Golf League and Missing Players

[Nollster]

Our league is struggling with how to handle missing players and I'm looking for suggestions. We are a 2-player team league where we count low individual net on the hole as 1 pt. and low team net as another point. At the end, low individual net gets a bonus pt. and low team net gets a bonus pt. for a total of 20 pts. When players are missing, we use a ghost score. We've had instances in the past where a team has 2 ghosts and has won a match! We now institute a penalty of +3 strokes for each instance you have a ghost, up to +9 strokes. I'm thinking this is extreme and probably not necessary if we come up with a better plan. Subs are hard to come by and a 1-player team should still have a chance to win, but when both don't show, there should be no chance to win the match. How does your league handle missing players?

[apex17]

This is how we do it.

If no one from a team shows up for play, the team that is at the Club automatically wins.

If only one member from each team plays, the single player's ball counts for both matches.

 

[HonestPlayer]

> @apex17 said:

> This is how we do it.

> If no one from a team shows up for play, the team that is at the Club automatically wins.

> If only one member from each team plays, the single player's ball counts for both matches.

>

 

That's what I was going to suggest.

[Nollster]

Are your leagues A vs A and B vs B?

[jdl]

We use ghost players as well, but the ghost player's points don't get credited to that team. Can't win points if you don't show up.

We also had a rule where you have to have at least one player show up to at least 85% of the matches or your team's points would be wiped from the books.

[SNIPERBBB]

Our company league gives points just for showing up so your starting at an advantage.

 

For the ghosts, the players score for the round is 110% of handicap rounded up. Hole scores are par plus strokes, is on par 4 and they get a stroke on that hole, the score is 5. If the hole scores don't match the round score, add the extra stroke to the next hole the player would of gotten a stroke.

 

That way the absent team still can get some points and the other team isn't getting all the points making it unfair to the other teams that had their opponents show up.

[smashdn]

Work league I used to be in was a point a hole and +3 points for winning the match, 12 points possible if you one every hole. If you had to go up against a team that didn't show you could only get 6 points. If you didn't show you got no points. We alternated low score and scramble format with two man teams.

[SecondandGoal]

Our league is better ball net match play. We play for total points over the season, not win/loss record in matches. If only one player shows up, it's two-on-one, giving a huge advantage to the two man team, though we don't usually have a problem getting subs. If neither player for a team shows up, the other team has to "play the course", i.e. they play vs. their handicap net score. Full point if either player betters their net score, half point if either player ties it, no points if they both do worse than their net score.

 

I like the no-show rule, and would recommend it. It's fair and protects the field. Most teams wind up with around 4-5 points when playing the course.

 

I hate the two-on-one rule, for the same reason - it fails to protect the field. My partner and I lost first place in our league (and a $200 cash payout) because of the two-on-one rule. We went into the final week tied for first place, with the next team (who we were playing for the final week) 1 point behind us, and another team 2.5 points behind us. We won our match 5-4, while the team we were tied with lost theirs 5.5-3.5, putting us 1.5 and 2 points ahead of both of them.

 

The problem came with the team that started the night in 4th place. Not only were they playing the worst team in the league, with two blatant vanity cappers (a 5 that is more like a 13-14 and a 21 that is more like a 30+), but only the horrible player showed up. So you've got a legit 7 cap and a legit 14 cap playing net better ball match play against a 21 who should be 30+. Needless to say, they won 8-1 (can't believe it wasn't 9-0), and beat us out for first place by half a point, taking the $200 payout for finishing first in the regular season. Not fair to us, and would have been unfair to the team that wound up finishing fourth had they missed the playoffs, but they luckily got in as a wild card (top 3 in each of 4 flights are in, next 4 best point totals across all flights are wild cards).

[Warrior42111]

Our league you have 2 options.

A) you can play within the same week (both teams) and post that way

B) The missing team/player gets a ghost score of handicap plus 3 "penalty" strokes added to the 3 toughest holes

 

It usually works out because if you can't play option A then team B will have a good to great week but don't run away in the standings hurting everyone else in the league

[larrybud]

For 2 man teams I like the 2 on 1 rule because when you play the "course" you're subject to adverse weather affecting the average score for the night. Think of the course as a sub who is a 0 handicap who makes a par on every hole. To offset the "consistency" of the course, leagues usually give the attending player a couple of extra shots over his handicap. So if you're a 7 handicap and you're getting 2 "bonus strokes", you'd get 9 shots vs par of the course.

 

2 on 1 is completely fair and my preferred way when 1 player is missing, but it's usually feast or famine. If the solo player gets hot, he usually cleans up, but if he has an off night, the two players have the advantage. Mathematically it works out even over a long enough period of time.

 

If both players on a team are absent, we limit the number of points that team can win. So the "course" still plays for those missing players, but are limited to 14 out of a possible 44 points up for grabs (essentially 1/3 of the max total). This way the team who is playing the course still has to perform, but if they stink, the absent team won't get the majority of the points.

 

I would also recommend NOT giving the absent team 0 points in these cases, because your league just ends up being a contest on who shows up the most. We've handled excess absenteeism a couple of ways:

1) You pay for the whole season up front. So you have some skin in the game if you don't show.

2) People are are absent a lot, like 50%, aren't asked back the next season.

 

In my tuesday league, this has resulted in only 1 player dropping out over the last 6 or 7 years on a 20 man league. It's great having a solid core of players!

[SecondandGoal]

> @larrybud said:

> For 2 man teams I like the 2 on 1 rule because when you play the "course" you're subject to adverse weather affecting the average score for the night. Think of the course as a sub who is a 0 handicap who makes a par on every hole. To offset the "consistency" of the course, leagues usually give the attending player a couple of extra shots over his handicap. So if you're a 7 handicap and you're getting 2 "bonus strokes", you'd get 9 shots vs par of the course.

>

> 2 on 1 is completely fair and my preferred way when 1 player is missing, but it's usually feast or famine. If the solo player gets hot, he usually cleans up, but if he has an off night, the two players have the advantage. Mathematically it works out even over a long enough period of time.

>

> If both players on a team are absent, we limit the number of points that team can win. So the "course" still plays for those missing players, but are limited to 14 out of a possible 44 points up for grabs (essentially 1/3 of the max total). This way the team who is playing the course still has to perform, but if they stink, the absent team won't get the majority of the points.

>

> I would also recommend NOT giving the absent team 0 points in these cases, because your league just ends up being a contest on who shows up the most. We've handled excess absenteeism a couple of ways:

> 1) You pay for the whole season up front. So you have some skin in the game if you don't show.

> 2) People are are absent a lot, like 50%, aren't asked back the next season.

>

> In my tuesday league, this has resulted in only 1 player dropping out over the last 6 or 7 years on a 20 man league. It's great having a solid core of players!

 

Couldn't disagree more. Ours is a straight 1-point-per-hole league. Attendance is generally excellent, and we have a pretty good/reliable sub list. Teams do have the option of playing on another night, as long as it is completed before the next match. I just went back and looked at our standings, and every single time someone played 2-on-1 (42 teams, 14 weeks, happened eight times), they got a minimum of 6.5 points, twice as high as 8.5/9. Nine times teams had to play the field, every single one was between 4 and 6 points out of nine, a very typical score in our league.

 

That's not "might be subject to adverse weather", or "single golfer might have a hot night". That's solid, consistent numbers showing that 2-on-1 is an inherently unfair advantage that fails to protect the field.