Planning a Ryder-Cup event....best way to handle 3 person groups??

[cutchemist42]

Hey everyone,

Helping plan a golf trip for a bachelor party for next Summer. We are doing a 3day Ryder Cup event where each day has a slightly different formats of team matchplay. (Modified alternate shot, shamble, scramble)

Just looking for advice on best way to handle odd numbered groups for fair results. This will be slightly giggle-golf with 2 mulligans and lesser penalties for lost balls.

 

I know its early but someone already asked about odd numbered groups incase someone drops out or we dont get enough for 4-person groups. (Right now got about 18 people) Thought I would think of that now.

 

If its 2 people left out, we are just doing normal matchplay between them. ( might try to get the better golfers in the group to do this)

We are just trying to figure out the 3 person format with mulligans involved that would still be fun and fair. (The lone person would be someone comfortable with the situation)

 

-2 simultaneous matches of AvsB, A vs C while giving A extra mulligans?

 

-1 match of A vs B/C doing alternate shot? Give player A 2 tee shots to make up for it?

 

-Player A gets a ghost teammate with a default score?

 

-Some other kind of format?

 

 

Thanks for any thoughts!

[Abh159]

I know it sounds fun, but doing anything Ryder Cup like without 8, 12, 16, or 20 players is really tough. Especially if you are talking about adding in "mulligans" and other stuff like that. People may chime in with ways to do it with a 3 person group, but in the end there is really no way to make it 100% fair to everyone. 

 

Personally, I think you're better off either getting an appropriate number of players or going with another format altogether. You can keep the team format and even the "singles matches" part as long as you have an even number of people.

 

FWIW if I'm going on a trip to play golf I wouldn't want to do anything alternate shot, scramble, or shamble related. I'd be pretty mad if I was paying a full green fee somewhere and only got to hit a fraction of the shots I normally would. 

[cutchemist42]

1 hour ago, Abh159 said:

I know it sounds fun, but doing anything Ryder Cup like without 8, 12, 16, or 20 players is really tough. Especially if you are talking about adding in "mulligans" and other stuff like that. People may chime in with ways to do it with a 3 person group, but in the end there is really no way to make it 100% fair to everyone. 

 

Personally, I think you're better off either getting an appropriate number of players or going with another format altogether. You can keep the team format and even the "singles matches" part as long as you have an even number of people.

 

FWIW if I'm going on a trip to play golf I wouldn't want to do anything alternate shot, scramble, or shamble related. I'd be pretty mad if I was paying a full green fee somewhere and only got to hit a fraction of the shots I normally would. 

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Yeah I think I see your point about the modified alternate shot but it was supposed to be a Ryder Cup style trip, so we were thinking of a way to make each 3 days different but I didnt necessarily need it to be. I was already thinking of dropping it, and the only way I was even thinking of it was to do the modified way as I dont like alternate shot either for full price. Atleast the Chapman (Hit switch and b****) only does alternate shot at shot 3. The alternate shot round is just being played at a cheap muni.

 

Was also thinking just Fourball-Aggregate might be a decent third option.

 

The team vs team aspect is the main point of the trip though so I figured team matchplay was the easiest and interesting format. You get the fun of comebacks, draw out of the hat for teams, some semblance of joke team outfits and stuff like that.

Edited November 1, 2021 by cutchemist42

[Abh159]

4 minutes ago, cutchemist42 said:

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Yeah I think I see your point about the modified alternate shot but it was supposed to be a Ryder Cup style trip, so we were thinking of a way to make each 3 days different but I didnt necessarily need it to be. I was already thinking of dropping it, and the only way I was even thinking of it was to do the modified way as I dont like alternate shot either for full price.

 

The team vs team aspect is the main point of the trip though so I figured team matchplay was the easiest and interesting format. You get the fun of comebacks, draw out of the hat for teams, and stuff like that.

 

Team events are a ton of fun I totally get it. It's just tough to do any sort of partnered (best ball, alternate shot, etc.) type format without multiples of 4 players. Without those numbers you always end up with a man (or men) being left out. 

 

[Warrior42111]

So I ran a trip this past April and 1 person dropped out last second (Family emergency). The way we proceeded forward was having his 'ghost' play where he'd shoot his HC plus 6 strokes (3 hardest on front and back respectively) on Days 1 and 3 Day 2 his partner had to try to carry it for his team and play solo. It definitely wasn't the cleanest way but it also got approval from all other participants. A saving grace to the above is that we had every hole in every match worth 1 point, instead of matches as the whole. This for sure helped.

 

As for format I'm with @Abh159 Alternate shot games are hard not only money wise playing the whole course, but can strain certain personalities.

 

On my trip the format / scoring was as follows:

 

Day 1: Stroke Play w/ HC every hole worth 1 pt each total nine worth an extra 2 pts

Day 2: 2 person scramble Match Play w/ HC every hole worth 1 pt each total nine worth an extra 2 pts

Day 3: 1 v 1 match play w/ HC every hole worth 1 pt each total nine worth an extra 2 pts

 

This format allows everyone to play the full course while also mixing up formats and strategy. 

[cutchemist42]

On 11/3/2021 at 12:36 PM, Warrior42111 said:

So I ran a trip this past April and 1 person dropped out last second (Family emergency). The way we proceeded forward was having his 'ghost' play where he'd shoot his HC plus 6 strokes (3 hardest on front and back respectively) on Days 1 and 3 Day 2 his partner had to try to carry it for his team and play solo. It definitely wasn't the cleanest way but it also got approval from all other participants. A saving grace to the above is that we had every hole in every match worth 1 point, instead of matches as the whole. This for sure helped.

 

As for format I'm with @Abh159 Alternate shot games are hard not only money wise playing the whole course, but can strain certain personalities.

 

On my trip the format / scoring was as follows:

 

Day 1: Stroke Play w/ HC every hole worth 1 pt each total nine worth an extra 2 pts

Day 2: 2 person scramble Match Play w/ HC every hole worth 1 pt each total nine worth an extra 2 pts

Day 3: 1 v 1 match play w/ HC every hole worth 1 pt each total nine worth an extra 2 pts

 

This format allows everyone to play the full course while also mixing up formats and strategy. 

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Yeah I think we can think of a better format than alternate shot as I could see it getting messy and i understand the money thing if not playing the same amount of shots.

 

As its 3 rounds and I dont want a repeat format to mix it up, I was thinking of the following instead of Alternate shot.

 

-Aggregate Fourball Matches

 

-Modified Chapman (hit, switch, and b****) with no alternate shot component. I was thinking this could be fun as it's a mix of playing levels so you would be seeing 2nd shots from spots you dont normally play as.

 

The ghost player will probably be our solution in the case someone drops out.

Edited November 9, 2021 by cutchemist42