Help with setting up company golf league

[jming]

lots of questions...

Howdy,

So my company's golf league is pretty lame. We play one a tournament once a year and there's no score keeping or anything. someone just organizes one event, we play and then go home. booooooring. I think the main problem is that nobody really wants to do all of the work to get everything set up b/c we have to prepay for the courses, deal with contracts, and then there's always the logistics and last minute cancellations and changes. we usually get a good number of people playing at this one tournament.

so i've been thinking about this more and was talking to a buddy and we are hoping to give some life to our league since we are allowed 20% time to work on other projects i figure we can spend a little time working on this. it'd be cool to be able to play different courses every few weeks and be able to meet new people in our league/company. also someone can claim the title of best golfer in our league! i also am guessing that a lot of people don't play consistently because of family, kids, other,. but if we had a set schedule ahead of time this would give more notice for them to say "hey these saturdays/sundays i'm gonna go play golf b/c we have a tournament!"

since i've never been part of a "real" league before i have a few questions. i'll start out with how i think it could be set up and then i have some questions. i was thinking play once a month between months of march through october or something like that. we are in norcal so it gets a bit cold/rainy in the winter months. the courses are open and we could still go play but i personally hate playing in the cold and i'd guess many won't come out if it's rainy season. this would give us 8 rounds if played once per month. we could go every few weeks, such as every 3 weeks, to get a few more rounds in.

do u always play stroke play? or do u play other types (i'm not familiar with other types).

for calculating each person's scores do you take the raw score and then adjust each score with the course handicap? then do you take the average of those tournament scores to see who are the leaders? do you get everyone's printed handicap card before you start? what if someone's doesn't have a handicap?

do you play for prizes every tournament? long drive, closest to the pin, skins, and overall 1,2,3, etc? do you collect a few more $ for these prizes for each tournament? what about prize for the championship tournament, how do you collect $ for this? do you take a few bucks from each tournament for the final championship prize or do you just do the same as every other tournament?

do you guys use simple spreadsheets to track scores or do u use any online tools? any other ideas/tips you'd like to share? i'm thinking a simple spreadsheet should suffice.

thanks for any help!!

[teejaywhy]

Back in the 80's, I volunteered to help run our company's golf club. We were able to grow the membership and participation and I am quite proud of our accomplishments. We started with about 50 members and average 25 people per event and after two years had 100 members and averaged 45 players per event. Just some random notes:

 

- We played a monthly tournament at a different course each month.

- Most of the events were stroke play, gross and net prizes by flight.

- We experimented with a few different formats like Stableford and team events, but the individual stroke play seemed to be the most popular.

- We had closest to pin, long putt and long drive competitions each event.

- We instituted a points system for an end-of-year award (the PGA Tour copied us with the Fedex Cup LOL!). Points given for every event played to encourage participation.

- We charged a nominal annual fee to join ($20?) that went into the year end prize fund

- Published a monthly newsletter with event results, course reviews and info on upcoming events.

- the fee for each month's tournament included a prize fund as well as a couple of extra $ into the year-end prize fund.

- Most courses require prizes to be awarded as shop credit/gift certificate.

- As for commitments, you need to collect the tournament entry fee in advance, that way no-shows eat it.

- Year end tournament included tee gifts, a banquet lunch, door prizes and trophies.

- An end of summer two-day championship event (with trophies)

- We kept our own handicaps using only event scores, worked well for the regular players but not ideal for the occasional attendee or establishing a HC for a new player. I think it is easier now to form a club and get official handicaps from your state golf association - which is what I would recommend although that will probably cost $20-25 per player (add to annual dues).

- You will want help. At least two people to plan the events and work with the golf courses, a treasurer, a handicap/rules guy, etc.

- After some controversies that popped up during the first few events due to historically lax application of the rules, we decided to announce that the competitions would be held according to the RULES OF GOLF. We made a effort to educate the members about the rules. Included a rulebook with the dues, published a column in the newsletter, bought a videotape that members could borrow and watch...

- As for scoring events, this was back in the 80's before laptops and all that - we did all the scoring manually, LOL. Should be much easier these days!!!

- Scoring is as follows: First, determine the players' COURSE HANDICAP (INDEX * SLOPE / 113). Net score is simply Gross score - Course Handicap.

- We sorted the flights depending on who and how many were playing and awarded prizes by flight, both gross and net, again, how many places depended on how many were playing. Typically 1st and 2nd gross, 1st, 2nd and 3rd net.

