GM Forum Matchplay Championship

[virtuocity]

The idea for King of Kings was spawned from a discussion about the awesomeness of Matchplay format golf.

I would (I think) be prepared to run a national forum competition but given the, how should I say it, "challenges" which came from opening up the idea of KoK for discussion I would welcome very gentle, cuddly and light input on this thread.

THE FORMAT I would look to run it in would be:

-£5 non-returnable entry fee by PayPal or bank transfer. Entrants to provide full name, handicap and home/home club postcode
-All the draws for each round would pair competitors based on location (unless both competitors can agree to another venue)
-Ties to be played on a course as equidistant from each pair as possible
-The first person drawn will be the challenger and in the event of not being able to mutually agree a date or venue, the challenger will set the venue and offer 3 dates. If the person who is challenged cannot make any of these, then the challenger will receive a bye into the next round
-The challenger is responsible for booking the venue for their tie
-Use of home clubs is encouraged, subject to both competitors' agreement
-Once the competition reaches the semi final stage, the 4 competitors will meet on a Finals Day at a venue to be set in a mutually agreeable venue where two rounds will be played. AM round will be played for a place in the final and PM round to decide the winner, with a 3rd place play-off taking place at this time
-Entry fees will be split evenly between semi-finalists
-Ideally, a forum meet will also take place on the Finals day, subject to availability

Over 100 people took part in the King of Kings qualifiers so I would like to hope that we could achieve a total of 80 competitors. This would allow us to offer £100 to each semi-finalist to cover their travel and Finals day green fees. Obviously, less entrants means less cash for the finalists and unless there is some kind of mathematical conspiracy in entrant numbers, byes will be utilised in the first round.

Commitment would be required, especially as you progress through the competition. For example, someone in the East of Scotland may have to arrange a tie against someone from Central England meaning a 2 hour drive for each person in the tie. I appreciate that we're all busy with golf, life, family and golf and that's why I would suggest a mere £5 entry fee so that in the event of anyone pulling out, the competition would remain unaffected.

Weather will come into play, so I would suggest the following time-scales:

Round One- To be played by the end of August 2014
Round Two- To be played by the end of October 2014
Round Three- To be played by the end January 2015
Round Four- To be played by the end of March 2015
Round Five- To be played by April 15th 2015
Finals Day- End of May 2015


So, in the interests of moving things along could you please reply to this thread firstly to express an interest in this. Also, I'd be grateful for some feedback on the format from anyone who is interested in taking part on how this could be improved. Hopefully there will be enough people up for it to get things off the ground. If not, we can try again another time. Lastly, although I'm putting my head on a block by volunteering, if there's anyone else who feels that they would prefer to run the show, again stick your hand up now!

Thanks folks!

 

[fundy]

My thoughts fwiw:

Would happily enter and if you need any help running (or help with the more Southern geography) then feel free to ask

Once you get entrants, split them into 4 or 8 regions then work out the games within the regions to try and ensure no one travels too far in the early rounds and then you have the right number for the final rounds.

Dont make the semis and finals 36 holes in one day as that will rule out quite a few on the forum from competing (and also makes for a very long day if you include travel)

Be amazed if you get as many as you are planning for, expect you need 1 less round at least and not sure Id have "winter" rounds, if you do then accept you may have to extend deadlines based on the weather

 

[pbrown7582]

I would agree with some regional draw bias in early rounds to ease travelling.

Would this be instead of or as well as KOK medal comp?

 

[groundskeeperwilly]

I'd be interested but as above splitting into regional groupings to start with (and as far as possible into the comp) might be beneficial!

 

[patricks148]

i would be interested , but i can see some issues for me in this;

first 2 rounds no problem, but then you would be on winter course in some places.

distance from anyone else to play against.

 

[jimbob.someroo]

I personally wouldn't be able to commit to it, but really like the idea and the format. For me, I already have too few spare weekends and am going to be drastically cutting down on the knockouts/opens I'm gonna play in next year so I can play more enjoyable rounds and have more time with the missus.

That said, this is exactly the same reasoning I was against a knockout for the original KoK but there were many that felt strongly for it and so there shouldn't be too much issue getting a good turnout!

Best of luck, and happy to help where I can with prizes etc.

 

[williamalex1]

I would up for this, but i think it might be too late to organise for this year. Let me know if you need any help, you're a glutton for punishment :thup:

 

[Val]

Firstly Dave, hats off for trying to get this off the ground, organising matchplay regionally is a nightmare. Club golfers in particular are busy playing club golf to have time for any more, we've tried a Scottish thing elsewhere which is proving a challenge to organise across just the central belt.

Format wise

Doing it regionally really needs to be regionally (ie within 30 or 40 miles) as most golf is likely to be midweek and taking you as an example maybe working midweek it's unlikely to get to North Berwick to play IanG on a Wednesday and even if you meet in Cumbernaul you'll struggle to get finished after work in Oct, so you maybe better with more regions depending who is in and spreading the net as people get knocked out.

