Help Me Come Up with a Betting Game

[iacas]

Let's suppose you have seven golfers:

• A scratch golfer we'll call "A."
• A 2-handicapper we'll call "NV."
• Two 3-handicapper we'll call "SS" and "AS."
• Two 5-handicappers we'll call "CS" and "RM."
• An 8-handicapper we'll call "ZM."

Z 0
A 2
B 3, C 3
D 5, E 5
F 8

Z is me, and I don't care if I play in the game(s). The other golfers would like me to, but it complicates things a little bit to have an odd number. Maybe I can play a "rover" each day or something. I could play the front nine with one group, and the back nine 

The golfers will be playing six rounds of golf. I'd like to possibly consider doing a "team game" where individuals get the points for themselves and then the teams are shuffled for the next round. If a team consisting of ABC beats DEF 2-1, every player on the ABC team has 2 points in their total. At the end, we divide up the $30 each player puts in (I don't put anything in and I'm not eligible to win anything), and the prizes are split up like: $60, $50, $40, $20, $10, $0.

So what are your ideas? What kinds of game could we play? Since there are six golfers and six rounds, the teams for the first five rounds would ensure that everyone plays with and against everyone else:

ABC     DEF     3
ACD     BEF     3
ADE     BCF     3
AEF     BCD     3
AFB     CDE     3
-----------------
      Total    18

Those are the point totals for a Nassau. So a player could have 18 points, 0 points, or something more likely in the middle. For the final round, maybe this would work nicely… the last player picks his opponent, with each hole worth one point. That way you could see some big swings that final day. Plus they'd actually be playing in different groups so they wouldn't know what the other player scored.

So, in typing this out, I kind of like this format. It feels like if I can come up with five different types of games that can be played as a team Nassau, I'm home free. So, five games that can be played as a Nassau?

• Low three scores.
• Low score.
• High score.
• Best two scores.
• Best and worst scores.

That kind of format would actually work out pretty well if I'm playing as a rover (front nine with one team, second nine with another team).

What do you think? That could work out pretty well, and as I'm not involved, I can tabulate the scores at the end of each round.

P.S. All the scores would be net. I'd figure out a fair handicap for everyone.

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If you have another way to do this that you think is more fair, or more fun (we don't want to have to use a calculator at the end of each day for this), or both… please let me know and post your ideas here!

[Hardspoon]

Seems like that's the best way to do the first five rounds.

A thought for the final round: you could have each player playing match-play against EVERY other player...so basically 5 matches on each hole.  That would allow for substantial swings (both throughout the round overall).  Might be entertaining and particularly interesting when they're not all on the same hole.  It could potentially be too much of an advantage for the eight-handicap, though.

As far as your involvement: might be interesting if you were a "floater" and each player was able to "tag you in" for a single shot each round (or each 9 holes).  I played in a bowling tournament once that had something similar...don't remember the details but it was fun.

Anywhoo...seems like you have it pretty well figured out, but just throwing some ideas out there.

 

[bkuehn1952]

This is a well thought out format.  You have invested more time to this than I, but a couple thoughts occurred to me.

• If the final day is person vs. person match play, my preference would be to know what my opponent is doing.  If the opponent is in a different group, much of the strategy and tension is lost.
• Consider a format where each teammate has to count 6 holes.  The team can arrange the scores however they want, but each player has to contribute 6 scores.  Initially a team would look at the lowest score for each hole but it might turn out that player "B" had 12 of the lowest scores.  So they have to drop some of his scores and plug in his other teammates in order to get the lowest possible number for each hole while alos using 6 scores each.   A team might take a higher score from player D on the 18th because it fills out his "6" and the rest of his scores are worse relative to the other teammates.
• As much as possible, keep the teammates interested in each hole.  The problem with 1 low net ball is someone hits it stiff and the other two just pickup.

[Club Rat]

13 hours ago, iacas said:

The golfers will be playing six rounds of golf.

Sounds like a great golf trip.

Keeping it simple, have points awarded for individual results and team points.

With team points.(2-man) or (2-teams) players are awarded points on four or five of the rounds and no points on final day/days. One point for Win(front and back separately). Rotate players on teams if desired.

On the individual side for points, award points on each day results. Points for front scores and back scores as an option.

Final round/rounds for individual points double value of points.

[chspeed]

We've done a golf trip every year, and have tried various formats, including rotating teams you mentioned above. For the last two years, we tried something different which I found more fun.

