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Advice requested : Team Captain

chriso97

chriso97

Mad Golfer
Joined
Dec 21, 2017
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Location
Perth, Western Australia
Handicap
4.6
It's pennant season (Team Singles Matchplay) here and I've been selected as the captain.

Pretty excited to be honest!!!

My biggest challenge is I've got 9 nominated players for 7 games each week over 7 weeks.

I expect to occasionally have guys who will not be available but most weeks I'm going to have a full squad of 9 who really want to play.

So ... What would you do?



Would you choose your strongest team or make sure it's fair ?

Have a selection policy?
Reward Form?

I sent out my intro last night, already have someone suggesting I dump the two worst players each week.

Even if I did that I'd have to define "worst" as you can play awesome and still get beaten on the day.

With Captaincy comes great responsibility :). I'm up for it though.









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Both? If you have a solid 2-3 players then they could/should play weekly or nearly weekly.. then the others rotate in

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Rule #1: Win your match and you play the following week.
 
Is it handicapped? If so the worst golfers may not be the worst. The worst are going to be the people who have a handicap that has scores that includes mulligans, reputts, and foot wedges. The folks with honest handicaps will get you points in that kind of format, whether they are great golfers or not. Ie, a vanity handicap will kill you in handicapped events.
 
DataDude said:
Is it handicapped? If so the worst golfers may not be the worst. The worst are going to be the people who have a handicap that has scores that includes mulligans, reputts, and foot wedges. The folks with honest handicaps will get you points in that kind of format, whether they are great golfers or not. Ie, a vanity handicap will kill you in handicapped events.
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Yeah its handicapped .. so agree entirely, no way for me to know who's handicap is genuine/honest. But this club golf so most should be right.

I don't know if I can ever know how well someone played (unless I was non playing captain and watched) matchplay is such an intriguing game.


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chriso97 said:
It's pennant season (Team Singles Matchplay) here and I've been selected as the captain.

Pretty excited to be honest!!!

My biggest challenge is I've got 9 nominated players for 7 games each week over 7 weeks.

I expect to occasionally have guys who will not be available but most weeks I'm going to have a full squad of 9 who really want to play.

So ... What would you do?



Would you choose your strongest team or make sure it's fair ?

Have a selection policy?
Reward Form?

I sent out my intro last night, already have someone suggesting I dump the two worst players each week.

Even if I did that I'd have to define "worst" as you can play awesome and still get beaten on the day.

With Captaincy comes great responsibility :). I'm up for it though.

Sent from my Lenovo TB-8304F1 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

We have something similar hear and not everyone is available every week. Have your main players, asking them if they are available at the prior week's event. Then fill in with the other available players.
 
Keep people on who are winning (obviously), is there another day in the week where the team can practice playing against each other? This can help keep everyone involved or to show they can beat players that are always on the team when they aren't.
 
The first week, I'm making my team based on handicap. The lowest ones get selected. Then I would just swap out the 6&7 with the two who didn't play the first week for the second week. Basically just do that substitution method for the remainder of the team to see how everyone plays. So by week 5, everyone has played 4 times and I can gauge who is playing best, and use the top performers to finish the last two weeks out.
 
How "hardcore" is the group? If it's competitive, but people are there to have fun first and foremost, I'd try to just schedule so everyone plays roughly the same amount of times. If it's cutthroat, I like Frank's "win and you're in" mentality. It's also going to weed out anyone with a vanity cap.
 
slimjim32 said:
The first week, I'm making my team based on handicap. The lowest ones get selected. Then I would just swap out the 6&7 with the two who didn't play the first week for the second week. Basically just do that substitution method for the remainder of the team to see how everyone plays. So by week 5, everyone has played 4 times and I can gauge who is playing best, and use the top performers to finish the last two weeks out.
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+1
AA.jpg
 
I've captained a match play team and its fun, but I know where your coming from on who to select. We had a 16 man team and had about 20 on the team. Usually, there would be 1 or 2 guys unavailable leaving me with picking 2-3 guys that couldn't play. Ours was setup of so lowest handicap played against their lowest handicap and so on. If you can look at your opponents you may want to match up similar caps. You probably don't want a 6 handicap playing against a 14. Also look at your pairings, guys may play better with some people and not so well with others.

Also, you'll know who's playing well. I'm assuming you'll be able to see their scores along with if they won the match. I kept a spreadsheet of each team members net score to help make decisions. It was easy to see who was winning based on good golf and not just lucky match-ups.
 