Its a good idea but the logistics make it really tough to work well, you may be better taking a leaf out of HDID or some of the other regional matchplay events.

I'll register interest for sure until we get a firm handle on numbers and final format I can't commit.

 

[Fish]

i would be interested , but i can see some issues for me in this;

first 2 rounds no problem, but then you would be on winter course in some places.

distance from anyone else to play against.

Its no different to entering the National Nike or HDID style matchplay comp, the further you advance into the competition, the further you have to expect to travel.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I like the format enormously and agree on more regionalised draws initially. However, at this stage in the season, I'm concerned with people going on holiday, peak of the club calendar, etc whether the time is right. I would look to do this again startin perhaps March 2015 to get as many people involved as possible, work the logistics through, and give more time to get matches played. Just my thoughts but if it goes ahead, count me in

 

[fundy]

I like the format enormously and agree on more regionalised draws initially. However, at this stage in the season, I'm concerned with people going on holiday, peak of the club calendar, etc whether the time is right. I would look to do this again startin perhaps March 2015 to get as many people involved as possible, work the logistics through, and give more time to get matches played. Just my thoughts but if it goes ahead, count me in

If were gonna do it do it, dont see a lot of pointing in faffing for 9 months talking about it personally. Set a date for entries, see how many are interested, if it works it works if not then tweak it for next yr

 

[Davey247]

I'll echo Homer's view.

Sign up Jan - Mar '15
First round played by end of April then a round a month there on.

Alternatively (and it might already have been mentioned as I've not read the thread properly) play the first 2-3 rounds depending on numbers then hold a stableford comp/grand final for those still in come the end of September - the final 8/16/32.

 

[fundy]

I'll echo Homer's view.

Sign up Jan - Mar '15
First round played by end of April then a round a month there on.

Alternatively (and it might already have been mentioned as I've not read the thread properly) play the first 2-3 rounds depending on numbers then hold a stableford comp/grand final for those still in come the end of September - the final 8/16/32.

And then it stops becoming a matchplay comp and becomes a stableford or medal comp, which is what the K of K was

 

[Davey247]

And then it stops becoming a matchplay comp and becomes a stableford or medal comp, which is what the K of K was

No in its entirety though. Just a suggestion to get something together this year without having to go into the winter.

 

[fundy]

No in its entirety though. Just a suggestion to get something together this year without having to go into the winter.

Just were going back into the discussion we had a million times on KoK about format, that went from matchplay, to possibly your format to then fully medal, seems daft to go the same road again

 

[patricks148]

Its no different to entering the National Nike or HDID style matchplay comp, the further you advance into the competition, the further you have to expect to travel.

yes, but i can only think of one other guy within 50 miles, so would that make it right to have a north region? prob not.
its fine for most, but its a 3 hour drive to get to mid Scotland so its just not practical for me.

nothing stopping the rest playing

As for the Nike (Volvo as was) last time i played in that it was split regional and the final was in Scotland, then the winner of that went to somewhere warm to play the grand final. it was all regional.

for those reasons, its no for me, unless a few guys up here committed to playing in it.

 

[Slicer30]

I am in - I entered the KOK of kings then could not find a date/venue that suited me. My fault obviously and no slant on the organisers. It just turned out that I had other commitments on the dates that were set.

I like the option of being able to mutually agree a date with my opponent, between us we should be able to worth something out a lot easier.

 

[williamalex1]

yes, but i can only think of one other guy within 50 miles, so would that make it right to have a north region? prob not.
its fine for most, but its a 3 hour drive to get to mid scotland so its just not practical for me.

nothing stopping the rest playing

We could arrange a couple of a mini meets around the Perth or Dundee area as we did for the KoKs, getting most of the Scottish ties played over 2 meets .

 

[Midnight]

I would be up for this mate

 

[IanG]

I think Dave has struck the right balance between the competing influences/restrictions which have all been done to death so please not again.

By starting in the summer and running over to next May we have ample time to get the games played for each round - after all the frenzy of other matchplay comps are all occurring around now.

His suggestion :

"All the draws for each round would pair competitors based on location (unless both competitors can agree to another venue)"

I take to mean Dave will look at the competitors in each given round and pair folks up as best he can to minimise travel time for everyone. So the draw is not strictly random but instead is sensible - which I prefer.

By the time the quarters come around those left in the comp know they are likely to have a few hours travelling to contend with. If they don't like it or can't do it - they withdraw, or maybe offer their slot to their defeated opponent in the last round. - it's not the Olympics. The £5 entry fee makes this not too painful.

So for that reason Dave - I'm in.

One bad scenario would be say only two Scots enter - then after round 1 they have to travel far for every round if they keep winning. The solution to this is for many folks to enter in each region !