Weekly CC Scramble format - NEED YOUR ADVICE

[Mr. 82]

The season for my Tuesday evening golf league comes to a close this Tuesday, September 25th.  Since I started playing with this group we simply just show up and get paired, either by choice with guys we want to play with, or we pair guys up randomly, if they don't have a preference.  It's a basic Captain's Choice Scramble, where this year I awarded 1 point for par, 2 points for birdie and 5 points for eagle to each team.  You tally up the points at the end of the night, and the team with the highest points wins.  We also have long drive and closest to the pin contests for both regular and senior tees, with the winner of each one of these getting an additional 5 points added to their weekly points total.

 

We had 24 weeks of golf this year, and the top 4 points getters are being awarded trophies for the year, with the top guy being designated as "Champion Golfer of the Year" and getting his name added to the perpetual trophy that is now just 2 years old.

 

But as I review the year I'm pondering making some changes, based on the way things went this year.  Towards the middle of the year we had one guy who teamed up every week with 3 other single digit handicappers to basically win almost every week.  Because this has always just been very informal, and just for fun until last year, we never worried about stacked teams, or who won, or whatever.  However, with a end of the season champion golfer being crowned, I'm wondering if we shouldn't consider factoring in handicaps into this thing in some way, shape or form?  And honestly, I haven't the foggiest clue how you factor in a handicap to a foursome where some of, if not all of the foursome doesn't carry any sort of handicap at all.  In fact, some of these guys just play in this league, and then put their clubs in the closet until this league starts again next March.

 

I suppose you could take the known handicaps of all golfers in the group, and for those without a handicap, knowing their skill level, offer up some sort of value to that golfer.  Heck, most of these guys aren't all that serious, so there would be a lot of chaos I would think with figuring out the numbers.

 

The other consideration, outside of introducing handicaps into all of this, is to make a rule where if your team wins one week, the next week they have to split up and play with other golfers.  That was a simple idea, and a way to keep one team from totally dominating this thing.  And I say that honestly as one of the golfers who is in the top 4, and won a lot of weeks this year (8 out of 23 so far).  My overall concern is to continue to make this as fun as possible without just a few golfers winning week in and week out.  The hope honestly is to be able to include as many of the golfers in the group on winning teams and in the competition as possible.  I know that's almost impossible when you consider the skill level of some of your worst golfers, but I think it would be nice if even the worst of golfers wound up on a winning team at least once during the season.

 

If you have any thoughts or ideas as to how to improve this league, I'm definitely open to just about anything at this point.

[THEZIPR23]

I used to play in a weekly scramble for years and ran one at another course on a different night. They were 9 hole scrambles and whoever signed up played. Generally the same group of guys each week. One difference is we didn't have a year long competition, it was only weekly but still a blast. I will use 24 golfers as an example as I don't know how many you usually have. With 24, 6 foursomes was a natural breakdown. When everyone signed up they listed handicap/ average score. The lowest 6 handicaps were the captains, with the highest of the 6 picking first. It would be a snake draft until complete. This broke up the teams almost every week and it was very balanced. Very rarely did you have someone dominate or the teams be the same. One wrinkle that was added was that if you were a captain and won the previous week you would pick last the next week, regardless of handicap breakdown. 

[Kor.A.Door]

The way you incorporate Hcp into these is by setting up the teams based on Hcp. If this is something that is more than just for fun which is what it sounds like it is, you can't allow stacked teams.

I have an idea possibly, but I'm not sure how it will work, you could average the HCP of the group. Say a 10, 12, 3, and 5, so you take 30/4, 7.5 rounded to 8 or 7. Just needs to be consistent for all groups for rounding. Those are the strokes allowed for each team. So if you have 4 guys that are 0,1,1,2 the average is 1 they get 1 stroke. I guarantee the scratch guys will split up when the high cappers start winning because of 7 strokes. You could then do a gross and a net so all groups have a chance at something. I'm not sure how many groups you have.

[GB13]

I like Kor.A.Door's idea with the caveat that all handicaps should be based on last years rounds. Take the 24 rounds last year, formulate a handicap, and average for the group.