Just remember ... anyone can be beaten at any point in time. Just depends upon the day
 
slimjim32 said:
The first week, I'm making my team based on handicap. The lowest ones get selected. Then I would just swap out the 6&7 with the two who didn't play the first week for the second week. Basically just do that substitution method for the remainder of the team to see how everyone plays. So by week 5, everyone has played 4 times and I can gauge who is playing best, and use the top performers to finish the last two weeks out.
Click to expand...
I like this idea ... Just might not be playing my strongest team early.

On a few other notes, I'm naturally quite competitive and serious about my golf, but also remember that we gotta have fun.

I also grew up as the fat kid who couldn't get a game so wanna make sure I'm as fair as possible.

You see this all the time in team sports at all levels. Guys playing well deserve to keep their spots. At amateur level though I gotta give people a fair go.

I like the idea of getting the guys to keep their scores ... But matchplay is all about results.

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chriso97 said:
I like this idea ... Just might not be playing my strongest team early.

On a few other notes, I'm naturally quite competitive and serious about my golf, but also remember that we gotta have fun.

I also grew up as the fat kid who couldn't get a game so wanna make sure I'm as fair as possible.

You see this all the time in team sports at all levels. Guys playing well deserve to keep their spots. At amateur level though I gotta give people a fair go.

I like the idea of getting the guys to keep their scores ... But matchplay is all about results.

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We don't know how well you know these guys. The only reason I was saying to do it that way was in order for you to get a decent understanding of how the guys play, and then finish it out strong. Even if it is match play you can still get results on how well they played. Did the match go to 18, or was it over on 12? Some guys thrive in match play, where as others seem to struggle. Like @golfinnut said: anyone can be beaten at any point in time. Just depends upon the day. You will be able to see if the guy struggled for 3 days or if he only struggled on 1.
 
Well it's game 1 next Sunday so already having to step it up and make something calls.

One of the guys had a win in Saturday so he booked himself a spot on the team

Already I've discovered it's hard to tell people they are a reserve. :(

Any thoughts on how you would do it ? Post the team (email) and tell everyone at once, or individual conversations?





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I think a team email with the weekly roster would be fitting. No need to individually turn down two guys each week. If someone takes exception to it (and you’ll run into that any way you go-if you play all equally those that are winning wlll be unhappy. If you weight it based on results, those that haven’t carried their weight will be unhappy), tell them to sign up to be Captain next year:)
 
Fairness would be the least of my concern. Winning probably wouldn't be my top priority either. I would pick the guys I like the best. And I would cut the guy who suggested I cut the worst player. I'm weird though.

Maybe winners from the week before are always in and everyone else is a random draw.
 
First game this weekend, we have a home get first up.

This may sound weird but I'm sort of half dreading us winning 7 zip and me having to make a call on whether to drop a winning player.

(Or worse having to potentially drop myself)

I think I'm over thinking it, play hard play well and inspire the team to victory.

If we all win it justifies my selections!!!




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DonJuan said:
, I would pick the guys I like the best. And I would cut the guy who suggested I cut the worst player.
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I believe this is the worst thing a captain/selector can do. Playing favourites is only going to cause fights.




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Update : I have the greatest team ever. Amazing what a bit of good comms can do.

I've been open with guys about the challenges of selection and today we had a chance to play together.

One of the guys (selected this week) played in my group and saw how well one of the reserves was playing. He called me over and withdrew himself from the team for tomorrow, saying he was out of form and wanted the better player to play.

He's coming out tomorrow to caddy and support the team.

Massive respect for that ... And all the guys were massively appreciative of my comms so far !!!


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I would make it fair for everyone Unless there is something other than bragging rights on the line.
I would try to make sure everyone feels welcome.

Goodluck cause it's not easy
 
PatsFan said:
I would make it fair for everyone Unless there is something other than bragging rights on the line.
I would try to make sure everyone feels welcome.

Goodluck cause it's not easy
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That's part of the problem, it is "serious" competition golf. We ain't good enough for the top division but this is statewide "club vs club"

Most of the guys (and the club) take it pretty seriously. It the only time we get to represent the club as individuals and a team.



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chriso97 said:
I believe this is the worst thing a captain/selector can do. Playing favourites is only going to cause fights

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You're not wrong. I just put a high value on camaraderie and chemistry. Someone is going to be unhappy regardless of what I do, so I'm going go with what makes me happy in this scenario. Whatever he did seems to have worked out for him anyway.
 
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