4 player play off

[slightlymad]

HI all,

for a small match play ladder tournament i would like to have the last day of play reserverd for the top 4 players. However, im finding it hard to come up with a decent format for the playoff. Anybody any ideas? Note; we use handicap correction because handicaps vary widely. Thanks in advance,  Slightlymad

[David in FL]

HI all,

for a small match play ladder tournament i would like to have the last day of play reserverd for the top 4 players. However, im finding it hard to come up with a decent format for the playoff. Anybody any ideas? Note; we use handicap correction because handicaps vary widely. Thanks in advance,  Slightlymad

36 holes.  Winners of the morning matches play for the championship in the afternoon matches.  Losers play for 3d and 4th place.

[slightlymad]

Yeah thought about that too obviously. But it would be better if we just had  18holes 4 player contest.

[David in FL]

You could have the semi's the day before and then finish with the championship and consolation matches on the last day.....but if you're asking if you can somehow play a 4-person, individual, match play event and determine first-fourth places in one round, the answer is no.  The match play format just doesn't work like that.

You could play a match play 4-ball, maybe teaming the 1 and 4 guys against the 2 and 3, but that's not going to give you individual results....

[slightlymad]

I read about irish match play, that might be good i guess. Any experience with that?

[David in FL]

I read about irish match play, that might be good i guess. Any experience with that?

Never heard of it.  What's the format?

[slightlymad]

Its match play with 4 players. If you win hole you get 1 point and if you half with one other player half point and if you half with more, no points i believe. Apparently its supposed to work.

[David in FL]

Heck.....just play skins, or stroke play for the last 4 then, because that's not match play, no matter what they want to call it.

[boil3rmak3r]

Its match play with 4 players. If you win hole you get 1 point and if you half with one other player half point and if you half with more, no points i believe. Apparently its supposed to work.

That sounds like how they handled the "individual match play" portion of my club's Ryder Cup? A teammate (player 1) and me (player 2) were grouped with two opponents (players 3 and 4). During our nine holes, there were 4 pts at stake: 1 vs 3; 1 vs 4; 2 vs 3; and 2 vs 4. With every hole, the golfer was playing individual matches with two opponents. The format worked well for our competition, but it is definitely what I would call a modified match play. For example, let's say you conceded a 1 ft tap in for par to one of your opponents. Your other opponent is 20 ft away and will be putting for bogey (I.e. There's a good chance for them to two putt for a double). You are facing a 20 yd pitch over a bunker with the flag just 4 paces onto the green beyond the bunker. There is plenty of green left of the bunker and plenty of green beyond the flag. You need to get up and down for a par. Would you play your shot differently based on which opponent you are thinking about? If so, which strategy do you choose?

[MEfree]

Never done the The Irish Match Play but it sounds like it should work.

You could also have two 9 hole matches with the front 9 winners playing each other for 1st on the back (and the losers playing a consolation match).  Another idea would be to have a round robin of 6 hole matches, but that could result in a tie with two guys at 2-1 and two at 1-2 (in which case you could decide winner by the head to head match) or worse, 3 guys at 2-1 and 1 at 0-3.