Match Play Pairings

[Southern by Choice]

I’m playing in a Match Play Tournament where only 12 players signed up.  Because of bracketing, four of the 12 get a bye. Can you explain why the four BEST players in the field got the bye?  It clearly isn’t random.

[Darkfrog]

Was it supposed to be random?

Giving the best players a bye seems like it’s modeled like other sport playoff structure where the top teams get a bye.

[bkuehn1952]

As @Darkfrog stated, the best players and teams are given byes when the bracket has less than 8, 16 or 32 participants.

Look on the bright side, if you get to the final pairing you will have gotten to play more golf than the players who got a bye.

[Southern by Choice]

1 hour ago, bkuehn1952 said:

As @Darkfrog stated, the best players and teams are given byes when the bracket has less than 8, 16 or 32 participants.

Look on the bright side, if you get to the final pairing you will have gotten to play more golf than the players who got a bye.

They stated pairings are random, but I think the club uses software that takes the guesswork out.

I like your attitude about possibly getting to play more golf!  OR I might only get to play one round…🥴

[iacas]

14 hours ago, Southern by Choice said:

They stated pairings are random, but I think the club uses software that takes the guesswork out.

I like your attitude about possibly getting to play more golf!  OR I might only get to play one round…🥴

Perhaps they gave the better players the bye before they made the random pairings.

Better players generally get the byes. That’s the way it should be.