Club Championships....mild rant

[jmurdock]

At our club championship, we have one qualifying round to seed everyone from 2-32 (last year's winner is automatic 1 seed) and then we play match play from then on out. No Strokes . Just heads up match play.

My question and semi-rant is- How can you call yourself a club champion if the guy(s) you beat in the finals and previous matches had to give you strokes? Isn't this tournament, above all others, supposed to be the BEST golfer in your club?

Shooting an 85 in qualifying usualy gets you into our field, and occasionally some of those guys pull off an upset or two, but they never win the Club Championship. This is the only tournament where the best players in the club should prevail, and rightly so.

JMO

[enduro]

I don't get what the rant is? You don't like match play?

[DavidFehertysBike]

I like that idea as well. Im surprised so many higher handicaps, apparently, even play in your club championship given that they probably have little to no chance to win anything. The club championship at my club is flighted medal play, with a net and gross champion.

[jmurdock]

No, I love match play. My rant is that some clubs have Club Championships and people get strokes. This should be a heads up tournament where the best golfer wins, not the ok golfer who is getting 3 strokes a side in the final match.

[jmurdock]

I like that idea as well. Im surprised so many higher handicaps, apparently, even play in your club championship given that they probably have little to no chance to win anything. The club championship at my club is flighted medal play,

Then who is the Club Champion?? Do they share the title? I just get really upset when a guy says, "I'm the Club Champion at my club. The guy had to give me 4 shots a side in the finals and I played really well, shooting an 84."

[gogolfing]

We just do a two day stroke play event that is flighted by handicap for prize purposes. The lowest gross score is the Club Champion, and then there are prizes for both gross and net scores in each flight.

Two years ago they also added a Senior and a Super Senior Club Champion and these go to low gross in the age groups.

It seems to work well.

[clubchamp]

We do flighted match play and no one is giving strokes. The club will probably go to medal play in the next couple years since the older gentlemen are slowly starting to become less involved.

[DriverTees]

Think that's bad? The competition I play with is Stableforth. Which is why my handicap is still 36. I shoot in the low eightees, but if my handicap would represent my skill I'd get crushed. Almost everybody has 36 handicap in that competition, although barely anybody shoots over 90. It's really, really messed up. The idea is to get less experienced players enjoy a bit of competition, but if I bring in 60 plus points I'm obviously going to win my flight.

[enduro]

This happens in all sports that have handicaps. A bad player has a good game relative to himself and a good player has a decent game relative to himself and is pissed he lost. But that's the purpose of a handicap system. It puts players are nearly even terms to produce 50/50 competition...which isn't really competition at all but really a dice roll.

Usually handicap systems favor the better players. And if they didn't agree to some kind of handicapping they would have a hard time finding players.

Yet, a club champion should be the best player the club has as a member. Handicapping it is stupid. Maybe have the club handicap mixed tournament. But the overall champion should be a scratch golfer.

[microcrayfish]

I don't think my club does it like you suggest but I agree that that's the way it should be done. The club champion should be the best playing at the club, there's plenty of other weeks in the year to hold other formats of competition.

[shades9323]

Think that's bad? The competition I play with is Stableforth. Which is why my handicap is still 36. I shoot in the low eightees, but if my handicap would represent my skill I'd get crushed. Almost everybody has 36 handicap in that competition, although barely anybody shoots over 90. It's really, really messed up. The idea is to get less experienced players enjoy a bit of competition, but if I bring in 60 plus points I'm obviously going to win my flight.

So you lie about your handicap so you can win some piddly club championship? You go girl!

[meenman]

Our club has 2 championships - a stroke play and a match play.

Stroke play is for the true club champion. Winner of the gross event from the tips, is the champion, the seniors champion is gross from the white tees (normal senior tees are gold). Everything else is flighted with full handicap - you can win your flight but there are 3 parking spots and they go to the gross champ in men, women and senior.

Match play is 80% handicapped which makes it pretty even and may even slightly favor the better players. I personally took a 9 handicap to 19 holes, but the final four was all guys in the single digits.

I personally dont feel that handicapped events make it that much easier for the high handicaps - unless there is a sandbagger involved.

[jmurdock]

Our club has 2 championships - a stroke play and a match play.

We have both tournaments as well, although neither one of them is handicapped. The match play event is our Club Championship, so the winner of that is recognized as the Club Champ. The Stroke Play winner gets a nice crystal pickle dish and a pat on the back.

[Fourputt]

I like that idea as well. Im surprised so many higher handicaps, apparently, even play in your club championship given that they probably have little to no chance to win anything. The club championship at my club is flighted medal play, with a net and gross champion.

This is how we do it too. 3 rounds, 54 holes, flighted. The club champion can only come from the first flight, but anyone can declare for that flight if they want to compete for the top honor.

[SpringBokVol]

This is how we do it too. 3 rounds, 54 holes, flighted. The club champion can only come from the first flight, but anyone can declare for that flight if they want to compete for the top honor.

Fourputt, what course is that?