Spark Golf tournaments?

[lefthack]

https://www.spark.golf/

 

This pops up on Facebook from time to time and I am interested but didn't find anything on here so I figure I would ask.

 

Nine hole after work tournament seems like it could be a lot of fun. I have not played competitively since college (30 years ago 🤣) and thought it might be fun.

 

I joined a club at the end of last year and have only met a few other members while out playing and anticipate playing in men's club games soon. But I thought this might be a fun shoot around.

 

Anybody else play any of these?

[Slona]

Curious to see if anyone has any feedback on these. They've been all over my facebook feed as well. According to that, there are many signed up for it near me, but those could all be fake. 

[Eric49er]

I am thinking about joining one this week - now that the daylight saving time change has occurred, should have enough time to finish 9 after 5 PM

[lefthack]

Let me know, I am considering it.

[Eric49er]

I signed up today.  First outing is Thursday at 5:30 PM.  Based on the sign-up sheet that was shown after I signed up, it looks like about 20 others have signed up.  I will send an update after the round on Thursday

[Eric49er]

Yesterday was "opening day" for the Spark Golf leagues in Orlando.  Two of my friends played in a league at Forest Lake in Ocoee and I played in a league at Kings Ridge in Clermont.  The fee paid thru the Spark app was 25 and change with tax, but if you pre-pay for most of the season, it drops to about 19 per round.  When I looked for leagues, some were listed at 19 per week base price, with others at 22, 25, etc.  The 25 total for me was due to taxes and not pre-paying. 

 

Since I did not have a nearby buddy for the afternoon round, I was paired with another guy, but he never showed up.  The clubhouse attendant kept waiting on someone from Spark to show up, when the emails and messages said that no one will be there to start us off.  The clubhouse guy finally came out to give everyone cart keys, and we were off.  It was a shotgun start and each "team" was assigned a hole to start on.  I started on hole 3 and played with two other guys from ChampionsGate who had never been in the Spark leagues before either.

 

Each golfer was asked to rate themselves in the app, and was given strokes based on their normal nine hole score.  Most people got 6 strokes, or 3 strokes.  I am assuming that will be adjusted as the season goes on.  I started with a 6 stroke handicap, as my usual average score for 9 holes is around 45.

 

We waited on my team-mate and then finally teed off.  Scoring is done through the Spark app, and keeps a real time leaderboard and track of "skins".  You are supposed to enter each players score and it figures out who did best and posts that score as the team score. Since my teammate did not show, i just posted the max score for him for every hole, basically playing as a one man team.

 

The real time leaderboard is cool, and the app is easy to use.  You can get an idea of how everyone is playing and see if you have a shot at the skins if you have a birdie or eagle.  After the rounds, points are awarded to the teams with the lowest scores.  Skins are supposed to be awarded as a credit on your Spark account.  It looks there were three Skins awarded, for $3 each.  One was won with an eagle, the other two with birdies.

 

With the 6-stroke handicap, i shot even par, which was good enough for 6th place out of 11 teams.  3 under was the best score, 2 over was worst team score.

 

It was interesting and fun.  I am looking forward to the next week, especially if I can get paired up with someone who shows.

[jpdx]

A local course sent an email on this. My first thought is that it’s a scam...thought I’d check it on online and read about it. Then it hit me! Check Golfwrx!

 

I wonder how the breakdown of greens fees I’m paying is vs the cost of running the league. 

[lefthack]

The one kind of near me starts 4/15 so I might try one just for fun. My game isn't doing to bad, be funny to see where I stand.

[Eric49er]

The second week at Kings Ridge was different.  Once again, I did not have a partner who showed up and played as a single, along with another guy who was supposed to have a partner.  We started on hole 6 and finished quickly, since no one was ahead of us, and it was just two.  Neither of us played well. 😞

 

As we finished the 1st hole, after finishing 9, to go back and play 1-5, we noticed that the scoring app showed "10" (which was a par 4 where hole number one is a par 5).  They are kinda close together (you pass 10 to get to 1 from the clubhouse/hole 9), but it is not that easy to get from hole 10 to hole 2.  Not sure if that was supposed happen, a mistake, or if the course really does have an instruction area on Hole 1 at the same time as the Spark Golf time, as they claim (I have never seen anyone other than Spark Golf people on the course at that time)?   My playing partner and I decided to alter our score and adjust down one stroke - a 5 if we carded a 6 since the pars were different.

 

After we finished, I went back to the groups behind us and asked them about it.  They had played one as well, and I told them what conclusion we reached.  As I was driving back, i did see a group playing number 10.

 

On Friday - the score for hole 10 was blanked out on the scoring sheet.  Who knows? We will see what next round brings.

 

I finished way behind on the leaderboard this week, and am now 12th out of 25 in the league standings with 11 points.  The leaders have 89 points - not sure how that works either!

[Eric49er]

I finally had a partner to show up.  He was getting 8 strokes and i was getting 5.  When I played a bad hole, he had a good one and vice versa.  I had a couple of doubles and triples, but mixed in a few pars.  The most you can write down on a given hole is double bogey, and out of bounds, lost balls and water play as lateral hazards (unfortunately I had one of each).  Our team score was net one over, which tied for eighth place in the weekly standings (no issues with playing hole ten instead of hole one this week)

 

I hit one of the longest drives of my life on a short par four.  I ended up about 20 yards short of the green in a bunker, but was able to get out and make the par!  The GPS app said I hit it 288.

 

Looking forward to next week now that I have a partner.

[lefthack]

Nice. I was all set to play next Thursday but the wife reminded me we are leaving Thursday for a 4 day weekend.

 

Sounds like you are enjoying it. I hope to get at least one to try. 

[Bonneville85308]

They have announced these Spark leagues starting during the next month at a handful of courses around the Phoenix metro. We are generally not a city with much in the way of twilight leagues of any kind, compared to other places I've lived. In winter, the weather is perfect, but it gets dark too early to play after a day job, and courses are too packed with snowbirds to offer a discounted 9 hole rate. In summer, it is 110 degrees out in the afternoon and I think few people besides diehards would want to play in an evening league then.

 

The Spark league rate at one the courses I am very familiar with is about the same as anyone would pay there for a twilight round with a cart, which is a plus. At another, I think it's actually less than you would pay as just someone off the street for 9 holes with a cart.

 

Not really my cup of tea, but something I'd probably recommend any younger people I know who are more casual golfers and looking to meet similarly situated people.

[kthomas]

I just started playing the Arizona National Spark League here in Tucson. I've only played one match so far, it's fun, but there definitely seems to be some quirks to the scoring. 

 

Overall it's worth a shot if you want to get out and play a casual 9 holes of golf, with others that are looking to do the same. 

 

I've written about my experience here: 

 

[lefthack]

Nice. I really want to try it but my bag is still in flux and I haven't gotten my second shot yet. 

 

Sounds like it's a fun option, I will likely play at least one. Thanks for the update.