Fun Golf Tournament Ideas

[phillyk]

What kind of formats for tournaments have people played in that they liked?  Could be a scrambles, best ball, anything...  Any weird formats that people want to try?

We've done 3 clubs and a putter, 2 person ball buster (tip n tuck/supers revenge) but from the front tee box, par 3 challenge (turning all holes to a par 3 with Closest to the pins on every hole). 

I thought about trying to create a par 3 cross-country style, like trying to find gaps in trees or having more fun with the elevation changes on the course.

[dagolfer18]

1 hour ago, phillyk said:

What kind of formats for tournaments have people played in that they liked?  Could be a scrambles, best ball, anything...  Any weird formats that people want to try?

We've done 3 clubs and a putter, 2 person ball buster (tip n tuck/supers revenge) but from the front tee box, par 3 challenge (turning all holes to a par 3 with Closest to the pins on every hole). 

I thought about trying to create a par 3 cross-country style, like trying to find gaps in trees or having more fun with the elevation changes on the course.

I think a par 3 cross-country tournament is a great idea! Several tee to green options, you can be creative. Half the fun would be making up your own course!

Edited December 12, 2019 by dagolfer18

[David in FL]

I like golf.

2 best balls out of each group.  Everyone actually gets to play golf.

[iacas]

4 minutes ago, David in FL said:

I like golf.

2 best balls out of each group.  Everyone actually gets to play golf.

Oy.

It's fun to mix it up now and then, in the opinions of most golfers.

Three club events. Club takeaway events (when you win a hole you get to take a club from your opponent or add one back to your bag). Mixed events with big holes and small holes worth different points. Etc.

[colin007]

I'm with @David in FL - I hate scrambles/tournaments and I p much refuse to play in them now. In my experience, a large percentage of participants one time playing each year is at the tournament

[iacas]

49 minutes ago, colin007 said:

I'm with @David in FL - I hate scrambles/tournaments and I p much refuse to play in them now. In my experience, a large percentage of participants one time playing each year is at the tournament

Oh what fuddy duddies.

[Vinsk]

2 hours ago, colin007 said:

I'm with @David in FL - I hate scrambles/tournaments and I p much refuse to play in them now. In my experience, a large percentage of participants one time playing each year is at the tournament

Hey! You guys up for a Jack Rabbit Scramble?!

@colin007 @David in FL:

[gbogey]

13 hours ago, colin007 said:

I'm with @David in FL - I hate scrambles/tournaments and I p much refuse to play in them now. In my experience, a large percentage of participants one time playing each year is at the tournament

No disagreement here - I only play scrambles when it's a course I can't play otherwise.  I have played in a few shambles that I thought were fun.  One of the trends around here is one person scrambles - I'd like to try it but they always seems to be 18 holes and I think 9 would be better.

Trying to think outside the box - what about something where you split tee boxes, say Par 3's from the longest tees, par 5's from the shortest, par 4's in-between?  Or vice versa.

[DaveP043]

For the last few years, we've played a 3-club 3-player scramble.  Played like a normal scramble, but each player may only take 3 clubs, and may only play his (or her) clubs.  Planning is interesting, trying to choose clubs that play to each player's strengths while covering most of the potential situations on the course.  

[ChetlovesMer]

14 hours ago, iacas said:

Oy.

It's fun to mix it up now and then, in the opinions of most golfers.

Three club events. Club takeaway events (when you win a hole you get to take a club from your opponent or add one back to your bag). Mixed events with big holes and small holes worth different points. Etc.

I've played the take away a club format a couple of times. I really like them. 

I've also played a variation on the theme in which you could use any club you want once. After you hit every club in your bag including the putter, you get everything back again, and start over, hitting every club once in any order you choose. Until you've used them all and then you get them back again. REPEAT until the end of the round. I thought it was cool, strategic and fun. 

Back in the day, I used to play this tournament every year for almost 10 years with my wife which was done I guess kinda Rider Cup Format... sort of. You played the first 6 holes as a two person scramble. The next 6 holes as a 2 person best ball. The last 6 holes were alternating shot. It was tons of fun. It was a couples tournament; every team had to have a male and a female. I'm not sure the male/female thing would be allowed today. 

[David in FL]

13 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I've played the take away a club format a couple of times. I really like them. 

I've also played a variation on the theme in which you could use any club you want once. After you hit every club in your bag including the putter, you get everything back again, and start over, hitting every club once in any order you choose. Until you've used them all and then you get them back again. REPEAT until the end of the round. I thought it was cool, strategic and fun. 

 

That sounds fun.  I’d definitely swap out at least one wedge in favor of another long club though!

[ChetlovesMer]

6 minutes ago, David in FL said:

That sounds fun.  I’d definitely swap out at least one wedge in favor of another long club though!

Yeah, thinking ahead on the mix of clubs in your bag would probably have been wise. But I must confess to having always just shown up with my standard mix. 

[criley4way]

The Red, White and Blue format is fun as well. You get to play 6 (or whatever number) from each set of tees. You choose which ones. You can have all reachable par 5s or some drivable par 4s or short Par 3s. You pick.

[Rkrider99]

We play different games every week. Red, White, Blue, where you use the 3 low net scores on Red flags, 2 low net on White, and 1 low net on Blue.

We also play Black, White, Red, where you tee off on hole 1 from the Black tee (or White, or Red, depending on how you want to start), and then hole 2 is from the White tees, and hole 3 is from the Red tees, and then back to the Black for hole 4...etc...you just rotate the tees per hole.

[sjduffers]

Red-White-Blue (for those courses that have red, white and blue tees, otherwise adjust to Tips-Middle-Forward tees). You get to pick which tee to play from on every hole, as long as at the end you have played 6 holes from each tee color.

There is a bit of strategy involved: for example, play from the tips on some par 3s, play from the forward tees on some par 5s to make them reachable if they are otherwise not, etc...

[Papa Steve 55]

We play a Master and US Open each year. Basically its an individual weekend  tourny with you paired with a blind drawn pro who has made the cut. So its your net plus his gross. Its gone both ways for me,  I've played well and finished well back after my pro stunk it up over the weekend and drew Tiger when he was 12 ahead of the field. I think the club house likes them because it keeps people around for a bit to watch the results.

[Club Rat]

We play a game called "Deuce Game" It's basically a 9 hole evening event.

Players play from various markers setup on course 80- 160 yards.
Players Handicaps determine position of play.
HC - 15 or greater - 80 - 100 yds.
HC - 14 - 8,  110 - 130 yds.
HC - 7 or less,  140 - 160 yds.

Any player who scores 2 or less on any hole qualifies to win.
Players can qualify for multiple wins.
Payouts are based on Entry Purse / Qualifiers (Basically a Skins Payout)

It's a popular game due to it's an evening after work event, guys have ample time to enjoy a few barley pops,
and timeframe to play is usually around an hour.
We generally play in groups of 6-8 per hole with a shot gun start.

Edited December 14, 2019 by Club Rat