This will eliminate any complaining about sandbagging because you have a set, established handicap that can be proved.

[Kor.A.Door]

I like Kor.A.Door's idea with the caveat that all handicaps should be based on last years rounds. Take the 24 rounds last year, formulate a handicap, and average for the group.

This will eliminate any complaining about sandbagging because you have a set, established handicap that can be proved.

Another way to figure the caps is to use the low index over the last 12 months. So currently someone has an index of 6.2, but back in February they were at their personal low at 4.7, you use 4.7 for you calculation. Of course you use course handicap for strokes, but use low cap over the last 12 months to determine those strokes. This also helps eliminate the sand baggers, because you are always using their lowest index.

[Mr. 82]

 

 

I'm not sure how many groups you have.

We average 37 golfers a week, and usually fill out 9 teams. I'm drawing from a list of nearly 270 golfers who average coming about once a month, but we have a core group of 20 or so golfers who come more often. The hardest part of putting together teams right now is that some of the guys show up literally as we are shotgunning at 5:30 pm, as they call a few minutes ahead to the pro shop and are just getting off of work.

 

We've actually discussed a scenario where we have more than 50 golfers show up, which was our max this year, and we're not really sure how creative we can get as we are limited to 9 holes each week. One week we sent everyone out as a fivesome and we managed to pull that off. Our grand finale tomorrow night is usually the largest group of the year, so I am bracing for the tsunami that is coming. We've yet to send out sixsomes, but we may go down that road if we have to.

 

 

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[Kor.A.Door]

That makes it really tough to make up groups to play, and try to keep it fair for everyone.

[MmmmmmBuddy]

Handicapping a scramble is always a struggle.

 

What we will occasionally do is “Birdie Back, Bogey Up”.

 

That means that if your team makes birdie or better, on the next hole, they move back a set of tees on the next hole. And if they make another bird, move back again. Make a par, stay put. Make a bogey, and move up a set.

 

This format basically assures that the low caps always are playing off of the way back tees. Always.

 

 

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[gaussman1]

Maybe end the prizes next year? Or make the teams random pair each week. Either one should take care of the issue. There's lots of other labor intensive ways to get there as well, but I'm labor adverse

[Mr. 82]

Maybe end the prizes next year? Or make the teams random pair each week. Either one should take care of the issue. There's lots of other labor intensive ways to get there as well, but I'm labor adverse

Yeah, I hear ya.  Unfortunately I opened up Pandora's box last year when we created a perpetual trophy for the champion golfer of the year, and this year we tallied points by churches, and are awarding a Ryder Cup style trophy to the winning church.

 

I am not averse to doing the work honestly.  I have ample time to spin numbers and create spreadsheets, etc.  Call it a labor of love for me honestly.  I'm already the one sending out the weekly emails and keeping track of everyone's points, so factoring in a handicap option of some sort is easily doable.

 

Honestly, no matter what we try you know how it goes - someone won't be happy.  But we do our best to arrive at the best solution for most of the players.  Interestingly enough, most of the guys are very positive about playing in this group, and even with the stacked teams and whatnot, I don't get many rumblings or complaining from too much of anyone.

[SteddyGolf]

I play in two groups:

 

First group creates two man teams based on the previous weeks results. Number 1 net score with number 15 net score, number 2 net score with number 14 net score and so forth. Your net score is of course your gross score minus your handicap.

 

Bets ($20 buy in) are as follows:

 

Low team net

Individual low overall net score

Individual low front net score

Individual low back net score

Skins on each hole

greenies on Par 3s

 

 

 

Second group is much less complicated for this group uses the stappleford scoring system. Teams are not established until after the round and they are chosen from numbers in a hat. Who you physical play with is based on first come first serve.

 

$5 buy in

 

Caveat for first group: this is a golf club in which all members contribute $240 a year to be used as a purse at our annual golf tournament on Maui. We also collect weekly fines at .25 cents per penalty for shooting over you handicap, water hazards, out of bounds, bunkers, 3 putts, etc. The weekly cap is $5 per player. The average fine per person each week is $2.

 

If anyone would like a copy of the bylaws I can certainly send them to you.

 

 

 

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