Competition Format Questions

[tallpaul]

Our club had its annual Men's Captain's Day competition at the weekend. 18 hole stableford with a shotgun start. I had a couple of queries over the format:

1) Each tee had 4 players for the shotgun start. There were a number of additional prizes alongside the overall winner e.g. longest drive, nearest the pin etc. One such prize was a 'team' prize for the 4-balls who could safely return a yellow ball to the clubhouse. Each team was given a marked yellow ball and had to play each hole with it in turn. If you lost the ball you could not be entered in to the draw for this prize. My query is whether such a competition can be run alongside a qualifying stableford competition? I assume it was voluntary for the players to decide whether to play the ball when it was their turn but was it within the rules of golf to run such a competition within a qualifying comp?

2) When calculating the order of results and applying countback from a shotgun start, how does this work? i.e. if I started on the 10th and was tied for position with a starter from the 1st, would the countback be based on our respective finishing holes? If so, is there any consideration to the respective 'difficulty' of those holes? e.g. if the front 9 is considered an 'easier' run of holes than the back 9 (or vice versa).

Cheers,

Paul

 

[BTatHome]

1) imposing additional conditions on a competition is pretty standard for fun comps, but to have the Stableford as a qualifier I think would run into problems ... I seem to remember someone saying that '4 club' competitions could not be qualifiers as it was restricting rules of golf.
2) club will have a condition of competition and it should list the rules for determining winners from count-back. The most used method is the back nine (ie holes 10-18), then back six then back 3 etc etc. if yet to observe anywhere that implements anything different,but the rules of the club will apply.

 

[Twire]

When rule outcomes conflict each other i.e. Matchplay against strokeplay, then no you can't play them together. If it was only the yellow ball rule, then couldn't you have played your own ball and just nominated it as yellow? If you then lost your own ball, you put the yellow in your bag and leave it.

Countback is a club rule and most clubs will countback on the back 9 irrespective of what hole you started on.

 

[tallpaul]

2) club will have a condition of competition and it should list the rules for determining winners from count-back. The most used method is the back nine (ie holes 10-18), then back six then back 3 etc etc. if yet to observe anywhere that implements anything different,but the rules of the club will apply.

I understand this for a competition where everybody has played holes 1-18, in order. However, my understanding of countback was that it was used back 9, then 6, then 3 etc. to separate on performance under the pressure of closing out the round. Therefore, when different competitors played different closing holes, is this applicable? Should/must/can countback be applied to the finishing holes specific to each competitor? Or can only the stipulated final 9, 6, 3 etc holes be used?

According to our rulebook:

In Stroke Play competitions (with the exception of the Club Championship
Gross winner, see para 1.16 (iii). below) a count-back is applied using the
last nine scores. Where a multiple tee start has occurred the last nine will
be considered to be holes 10 -18. If the tie is not resolved using the last
nine holes, then the winner is determined on the basis of the last six holes,
the last three holes and finally the 18th hole. In the event that a last nine,
last six, last three and 18th hole count-back does not resolve a tie then the
same procedure will be applied to the first nine scores (holes 1 - 9).

So it looks like holes 10-18 are used, irrespective of where you start/finish your round.

 

[BTatHome]

If you didn't specify a specific set of countback holes then it wouldn't be comparable when trying to separate people, ie. my last nine could have four par 3's in it, but yours may have 4 par 5's ... Hence why it's chosen as a specific set of holes.

 

[DCB]

Question I'd ask is, why would you want to even try and run this as a qualifier, it's obviously a bit of a social and fun event, so why not just keep it like that. It shouldn't be a qualifier IMO

 

[rulefan]

I would suggest that restricting a player to using a specific ball on a hole would be denying him his right to choose his own ball, thereby waiving a rule of golf.

I know that the 'One ball (type) Condition of Competition' has been approved by the R&A/USGA but I reckon that would be considered a special ruling.

Deciding Ties (recommendation from the R&A)
If a play-off of any type is not feasible, matching score cards is recommended. The method of matching cards should be announced in advance and should also provide what will happen if this procedure does not produce a winner. An acceptable method of matching cards is to determine the winner on the basis of the best score for the last nine holes. If the tying players have the same score for the last nine, determine the winner on the basis of the last six holes, last three holes and finally the 18th hole. If this method is used in a competition with a multiple tee start, it is recommended that the “last nine holes, last six holes, etc.” is considered to be holes 10-18, 13-18, etc.