I’ve played in a lot of chartity golf tournaments. Heck, I’ve even been involved in running a bunch of them. One of the common mistakes I see people make is overcomplicating the format. Sometimes this is even done to the point of detracting from the enjoyment of the tournament. If you’re hosting one of these events, keep it simple.

Let’s look at the most common format: the scramble. The basic format is simple: All players tees off on each hole. The best of the tee shots is selected and everyone hits their next shot from that spot. The best of these is selected then everyone plays from that spot, until the ball is holed. When used in it’s most basic form like this it acheives a few very important things: it’s faster than individual stroke play, it’s fun for everyone, and it gives more people a chance to win. Sometimes though in an effort to be unique or level the playing field too far organizers make it too complicated.

The most common example of this mistake: The Minimum Tee Shot Rule. The intent here is obvious – let’s not let one team bring in a ringer that just brings the rest of the players in the group along for the ride by requiring the team to use at least two drives from each player. To me, this is a mistake for two reasons. First, it takes away some of the enjoyment for some of the players it aims to bring into the fold. A lot of the players in these events don’t get to play more than a few times a year, but they come out to these events to support a great cause. If they’ve got a good player on their team this rule puts a lot of stress and pressure on them to measure up and detracts from their enjoyment of the day. Secondly, it slows down the pace of play. If a team has to use a drive that isn’t great from a player to fill a quota, the hole takes more time to complete and holds up the pace of play.

What other rules have you seen that you think cause problems like this?

Categories: Tournament Tips

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 3:37 PM and is filed under Tournament Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.