutta(pot is usually about half of what our member/guest is)  Match play with 27 holes first day, 18 second then shootout.  Small party w/ spouses after for awards, dinner, band, etc..

 

I think the match play with the Calcutta makes it a huge draw.  We only have a few match play events a year so everyone loves playing in it.   

[KingstonGolfer]

Shamble

scramble

best ball

best ball alternate shot

Combined score

[fratlord]

60 total teams, 6 teams per flight

 

You play 5, 9 hole matches, one against every team in the flight; 1 Friday evening, 2 Saturday, 2 Sunday. Matches are 3 - best ball and 2 - chapman format. 1 point for each hole won, 1/2 point for each hole tied, 1 point for winning match. Teams with highest point totals from each flight play in a shootout, alternate shot, following the last 9 hole match on Sunday. One team eliminated on each hole of shootout, ties for last on a hole go to a predetermined closest to the hole chip off location on that hole.

 

Chapman Format - Both players hit drives; each plays the other's ball for the second shots; the best of the second shots is selected, and from there the two partners play alternate shot into the hole.

Edited May 17, 2022 by fratlord
added details

[puttnforthe8]

Calcutta - ours breaks $20k every year now.

 

The Calcutta is basically a party as well prior to the event.

 

Nice swag.

 

Scramble Day 1; BB Day 2

 

Skins; Daily winners as well.

 

Nice trophy - travelling