 

 

Good luck!

[jming]

hi,

 

i really appreciate the response and the thoroughness!! i've never played in a club/league so i don't have any experience thus why i asked in this post. if you don't mind i have a few more questions below.

 

- Most of the events were stroke play, gross and net prizes by flight.

could you please explain how you did the flights and prizes?

 

- We instituted a points system for an end-of-year award (the PGA Tour copied us with the Fedex Cup LOL!). Points given for every event played to encourage participation.

can you explain more how you did the points system?

did you have a minimum number of rounds or points to qualify for the championship?

 

- the fee for each month's tournament included a prize fund as well as a couple of extra $ into the year-end prize fund.

can i ask how much extra did you add to each tournament? and how much of that went to the year-end prize fund?

 

- Year end tournament included tee gifts, a banquet lunch, door prizes and trophies.

- An end of summer two-day championship event (with trophies)

i was thinking about doing this too. could you explain a little bit more about how one can become the champion? is it just the winner of this two day event? or does it tie in with how many points they have or their season ranking somehow? what i mean by this is, everyone is ranked at the end of the season (by points or average net score or whatever), does this have any impact on becoming champion or does this just mean they were ranked 1st for the season and whoever wins this 2-day tourney is the "champion"?

 

- We kept our own handicaps using only event scores, worked well for the regular players but not ideal for the occasional attendee or establishing a HC for a new player. I think it is easier now to form a club and get official handicaps from your state golf association - which is what I would recommend although that will probably cost $20-25 per player (add to annual dues).

how do you handle players with no HC? how do you calculate their adjusted score then? if they don't have one, are they not able to play for the championship?

 

- We sorted the flights depending on who and how many were playing and awarded prizes by flight, both gross and net, again, how many places depended on how many were playing. Typically 1st and 2nd gross, 1st, 2nd and 3rd net.

does a person winning 1st gross prize and 1st net happen often? i'd be worried that people would get put off if the same "better players" kept winning the prizes and the high 'caps didn't win and thus started to not participate as often. basically, how can we get the higher 'caps to be more involved if they don't think they have a shot at winning anything.

 

also, did u guys play other events such as par 3 events? chipping/pitching/putting contests of any kind or any other fun events where everyone can participate?

 

again, i appreciate your post and it's given me a lot more insight!

[teejaywhy]

hi,

 

i really appreciate the response and the thoroughness!! i've never played in a club/league so i don't have any experience thus why i asked in this post. if you don't mind i have a few more questions below.

 

- Most of the events were stroke play, gross and net prizes by flight.

could you please explain how you did the flights and prizes?

 

I apologise, the exact details are a little hazy, it has been 20 years ago ! You may want to recruit helpers who have played in leagues before, but it's not rocket science. And you can learn as you go and make adjustments as needed.

 

The flight breakup and payouts will vary from event to event, depending on participation. As for flights, we would just take how many signed up and break the flights as evenly as possible by handicap. Usually three flights, sometimes four, just depends on how many players and how big you want the flights. 10-12 people per flight seems OK, more or less, it is really up to you. Less flights means more $ per prize, more flights means more people get prizes.

 

As for prizes, first decide how much extra per tournament above and beyond the hard costs for the golf you want to charge for prizes. I can't remember what we collected back then, but $20 seems entirely reasonable. You have to find a balance - too little and you have very small payouts, too much and you might discourage participation. It is mostly just for fun. I recall there seemed to be a theorum in place (this because prizes were always paid in pro shop credit): 1st place = shirt, 2nd place = hat, 3rd place = towel... LOL ($45, $25, $15...). Subtract a few bucks for the year-end tournament and factor in the other proximity prizes ($20-25 each..).

 

It's a matter of playing with the numbers based on how many golfers. You may want to pay only net, or you may want to add gross places as well. Depending on the skill level of your group, you may just have a single low gross prize for the entire field (or not, if there is only one really good golfer that will win it every time...).

 

 

- We instituted a points system for an end-of-year award (the PGA Tour copied us with the Fedex Cup LOL!). Points given for every event played to encourage participation.

can you explain more how you did the points system?

did you have a minimum number of rounds or points to qualify for the championship?

 

Basically the idea was to increase participation. Again, so long ago I don't remember the details. We gave a point for every tournament played in. Then points for placing, i.e. 1 pt for 3rd, 2 pts for 2nd, 3 pts for 1st... The person with the most points got the trophy. We called it the "Winners Cup" or something stupid like that. No minimum rounds required for this one, the points system takes care of that.

