Running a golf league??

[Tbone01]

Hi Everyone,
I need some advice or suggestions on the easiest way to keep a golf league members handicap and scoring. The guy who usually takes care of all this is quitting next year as its too much work. There has to be a app or website that takes care of all this. I just want to enter the scores, slope and rating and have the site or app do the rest.
Also- we currently do match play but run into problems when a partner doesn't show up. Any suggestions on a way to score this? Would you have the golfer play against the course?
Lastly- How is your league run? What are you happy or unhappy with? What would make it better?

Thanks
Tim

 

[JF]

My league is run like this: It's not great but it works decently.

Week one is to establish your handicap. I hate this system because EVERYONE sandbags it big time. I do it too, cause you have to to be competitive. I shot a 57 in week one and I could have shot around a 40. From there, they add each week's score and take the average of each score, and eliminate the best and worst in the second half (after 8 weeks), then take 90% of the average and subtract par and that's your handicap. It's run on a match play system but you have to putt out unless the opponent concedes the putt for handicap purposes. For example, if player A is a 3 handicap and Player B is a 6, player B gets a stroke on the three hardest (by hole handicap) holes. If player A is a 3 and player B is a 14, player B gets a stroke on every hole and two strokes on the two hardest holes. It's very hard to win with a high handicap so people generally try their best on out. The problem comes back when a team is out of a match, they play like crap for the rest of the match to up their handicap.

Golf leagues run like this are 50% golf ability and 50% ability to think through how to make more points and sandbag your way to victory.

 

[Scrap Iron]

My league is run like this: It's not great but it works decently.

Week one is to establish your handicap. I hate this system because EVERYONE sandbags it big time. I do it too, cause you have to to be competitive. I shot a 57 in week one and I could have shot around a 40. From there, they add each week's score and take the average of each score, and eliminate the best and worst in the second half (after 8 weeks), then take 90% of the average and subtract par and that's your handicap. It's run on a match play system but you have to putt out unless the opponent concedes the putt for handicap purposes. For example, if player A is a 3 handicap and Player B is a 6, player B gets a stroke on the three hardest (by hole handicap) holes. If player A is a 3 and player B is a 14, player B gets a stroke on every hole and two strokes on the two hardest holes. It's very hard to win with a high handicap so people generally try their best on out. The problem comes back when a team is out of a match, they play like crap for the rest of the match to up their handicap.

Golf leagues run like this are 50% golf ability and 50% ability to think through how to make more points and sandbag your way to victory.

Any league that has this as a best option to win is not a good way to operate a league. IMHO

 

[JF]

Any league that has this as a best option to win is not a good way to operate a league. IMHO

It's set up without sandbagging in mind. If everyone played their best week in and week out, it would be a very good system. But that will never happen. I think a good way to remedy the week 1 problem is that returning golfers (7/8 teams every year are returners) keep their handicap from the last year and new guys start at scratch. But that makes it hard for new guys who are realistically a 10 to do anything in the first half. It would be awesome if everyone would just not sandbag because it makes it less fun and exciting and it's an extremely difficult handicapping problem to work around.

 

[JF]

To the OP:

I should also add that when your opponent is a no-show, they have to find a sub who will play without a handicap, or you play solo against a bogey card, and your handicap is in play.

 

[motoo344]

There is software out there that will do it, I think it was called league golfer. Our issue was unreliable members.

 

[bigtazz53]

Check out www.ushandicap.com this is where our club is set up.

 

[Tbone01]

Thanks guys, I think we will roll over handicaps from the previous year and I like the idea of opponents finding a sub.

 

[Smallville]

My league is run like this: It's not great but it works decently.

Week one is to establish your handicap. I hate this system because EVERYONE sandbags it big time. I do it too, cause you have to to be competitive. I shot a 57 in week one and I could have shot around a 40. From there, they add each week's score and take the average of each score, and eliminate the best and worst in the second half (after 8 weeks), then take 90% of the average and subtract par and that's your handicap. It's run on a match play system but you have to putt out unless the opponent concedes the putt for handicap purposes. For example, if player A is a 3 handicap and Player B is a 6, player B gets a stroke on the three hardest (by hole handicap) holes. If player A is a 3 and player B is a 14, player B gets a stroke on every hole and two strokes on the two hardest holes. It's very hard to win with a high handicap so people generally try their best on out. The problem comes back when a team is out of a match, they play like crap for the rest of the match to up their handicap.

Golf leagues run like this are 50% golf ability and 50% ability to think through how to make more points and sandbag your way to victory.

It's leagues like this that soured me on league bowling. The last straw was when we were playing the best team in the league in week 1 and they guttered over and over at the end to keep their averages down.

Not sure how it can work decently when it promotes sandbagging so blatantly.

 

[JF]

It's leagues like this that soured me on league bowling. The last straw was when we were playing the best team in the league in week 1 and they guttered over and over at the end to keep their averages down.

Not sure how it can work decently when it promotes sandbagging so blatantly.

It's impossible to win without sandbagging in leagues like this so people do it...

How do you remedy the problem? No handicaps at all? I'm not familiar with other systems so I'm curious.

 

[Smallville]

I don't know how to remedy it. I quit bowling in leagues is what fixed it for me.

 

[Malt1200]

Hey!!!!I am taking it that the participants of UGVX Round 1 will be inaugural
members of the UGVX golf league. This will mark the beginning of a tour of
competitions that will be linked with an ongoing league. We are also
developing a skills index that will also be published to track individuals
progress outside of the official competitions.

 

[GopherNut]

The league I'm in has about 95% of the teams come back each year which is a good sign it is fair and fun:

We use USGA handicaps - they're accepted at every tournament and universal, easy to understand, etc. Our staff enters the scores into the GHIN/USGA computer after each night. We also track league scores in an excel spreadsheet and if they deviate from their handicap by more than a set amount on a continuing basis, we'll adjust their handicap down if needed.

We play an individual match-play format with 2 points available per hole plus 2 for the match (20 points per individual match). Our 4-person teams earn the total of 3 of the top 4 point earners that week. This keeps everyone from sandbagging or giving up since you don't know how your teammates are doing in the other 4-some. Also, with match-play, you can pick up on a bad hole to keep things moving.

Each week we pay out players who win their match plus bonus money for a big win (15-5 or better, I believe).

There are two teams from the first and second halves of the season who then play in the playoffs the final night.

A fill-in sub with no handicap gets 80% of his handicap that night. i.e. if he shoots 46 (+10), he gets 8 shots that night against a scratch player as an example. For his 3rd round, he gets a "league handicap" which is an average of his rounds played in men's league.