Made up a new tourney format!

[kfellmy]

Had 8 players and they were bracketed off like the NCAA basketball tourney. Everyone paid 3 dollars. After 6 holes the best score of the two moved to the semis. After the next 6 holes the best from each bracket moved to the finals. The last six holes were the finals. Best score got the 24 bucks. It was fun and it was fast. Some players wanted to add a dollar per stroke owed to the winning player of each bracket, but some didn't have enough money. So that idea failed this time. Pretty fun format and an easy way for me to pocket 24 bucks...the day before payday I needed it. Now I have enough to buy a disc plus lunch.

Any suggestions to make this better?

 

[DavidSauls]

A big drawback is that half the players play 6 holes, and are eliminated.

Another is that you need exact numbers to fill out the brackets. Luckily, you had it with 8.

We used to run a full-day, single-elimination, match play tournament. Single elimination, as you've got, but 9-hole and 18-hole matches. After the 2nd round, 75% of the players were eliminated, and they went directly into a best-shot random-draw doubles round, which they played while the undefeated players played rounds 3 & 4.

So you might consider taking the 4 players who are eliminated after 6 holes, and having them pair off in a 12-hole doubles match, so they still have something to play for.

 

[Nemmers]

Had 8 players and they were bracketed off like the NCAA basketball tourney. Everyone paid 3 dollars. After 6 holes the best score of the two moved to the semis. After the next 6 holes the best from each bracket moved to the finals. The last six holes were the finals. Best score got the 24 bucks. It was fun and it was fast. Some players wanted to add a dollar per stroke owed to the winning player of each bracket, but some didn't have enough money. So that idea failed this time. Pretty fun format and an easy way for me to pocket 24 bucks...the day before payday I needed it. Now I have enough to buy a disc plus lunch.

Any suggestions to make this better?

Great idea! Since this is cheap and seemingly friendly competition where bragging rights rather than cash are really the biggest payoff, I think it might make it more interesting to pay 2nd and maybe even 3rd place by changing it to offer a consolation/loser's bracket. That way those who might've had a bad first six holes are still in the running for the money. Keeps motivation to play well high while still providing an avenue to get something for your time & effort.

Of course, this would significantly limit the prize fund if you stuck to $3/person, but wit that number I don't think it'd be too hard to convince your fellow players to up it a five-spot to make it interesting. Just a thought.

 

[scarpfish]

I've been trying to get my league onto this idea for some time, using our bag tag numbers for seeding, but it didn't go far past the idea stage.

A big drawback is that half the players play 6 holes, and are eliminated.

That was one of the drawbacks. The idea I had for getting around it was to play the eight players top to bottom, and for each 6 hole match to have a payout for the winner, no matter what bracket they were in.

So each entrant buys in for $3, and has 3 matches at $1 a match.

First round:
Match A1: Seed 1 vs. Seed 8
Match A2: Seed 4 vs. Seed 5
Match B1: Seed 2 vs. Seed 7
Match B2: Seed 3 vs. Seed 6

Second round:
Match AW: Match A1 and A2 winners
Match BW: Match B1 and B2 winners
Match AL: Match A1 and A2 losers
Match BL: Match B1 and B2 losers

Final round:
Championship: Match AW and BW winners
Consolation: Match AW and BW losers
5th Place: Match AL and BL winners
Cellar Match: Match AL and BL losers

Winner of each match, each round gets $2. If a match ends in a tie, they each get their $1 back, but it being a bracket tourney, there has to be a tiebreaker (at least in the first two rounds) to see who advances. You could use a CTP, last person to have the lead rule, or bag tag number to do this.

One problem with this system is that in an eight player bracket tournament, 5th place wins twice, and 4th place loses twice, so 5th ends up with more money. Perhaps the way around that is to add an extra $1 to the entry, and pay out an even $2 to the top half. So your final payouts would look like this...

1st place: W+W+W+top4=$8
2nd place: W+W+L+top4=$6
3rd place: W+L+W+top4=$6
4th place: W+L+L+top4=$4
5th place: L+W+W=$4
6th place: L+W+L=$2
7th place: L+L+W=$2
8th place: L+L+L=$0

That of course is assuming no ties. That's also a lot of $1 bills.

 

[ThomasOrion]

Everybody gets 3 discs. 1 Is covered in Razorblades, 1 has a small explosive device attached and detonates upon impact with a medium-force blast radius of 3 feet. 1 Is a Max weight Xcalibur.