 

 

- the fee for each month's tournament included a prize fund as well as a couple of extra $ into the year-end prize fund.

can i ask how much extra did you add to each tournament? and how much of that went to the year-end prize fund?

 

See above. Assuming $20 pp prize fund, keep $2-3 per player to put into the pot for the year end. We also collected annual membership dues and most of that went into the year end tournament as well.

 

 

- Year end tournament included tee gifts, a banquet lunch, door prizes and trophies.

- An end of summer two-day championship event (with trophies)

i was thinking about doing this too. could you explain a little bit more about how one can become the champion? is it just the winner of this two day event? or does it tie in with how many points they have or their season ranking somehow? what i mean by this is, everyone is ranked at the end of the season (by points or average net score or whatever), does this have any impact on becoming champion or does this just mean they were ranked 1st for the season and whoever wins this 2-day tourney is the "champion"?

 

Our "championships" were basically just events where the prizes were enhanced by trophies. The winners were determined same as any other event (gross/net, whatever). Not related to the year end points title which was a separate award. You could if you wanted, award more points to the winner of the "major" tournament, considering a two day event.

 

- We kept our own handicaps using only event scores, worked well for the regular players but not ideal for the occasional attendee or establishing a HC for a new player. I think it is easier now to form a club and get official handicaps from your state golf association - which is what I would recommend although that will probably cost $20-25 per player (add to annual dues).

how do you handle players with no HC? how do you calculate their adjusted score then? if they don't have one, are they not able to play for the championship?

 

Nobody plays for prizes without a handicap. They can play as a guest, or as a scratch. For new players you go through the process of trying to assign a handicap based on asking questions like what is your average score, what is your BEST score, asking their friends what they shoot, etc... There is an interesting web site that deals with handicapping and an article titled "Handicaps for the unhandicapped" Lots of good info on that site "The Pope of Slope" Also become familiar with how the USGA handicapping system works.

 

Be vigilant of sandbaggers. We quite liberally and arbitrarily reduced handicaps of suspected sandbaggers.

 

As I recall, we did also impose some minimum requirement for events played to win one of the championships.

 

 

- We sorted the flights depending on who and how many were playing and awarded prizes by flight, both gross and net, again, how many places depended on how many were playing. Typically 1st and 2nd gross, 1st, 2nd and 3rd net.

does a person winning 1st gross prize and 1st net happen often? i'd be worried that people would get put off if the same "better players" kept winning the prizes and the high 'caps didn't win and thus started to not participate as often. basically, how can we get the higher 'caps to be more involved if they don't think they have a shot at winning anything.

 

also, did u guys play other events such as par 3 events? chipping/pitching/putting contests of any kind or any other fun events where everyone can participate?

 

again, i appreciate your post and it's given me a lot more insight!

 

A person doesn't win both gross and net. Once a person wins a gross prize, they are out of the net competition.

 

With flights and handicaps, the higher caps should have a good chance of winning. It's usually the better golfers that have lower (and real) handicaps that really have to put up a good score to win.

 

We didn't have any par 3 events, or other contests, but why not?

 

There is really no concrete way to do it. You certainly want to be fair and consistent. You want to be absolutely open and ethical with the money. Good to keep records and have a system of checks & balances. Minimum monthly meetings of the organizing committe to review and plan. etc. Lot of work, but admittedly, I did a lot on company time. :rolleyes:

 

It was a fun league... As a lowly manufacturing floor tech, I got to play golf with some of the company directors and VP's and made some good connections that became valuable later on.

 

One other comment about working as volunteer and running a club - Do it for two years or so then step aside and let someone else run it. Otherwise you WILL get burned out. No matter what you do, someone will ALWAYS find a complaint. I usually use this as an opportunity to invite the complainer to join the organizing committee and help do it better. That usually shuts them up.

 

Feel free to ask any other questions.

[teejaywhy]

Click here to read about setting up a club that would have officially sanctioned handicaps by the Northern California Golf Association:

 

(Click on the "Associate Club Membership" button

http://www.ncga.org/ncga-services/join/?from=hometop

 

"NCGA Associate Clubs are normally found at places of employment or through social groups. An Associate Club is a golf organization that is not tied to a golf course facility, is organized primarily to pursue the game of golf and provides an opportunity to join and enjoy the services provided by the NCGA."