Are we big enough for flights?

[mmlincon]

We seem to be getting darn good turn out week after week and I only see that getting better with the winter months approaching. I know we've discussed this in the past but we didn't really have enough players to have it work. I think we may be there now. Basically break groups up based on handicaps. Something like below. These number are arbitrary it would have to be built on the number of players per bracket.

Gross +2 to -2

Flight A -3 to -8

Flight B -9 to -15

Flight C -16 on up

This would probably add a good deal of administrative work and may not be worth it but I thought I'd throw it out there for discussion.

[goatbarn]

Yes please.

[keither5150]

Great idea! Once set up, it should work automatically just like the leaderboard does now.

[BamaGambler]

I love that idea.

[Bubba22]

I think we should wait and see the numbers this season. We certainly dont want any brackets too low in numbers. Right now we have gross and net winners which is nice. If we are going to create flights, I suggest just 2 flights but we need to look at the numbers. I suggest we wait and look at the stats after we get going.

[andygg1986]

I agree that you don't want small flights. At first I was going to say we could just take the lowest half of handicaps and put them in a bracket, but then the brackets would change as more people play. That would be really annoying if you were winning one bracket on Saturday and then got bumped up or down to the other bracket because someone started their rounds on Sunday.

I think that ideally you would know which bracket you are going to be in before you start your rounds. There would be two separate leaderboards that said something like Handicap 9 and Under and Handicap Over 9. Maybe you could base this division on the previous week's tournament since the participants don't change too much from week to week. Just sort everyone who played last week by handicap and cut it down the middle.

[mthunt]

Yes please

[aeroburner]

I agree with Bubba on this, if you split up and lets say down the middle you have +9 to -9 bracket and 20 show on the -9 and 8 show the +9 but some do not finish there second round like lets say 5 then the +9 only have 4 in there bracket there competing which might take the fun out of the tournament by segregating players if you do brackets what happens to those in that bracket that do not play both rounds does it screw-up everything I know that I am new to this tournament stuff but I have been watching and you are only pulling like 30 people in for the tournaments has it grown that much from where it was to warrant the extra work, or is it that the low handicap being pushed out of the trophy round that's the issue... what ever you guys decide I am here to stay and will play and enjoy having fun with you guys in doing so.

[goatbarn]

Run on sentence aside...lol, I think we can split it up early in the season if we have 15+ people on each "tour".

[aeroburner]

its early only one cup of coffee so far haha but like I said I am along for the ride it will be a fun winter what ever you guys decide.

[FaultyClubs]

For clarity.....this means each flight tour would be gross then right? ( Ie no longer any handicap tours. )

[ganders75]

Hi, I tend to lurk on here but thought it was worth a post on this thread. I believe standard practice over here in the UK is to play partial handicap for tournament play - It gives more of a realistic prospect to the better golfers. USGA suggests this should be 90% but I've seen up to 2/3.

Clearly,the problem with high handicappers is consistency. As an example, a 28 hcp shooting 90 will likely beat a +1 even if the higher hcp doesn't break 100 for the second round. You should find (as we do) that this creates a much more level playing field between high vs low handicaps over the tournament. Low handicappers tend to play very close to their expected hcp, whereas high handicappers who are naturally more sporadic are given a "buffer zone" to keep it interesting.

I've never been a member at a club that has found it necessary to have more than a hcp comp and a standard scratch comp. if you set this % correctly, and adjust it as required so it is fair, you should find tiers/flights are unnecessary.

thoughts?

(confession: I haven't played a single tournament round yet, but I'll be playing this season)

[Bubba22]

Good points ganders. Now by having 2 flights already (Gross flight and Net flight) we kinda have setup for the low handicappers to compete for the gross winner and high handicappers to compete for Net prize. Typically the high handicapper shouldn't win the gross, especially in a 2 pr 3 round event. I've always liked the idea of having handicap percentages and we can certainly look at that. I have no issue with multiple flights as mm suggests. I just think we don't want to stretch the groups too thin so mm's question is a really good one. Seeing the stats of the numbers for each cap group will help us decide as a group. One idea is to have the separate flights only for Majors or WGC events, Players tourney etc.

[BamaGambler]

I didn't know we have a gross winner. I only see net on the tour website.

[wbond]

Is the overall gross winner something that is new for the upcoming season? I haven't seen this for the one that just closed. If it's available, where can we see these for the past tournaments?

[Bubba22]

The plan would be to have a Gross leaderboard and a Net Leaderboard. I propose we have 2 separate leaderboards and 2 separate points/money winnings. At the end of the Tour we will have a Gross winner and a Net winner.

Thoughts?

[wbond]

Sounds like a good plan.

[mmlincon]

Agreed, I didn't know there was going to be gross as well. That should be perfect for now and if the number of players grows we can start looking into flights. What is the plan if a person wins both? The league I played in would only allow you to win in one at a time. That wasn't based on a point system though, there was pro shop credit involved so it was a bit different.

[Bubba22]

Excellent question mm. It is possible to win both but hopefully it wont happen as much. I suggest if one wins both then the Gross win should be counted. The Net win will go to the second place winner however we need to decide what points you would get. Or we just allow for one to win both. Thoughts?

[Vincent_Vega]

The plan would be to have a Gross leaderboard and a Net Leaderboard. I propose we have 2 separate leaderboards and 2 separate points/money winnings. At the end of the Tour we will have a Gross winner and a Net winner.

Thoughts?

This would be ideal in my opinion. I just play for fun and don't take the tournaments serious at all, but the gross leaderboard and points would give me more motivation to play in every tournament.

[ProTee United]

Here is an example for a gross leaderboard. Would this work?

[goatbarn]

I love that leaderboard....

[mthunt]

You better hope my foot doesn't get better by Monday goat. Lol

Great playing. Good to have you back. I will play every event going forward. It's getting cold outside.