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Most players in a 1 day two round event?
- Thread starter brianb
- Start date
How many holes per round? How many players per hole? Shotgun start or tee times? I'm curious how you can squeeze that many in.
Most I've ever done is 100. 20 holes, two shotgun rounds. Five players per hole.
Most I've ever done is 100. 20 holes, two shotgun rounds. Five players per hole.
Improbably
Eagle Member
Sounds more like awfulness than accomplishment however the details worked out. Things like 5 cards, ghost cards, and bland temp holes are an unethical money grab. The quality of experience is greatly reduced from a standard one course full at 72 event.
The course is a very short 18 hole course. Tourney rounds usually take about 2 1/2 hours to play even with a full course so we used two pools making for four 18 hole rounds for the day. We have used this format at this event for about a decade with great success. In the past we have tried to keep cards to 4 somes with 18 groups (no ghosts), but this year saw 5 somes with several ghost groups as the park is not big enough to add temp holes.
This wasn't an intentional money grab or other nefarious shady TD activity. This event has seen a consistent 130-140 players for several years using this format. We were expecting about that many this year, too. I've never put a formal cap on players for this event as it's never been necessary. That will change next year! Up until about 3 days before the event we were on target for about 150 players. Over 60 players registered the day before or the day of which blew our preparations for number of players out of the water. I didn't feel it was fair to in state players to put a cap on the event so close to the event as it is a State Series event and many of the extra players were from out of state. And I didn't feel it was right to turn anyone away from the event as most players travelled 150-300 miles to be there.
This event is in a town of about 900 people that is located about 100 miles from any town with a population of over 10,000 people. It's truly in the middle of nowhere. Nearly everyone camped on site which is a big draw for the event so almost no one had to travel after the event. In no way did ANYONE think there would be this many people at the event and to be honest, I hope to never run an event with this many people using this format again. It was a very long day with slow play due to so many players. Having said that, nearly all of the players were proud to be a part of history for our state and understood that it would be a long day and still enjoyed themselves.
This wasn't an intentional money grab or other nefarious shady TD activity. This event has seen a consistent 130-140 players for several years using this format. We were expecting about that many this year, too. I've never put a formal cap on players for this event as it's never been necessary. That will change next year! Up until about 3 days before the event we were on target for about 150 players. Over 60 players registered the day before or the day of which blew our preparations for number of players out of the water. I didn't feel it was fair to in state players to put a cap on the event so close to the event as it is a State Series event and many of the extra players were from out of state. And I didn't feel it was right to turn anyone away from the event as most players travelled 150-300 miles to be there.
This event is in a town of about 900 people that is located about 100 miles from any town with a population of over 10,000 people. It's truly in the middle of nowhere. Nearly everyone camped on site which is a big draw for the event so almost no one had to travel after the event. In no way did ANYONE think there would be this many people at the event and to be honest, I hope to never run an event with this many people using this format again. It was a very long day with slow play due to so many players. Having said that, nearly all of the players were proud to be a part of history for our state and understood that it would be a long day and still enjoyed themselves.
We had 102 for a 1 day, 1 round event.....but the round was 27 holes.
Nowhere near 208 players, but since we only expected 30 or 40, we thought it was pretty good.
Nowhere near 208 players, but since we only expected 30 or 40, we thought it was pretty good.
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2009
- Messages
- 622
Where!?
It was one course. The Am's first round started at 7 am and the Pro's second round ended around 9 pm. 416 total rounds in 14 hours. It was a long day, but besides the amount of people throwing the schedule out of whack, it went fairly smooth. Brian did an excellent job with the hand he was dealt.
I agree with most of this.
Depending on the course, 5 to a flight may slow things down a little or a lot.
Temp holes can be well designed or not. BUT, even for the best designed temp holes, it's rare that they're available for everyone to practice as much as they feel is adequate.
Ghost cards always gum up the process.
On two 18 hole courses, if doing shotgun starts for everyone, it's tough to imagine more than 150 people getting in a round that's even close to timely.
200+ folks on a single course sounds like a headache. Several hundred headaches. Just because it can be done, doesn't mean that it should be done.
Apparently, 200+ people thought it should.
Well, they thought it should at 130-140 people, since that was the history of the event, yet they still came. And the last couple of dozen had a real good idea how many people would be squeezed onto that course....and still decided it was worth it to come.
foo_g
Birdie Member
Don't most events have a cap on the number of players?
Yes. Except when you've never needed one before, so you don't bother, then 60 unexpected people show up.
After which, lesson learned, you do.
jfrosty42
$5?! Maaaannnnn...
I think even with no announced cap, you have to draw the line somewhere even if it means upsetting people. To me the math of 140ish satisfied people versus 60ish unhappy people is better than 200+ people having a less than satisfactory day on an over-crowded course.
Seems foolish to me to travel any significant distance (more than 30-45 minutes) for a tournament that a) I'm not pre-registered for and b) has a rep for drawing a fairly sizeable crowd and then feel entitled to be able to play the event no matter how big the crowd. So if I showed up and was #175 to try to sign up for a one-day, one-course event, I wouldn't have anyone to blame but myself if I was turned away because the TD decided to cap it at 144 or 150 or whatever he felt was appropriate (which is already an insane amount of players to me).
I'd be hesitant to turn people away before announcing that I would---a week before, or at least the night before.
Last winter when we had our run---usually we have 30-40 people, but it was clear we'd blow that out of the water---as we got into the 90s we announced a cap of 104. Probably the night before, I don't recall. We figured that many would cause problems, but any more would cause real problems.
Last winter when we had our run---usually we have 30-40 people, but it was clear we'd blow that out of the water---as we got into the 90s we announced a cap of 104. Probably the night before, I don't recall. We figured that many would cause problems, but any more would cause real problems.
As the TD I agree that I should've capped the event, but for reasons stated above I didn't. Without a well publicized cap, how do you turn people away from an event that they likely travelled 150-250 or more miles to attend? And to put it into perspective how far from anywhere this tournament is, I travelled 200 miles to run the event... The event this year was a victim of its own success. And yes, it will be capped next year...
I understand the arguments about people traveling all that way, but I keep coming back to the notion that if I'm going to drive 150-250 miles or more to play a tournament, I sure as hell am going make sure my name on the list before I leave the house. If I didn't, I would make sure I was the very first person in line on tournament morning (I'm talking arriving at 6am when registration doesn't open until 8). If I do neither of those things, I really can't cry if I get shut out when I get there, posted cap or not. Especially if we're talking about a tournament where the TD says he was "on track" for 150 players with a few days to go. That's not a "the tourney only gets 50 people so pre-reg isn't necessary" situation at all.
Beyond all our second-guessing, congratulations on whatever you're doing that makes so many people want to be a part of it, even with whatever hassles those numbers engender.
