Looking at a couple of golf sites I see that leagues can get really “point” driven. Like possibly getting 40 points a game? I think we should keep it simple at first. As time goes by we can develop the rules. No changes to the way you develop the handicaps. Personally, I think it makes it as close as possible to being fair. As everyone knows I’m not the best golfer in the league but with my handicap I have beaten the best.

Basically, I propose, barely changing the rules. Even though we are now teams we will still play each individual in the league (except your partner). Each team plays every team twice. The first time, you will play against one player of the opposing team, the next time you play against the other player of that opposing team.

Example:

Week 2: Team 1 vs Team 2

Week 2: Player 1A plays against Player 2A/Player 1B plays against Player 2B

Week 10: Player 1A plays against Player 2B/Player 1B plays against Player 2A

POINTS:

Individually: 1 point for attendance, 1 point for winning majority of holes, 1 point for lowest net score

Team points: 1 point for winning majority of holes with team handicaps, 1 point for lowest net score with team handicaps. Team handicaps would be the sum of the individual players’ handicaps. The table below illustrates point structure for a team.

• If a team is absent they receive no points

Example - Team 1 Mike A and Tiny / Team 2 Jim and Dave (Mike A vs Jim, Tiny vs Dave):

Mike A’s Handicap is 13 + Tiny’s Handicap is 13 = 26 Team 1 Handicap

Jim’s Handicap is 9 + Dave’s Handicap is 15 = 24 Team 2 Handicap

So, when factoring the team points, Team 2 is giving Team 1 two strokes, 1 on hole 9 and one on hole 3.

Here’s a sample scorecard:

And here’s the points breakdown based on the individual and team calculations:

Absences

In the event of an absence, I propose the player that is present must play each member of the opposing team. The penalty for a player being absent is 3 points. If the entire team is absent, then that team gets 0 points and forfeits the game. The opposing team must still play; however, they will play the course.

If a member of a team is unable to finish a round, then they will keep their attendance point, but the opposing players will end up playing the unfinished player's teammate as if they were absent. The unfinished player's score will not be used at all. The most that team can get would be 6 points in that scenario.

If both members of a team cannot finish a round, then they will receive the attendance point, but the opposing players will receive all points as a result of a forfeit. In this scenario the team that could not finish will still get 2 points for attendance if they had paid their course fees for that week.

Example (Ryan is absent):

Substitutes

Subs with handicaps can compete on an absent players behalf. A sub list will be compiled and published at the start of each season. The sub process is as follows:

• A player knows that they are going to be absent, and it is their responsibility to reach out to a player on the sub list to fill in.

• Once they find someone to fill in, they must notify the commisioner, their partner and members of the opposing team to let them know that they will be out, and their sub will play in their absence.

• If the person subbing in is not on the sub list and/or doesn’t have an established handicap, then they can only fill the absence, they can’t compete against the absent player’s opponent.  They must have a legit handicap to play on the absent player’s behalf.  (So, if we bring a new player in who doesn’t have a handicap yet, they need to fill in 3 times before they can start competing).

• Recorded rounds from past years for a sub will be used towards establishing their 3+ round handicap and they can compete immediately with the calculated handicap that I have for them.

• If a sub is not allowed to compete, or a sub cannot be found, then play falls back to the absence rules (see above) where the partner that is there would play both opponents, but can only gain points if he beats the opponent he was scheduled to play (So a max of 5 points instead of 8).

• If the sub competes on an absent player’s behalf, then he can win the points for that player, except for the attendance point. This way there is still incentive for the original player to be present.  So, the maximum points a team can earn with a sub is 7 out of 8 points. If both team players have subs, then the maximum points the team could get would be 6 points.

Example (Ryan is absent, and Joe subs in his place):

Substitutes during Playoffs

A team can only have one substitute per match in the playoffs. If there are no league players present to represent a team, then that team will forfeit their match.

Again, these changes I’m proposing are minimal. The biggest change is you will have a partner and that partner will be in your foursome every round … so you better like the guy your partnering up with.

With the new earlier tee times, we now have 23 weeks to play with. Here is the season breakdown:

• Week 1 – Practice Round.

• Weeks 2-19 are the regular season.

• Week 20 is the start of playoffs. All 8 teams are in the playoffs. (1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5)

• Weeks 21 is the Final Four.

• Week 22 is the Championship.

• Week 23 is a floater round. If there are no rainouts, then this will just be a fun round, otherwise if will take the place of a missed round

Money is awarded for the regular season winner, 1st place and 2nd place

In the event of it raining more than 1 week, the regular season will be shortened but the 3 playoff weeks will be kept.  So, if it rains in week 3, then we just move all the rounds back a week and the floater round 23 goes away. If it then rains again in week 5, then it gets played in week 6, but week 19 would get cut off with week 21 still being the start of playoffs.

Playoff Rules:

In the event that 2 teams tie a match in the playoffs, they will play an extra hole (or holes) until a winner is determined. If playing extra holes is unavailable due to the tee not being open, then the tie breaker will be based on the team that had the best score on the hardest hole. If it is still a tie, then it falls to the best score on the second hardest hole and so on until a winner is determined.

Additional Misc Rules:

• If a player picks up their ball on a hole without finishing it, the score marked on the scorecard will be double par + 2

• If a player is late, and they miss the opening holes, they will meet their foursome wherever they are at on the course, and play from there. If time permits, they can then go back and finish the holes that they missed, and their round will be counted. If they cannot, then see the rule absence rule above regarding players not being able to complete a round.