Help Me Fix My League!

[Duffenstein89]

Hi all,

I’m looking for suggestions on how to improve my company golf league. It is a low-stakes league for players of all skill levels. We play 9 holes once a week with a two player scramble format. Four points are available each night – two from low net team, and two for net holes won. Team handicaps are set as 90% of the season average score.

Some of the complicating factors are: A) many golfers do not play at all outside of league, so individual handicaps would be difficult to establish, B) teams are made up of anywhere from two to five players with no way to predict who will show on a given night, so some teams’ scores vary weekly by upwards of 30 strokes throughout the year, and C) we routinely have teams no-show, giving teams free points.

Our league results the past few years have been largely erratic, seemingly with the highest-finishing teams being the ones that earn the most free points due to no-shows or the ones that manage to play teams when their best players are at home for the night, meaning that the randomness of who plays who and when has a greater influence on results than the golf itself.

Are there any changes we could make to the rules, the scoring, the format, or the league setup itself that would even things out a bit and encourage people to actually show up to play?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[bkuehn1952]

4 hours ago, Duffenstein89 said:

Are there any changes we could make to the rules, the scoring, the format, or the league setup itself that would even things out a bit and encourage people to actually show up to play?

Thanks in advance for the help!

A bit more info will help guide the suggestions.

1. How many members (not counting the substitutes) or how many teams of two?

2. Is one person in charge of running the league or a committee/board?  And are you the person in charge or on the committee/board?

3. Are a majority of the participants unhappy with the set-up of the league?

 

[Duffenstein89]

This year we had a total of 15 teams with probably an average of between 3 and 4 per team. Generally speaking, there is one person in charge and I am not that person. I wouldn't say a majority of people are unhappy; I think plenty of people are happy to just be out playing. I do hear grumbling from several people, though, both about lack of attendance and the "wild" handicaps for teams with a wide variety of skill levels.

[bkuehn1952]

A couple suggestions:

• Everyone participating is given a handicap and the team handicap each evening is the sum of the two players who show up divided by 2, times .90 (or to make the math simpler, the sum of the two handicaps divided by 2, rounded up or down).  Players with actual handicaps can be given 50% of their 18 hole handicap. Handicapping a player who only plays in the league will be hard.  Give everyone a best estimate.  I might assign a "5" to generally competent players, a "10" to novices and a "15" to people who have never played or who don't really play golf.  Have a standard number and slot people into the categories you decide upon. 
• If a team has no opponent, they play against the course.  So let's say a team has a team nine hole handicap of 7 (Player A = 10, Player B = 6  so 16 / 2 = 8  8 x .90 = 7.2 rounded to 7)  Their team gets a stroke on the 7 hardest holes.  If they make net birdie or better on a hole, they "win" that hole.  If they make net bogey or worse, they lose.  Net par is a tie.  At the end of the round, if they have won more holes than they lost, they get 2 points. If they lose more holes than they won, they get -0- points.  And if they won and lost an equal number of holes, they get 1 point.  If they have a totalscore under par on a net basis, they get 2 points for low net team.  If they are at net par, they get 1 point and if they are over par they get 0.
• Each week, if a team loses (or accumulates less than 2 points), the handicaps for each specific team member is increased by 1 for the next week.  Each week if a team wins (or acquires more than 2 points), the handicap for each member is reduced by 1.

You can play with the numbers but the idea is to slow down the winners, help the losers and make each team's handicap unique depending on who is playing rather than award a "team handicap" regardless of the participants.

Of course, since many or most of the people don't care or are happy with the current system, you are likely swimming against the current.  Good luck.

 

[Club Rat]

21 hours ago, Duffenstein89 said:

I’m looking for suggestions on how to improve my company golf league.

 

21 hours ago, Duffenstein89 said:

It is a low-stakes league for players of all skill levels.

I would suggest not having any teams and random pair players against those who show up to play. If possible, pair players with different partners each week through out the season.

You could have two divisions (Skilled Players and Recreational Players)
Award points in any many you chose.

You could create 2 person, 3 person teams, pending on participation.