Recently I did an article “So many golf formats, what do they all mean?” explaining some of the more popular golf tournament formats. With the season in the Northeast winding down, a lot of clubs use this time of year for a few fun tournaments.
Local clubs use these formats to keep golfers interested this time of year. Your best bet is to keep these short and sweet because most guys will want to be on the couch by start of the second half kick off at the latest. These tournament formats are geared for a fun day of golf with some competition to go along with it.
Turkey Shoot
Obviously played on or around Thanksgiving. There are two key elements to this format. First off, pin placement. Throw the USGA rule book out the door, these placements should resemble a miniature golf course. Ask your grounds keeper to place every pin on the hardest part of the green like the top of a mound, on a crest, bottom of a hill, up against the fringe, on the fringe and yes even in a bunker! As you can see, this is a fun round of golf and you can get very creative with prizes, you can even put frozen turkeys on the greens as obstacles. Any scoring format will work with this, team individual etc. so have fun.
3-Club Tournament
Exactly how it sounds, players are only allowed to leave the club house with any 3 clubs they chose to play with. Strategy is key with this format, your probably saying what’s the big deal, driver, putter, 5 iron right? That could be one combination that would work. A lot depends on the length of your course, and how you hit the ball personally. That’s where the strategy comes in. Think about your average round at your course and what irons you use the most and go from there. Unless you can reach a couple of par 4′s on a shorter course, I would suggest a 3wood or 2-hybrid instead of a driver. Some players will not take a putter, your driver, 3-wood or hybrid will work on the green for putting and in theory gives you an extra club over opponents that take putter.
Round Robin
A two person format with some handicap restrictions. We try to make two flights with the “A” flight’s combined handicap between around 13-21 and the “B” 22+. One note, 5 or less handicaps must play in the “A” flight. You break up the 18 holes into three different formats. For example the first 6 holes would be a scramble, second 6 holes can be best ball and the last 6 holes can be alternate shot. Obviously there are other formats you can use but I highly suggest the alternate shot a one of them, it’s evens the playing field and it is a lot of fun. I like using it in the final 6 holes because it changes the tournament dramatically.
Go out there and have fun as the season basically winds down.
Please note if your club plays a format that you want to share, send it to me at sinktheputts@gmail.com
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