Instead of teams, we did a modified stableford game, using net Scores. The advantage of this type of game is that you can play as many rounds as you want without worrying about balancing teams. You can also use the stableford format to manipulate if people pick up their balls or not (e.g. negative points for double bogey or above). The only disadvantage is you miss the team aspect of the rounds, but since we were rotating anyway, that wasn't a big deal for us.

Main Tournament (4 rounds)

Total Purse: $800. $200 per person to enter.
Format: Modified Stableford

-Net Bogey or worse: 0

-Net Par: 1

-Net Birdie: 2

-Net Eagle: 4

Payout:

a.      $100/round – best score of a round

b.     $400 – best total score of tournament

Rules:

Course handicaps will be used.

Played according to official rules of golf (plus any local rules)

If a round cannot be completed due to weather/darkness/time: If 12 holes completed, it counts, otherwise round is voided and the following occurs:

-Round is played the next day (We’ll use Sunday morning round if we have to)

-If tournament is shortened, then money will be rolled over to the final round we play.

If a round or tournament is tied, it will be determined by the putting game (see below).

[iacas]

2 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

• If the final day is person vs. person match play, my preference would be to know what my opponent is doing.  If the opponent is in a different group, much of the strategy and tension is lost.

It is, but I kind of like the mystery, and they'll just be playing stroke play anyway and comparing cards. It's not ideal, but I think it's a good compromise, because this isn't enough money to really make a big difference in their lives. Just enough to "keep their interest," so to speak.

Plus they play stroke play exclusively in college events, so I don't really want to muck up too much with them trying to "strategize" based on what their opponent is doing.

And the whole weak it'll be team vs. team… in different groups. So this is in keeping with that, kinda.

2 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

• Consider a format where each teammate has to count 6 holes.  The team can arrange the scores however they want, but each player has to contribute 6 scores.  Initially a team would look at the lowest score for each hole but it might turn out that player "B" had 12 of the lowest scores.  So they have to drop some of his scores and plug in his other teammates in order to get the lowest possible number for each hole while alos using 6 scores each.   A team might take a higher score from player D on the 18th because it fills out his "6" and the rest of his scores are worse relative to the other teammates.

That's a really good idea. I might try to merge that into some of the other games, too. I could even say three per side.

2 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

• As much as possible, keep the teammates interested in each hole.  The problem with 1 low net ball is someone hits it stiff and the other two just pickup.

They are college golfers and they're still going to be playing for their own pride and enjoyment, too. That said if one is out of a hole, I don't care if he picks up at double or something.

2 hours ago, Club Rat said:

Keeping it simple, have points awarded for individual results and team points.

With team points.(2-man) or (2-teams) players are awarded points on four or five of the rounds and no points on final day/days. One point for Win(front and back separately). Rotate players on teams if desired.

On the individual side for points, award points on each day results. Points for front scores and back scores as an option.

Final round/rounds for individual points double value of points.

That's more complicated than what I had proposed since I just proposed team scores for the first five rounds, John!

2 hours ago, chspeed said:

Instead of teams, we did a modified stableford game, using net Scores. The advantage of this type of game is that you can play as many rounds as you want without worrying about balancing teams. You can also use the stableford format to manipulate if people pick up their balls or not (e.g. negative points for double bogey or above). The only disadvantage is you miss the team aspect of the rounds, but since we were rotating anyway, that wasn't a big deal for us.

Yeah, honestly, I think throwing net stableford at them is asking for more trouble than it's worth. I'll handicap them and adjust as necessary, but I think that's about the limit to what I want to do to effect their actual scores.

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So it looks like the best ideas from the above quoted posts are…

• require 3/3/3 and 6/6/6 where possible.
• do more to keep the rest of the team interested (i.e. I may want to toss the "lowest score" type formats).

Thanks guys.

P.S. They decided on $30 for the week. As I said, enough to keep their interest, but not enough for anyone to get mad or upset or want to cheat or anything.

[No Mulligans]

I like the idea of keeping everyone interested and the possibility for comebacks both in the overall tournament and for each round.

In matchplay or stableford I like to have the 1st six hole be regular scoring, the 2nd six be 2x's the value of the 1st six, and the last six be 3x's the value of the 1st six.

Match play for instance, holes 1 -  6 each hole is worth one point, holes 7 - 12 each hole is worth two points, holes 13 - 18 each hole is worth three points.  That way everyone is still in it at hole 13 and in practice it often comes down to the last few holes.