There is a herd of wild baboons. First one to kill a Baboon wins.

Winner gets this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEltxqSCLGE

 

[jrawk]

I've run 2 bracket tournaments using bag tag seeding. I'll never run another. PIA and not worth the frustration or the bickering from the losers bracket. Heck, the second time was double elimination and people still bickered that brackets/seeding were rigged and losing twice in row meant you only played 12 holes. No more from me!

 

[sprintermatt]

I have a similar idea for teamplay... 4 people per team, full round of 18, but each player only actually plays 9 holes... barring ties... ties push. The goal was to make TEAM play a fun TEAM EVENT. While you aren't playing, you can be spectating/rooting/caddying, etc.

 

[knettles]

Everybody gets 3 discs. 1 Is covered in Razorblades, 1 has a small explosive device attached and detonates upon impact with a medium-force blast radius of 3 feet. 1 Is a Max weight Xcalibur.

There is a herd of wild baboons. First one to kill a Baboon wins.

Winner gets this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEltxqSCLGE

Xena Warrior Princess has always made me want to try this out.

 

[kfellmy]

Yea, my idea still needs tweaking. Played a short 9 hole course (a round can be played in 15 minutes) in Venice FL. Had 12 players and made a round 9 holes $5 entry. Turned out better but hated bye rounds, needed 16 players.

 

[DiscStore]

Matchplay League

I think we're going to run some $10 mini's at the 9 hole course next year.

First round of matchplay(completely random pairings) is 9 holes. Mano Y Mano.

Winners play another 9 hole random matchup for $25 and the first round losers play for $15 gift certificate.

1/2 of all entries win. Payouts are pretty much the same no matter how many. Nice to have a number divisible by 4 but workable.

 

[DavidSauls]

If you want to do match play on a league basis, there is another option, without (exactly) a single-elimination bracket. We tinkered with this in a trial in late summer. There are more specific rules, but basically it goes like this:

The first week you can draw matches randomly, or seed them by local bag tags, or player ratings (which is what we did).

You keep individual won-loss records. Each subsequent week you list players by winning percentage (with a series of tie-breakers). Top two are matched, next two, etc.

After a couple of weeks, you've got parity pairings where everyone is playing someone with a similar record. At the top, among the undefeateds, it's very similar to single-elimination.

You can enhance it by playing 9-hole matches. On a given foursome you have two matches. After 9 holes, those matches are complete and you start over for the next 9 holes, pairing the two winners against each other and the two losers. You can do this on a 9-hole course (2 rounds) or an 18-hole course (1 round, split after 9 holes).

We had provisions for odd numbers, and for even numbers not in multiples of 4.

 

[Widdershins]

With 8 players the easiest format is random draw best shot doubles. This is also the most popular as many players are resistant to trying new things. If however you had a more open minded group where FUN was the most important factor (and at a $3 buy in, fun should dominate as clearly the group is not out for blood), this is my idea:

Round robin, match play with each match lasting 3 holes. With 8 players this would take 21 holes. (so you play every other player in a 3 hole match)

Match play is perhaps the single most fun format in golf. 3 holes is such a short match that every stroke counts and a weaker player has a real chance against a much stronger player.

Typical match play scoring: each hole is worth 1 point for a win, zero for a loss, 1/2 for a tie. At the end of each match (3 holes) the winner gets one Match point, the loser gets zero points and a tie is worth 1/2 point to both players.

After 7 matches the best possible score is 7 Match points. The 2 players with the most Match points go to a 3 hole playoff. Payouts are up to the group. I would probably recommend $16 for 1st and $8 for 2nd.

In case there is a tie for the playoff spots, you need to set tie breakers ahead of time. Head to head for the 1st tie breaker and CTP for the 2nd.

You could mob golf it (way too slow for my preference) or just change the 4-somes in this cycle: Flip for #'s. 1-4 are one group. 5-8 are the other group. The groups stay together for 9 holes, allowing round robin. Then switch groups so 1,2,5 and 6 are in a 4-some. 3,4,7 and 8 are in the other group (you play the two guys in your group you have not yet played). After 6 holes, switch to the final grouping which is 1,2,7and 8. 3,4,5 and 6 are the 2nd 4-some. These groups stay together for the final 6 holes.

A principle advantage of this format over the OP is that no one sits out until the finals and the finals can be manipulated for the entertainment of the group by using made up holes surrounding the parking lot. So while the finalists are battling it out everyone else can sip a beer and heckle.