Matchplay Competition Rules

[upanddown]

Hi all,

This is to gauge the opinion and experience of all club members re the mathcplay competitions at their club.

We have had issues with members organising games, with some using the current rules to their advantage, resulting in them receiving a bye to the next round without hitting a ball.
Indeed, we had a scenario last year where one member only played two matches to lift a trophy at finals day.


What rules do you have in place to ensure that all competitors make an effort to have ties played?

 

[patricks148]

We had one guy got to the final of a singles comp without playing single game, got an £80 voucher for it too.

The club started charging to enter, they used to be free. thought is with something invested people will make more of an effort to play. TBH not made any real difference.

on the sheets the lower name is the challenger, so should make the first contact, but also state its everyone's responsibility to to arrange games, but you still get people who actively try to avoid playing.

If you have not played the tie by the close of that particular round you can turn up at 4pm on the Sunday and claim the tie, or play.

it never ceases to amaze me the number guys who can make it down to claim a tie, yet are unable to make it to play.

wish i knew the answer

 

[Bunkermagnet]

We have stopped the lower name is responsible for arranging the game, and made both names responsible. If the game result isn’t posted by the deadline date, both names are out.
Thats the way it’s supposed to be anyway.

 

[backwoodsman]

We have stopped the lower name is responsible for arranging the game, and made both names responsible. If the game result isn’t posted by the deadline date, both names are out.
Thats the way it’s supposed to be anyway.

/\ /\ /\

This. Both players equally responsible. If tie not completed by deadline, then both out. But a player with a claim that the other was not cooperating can ask for a ruling from the h & c committee. (But don't think it happens often).

System seems to work but I'm still surprised how many match happen on the very last day.

 

[Pathetic Shark]

Every club has problems with match play competitions. I have found that if you have organisers prepared to stick to the rules, problems do not occur. The minute you let one person get away with something, the floodgates open.

 

[chrisd]

I wrote our winter league rules some years back. I made both pairs responsible for arranging a match, and where a complaint was lodged over a game not played, the pair making least effort were knocked out and if neither made an effort both pairs were scrubbed. The Club Secretary was the arbiter and his decision final.

It seemed only fair if a pair had offered several dates and kept a dialogue with their opponents that to dq them too would be grossly unfair

 

[Imurg]

Why do people find it so difficult to arrange these matches?
Is it because there are too many other comps going on?
I don't understand people that enter these comps and then seem to try as hard as possible to not play..
I gave them up years ago as it was just too much hassle arranging games.

 

[OnTour]

It would be so much easier to have a free day once a month and everyone play there game. If you can't make the date don't enter.

People can't interact with each other these days, even saying hello is hard work

 

[jim8flog]

Ours are decided by the toss of a coin.

It is the reason I stopped playing in them. I phoned my opponent 4 times leaving a message on his answerphone every time, he never phoned back and he won the toss of the coin.

I like what we did in the snooker league. The home player gave the away player three dates and times and if the away player either did not respond or could not make any of the dates (or rearrange a suitable one) the home player won the tie. If the home player failed to offer 3 dates the away player won.

 

[duncan mackie]

Every club has problems with match play competitions. I have found that if you have organisers prepared to stick to the rules, problems do not occur. The minute you let one person get away with something, the floodgates open.

Completely disagree, and generally such rules driven decision making is what creates the problem upsidedown has posted about!

Make both sides responsible for arranging the fixture.
Make a committee, or organiser, responsible for determining who goes through if the match doesn't get played on time. Whether the decision is based on a weight of evidence or, in the absence of any evidence a coin is tossed or both are eliminated (for failing to make any attempts etc etc) falls entirely to the committee - as does agreeing that they can play the round a day later than the deadline....
It has been shown time and time again that having struck rules and no common sense option creates the problem rather than solving it. There was a brilliant example relating to winter leagues a few years ago where a club posted absolutely strict rules and the weather intervened...so they decided to change the rules! The inevitable fall out was very messy.

 

[Duckster]

I like what we did in the snooker league. The home player gave the away player three dates and times and if the away player either did not respond or could not make any of the dates (or rearrange a suitable one) the home player won the tie. If the home player failed to offer 3 dates the away player won.

I've never had an issue arranging matches, however one of my old clubs had a similar rule to this in place, due to people not being able to arrange matches previously. I never heard of any upsets after it was in place.

 

[Crazyface]

Our Matchplay Rules :-

5. Matchplay Competitions.
a. It is the responsibility of the first named player/team to contact their opponents, to organize playing dates/times, within 7 days of the initial posting of the draw (for 1st round matches) or the completion date of the previous round. Three reasonable dates to play should be given. Due regard should be given to the playing restrictions of their opponents.
b. Rounds of Matchplay events must be completed by the specified dates as indicated on the competition sheets. Failure to comply with this rule will mean the disqualification of one or both players/teams. It is the responsibility of the winner(s) of a match to ensure that their name or their team’s name has been recorded on the competition sheet.
c. Once a date and time has been agreed, competitors may book the time for the relevant day’s timesheet, up to eight days in advance, through the internet booking system.
d. In the event of players being unable to agree on playing dates they must contact the Competition Secretary to arbitrate.
e. Competitors agreeing on a time and failing to turn up within 10 minutes of the specified time on the 1st Tee will have forfeited the match to the other competitor(s).
f. Up to the Semi-final, matches finishing ‘all square’ must continue until there is a result. Evening matches should allow time for the completion of extra holes.
g. In the case of a drawn match in either the Semi-Final or Final, there is to be a replay of the match over 18 holes, at the earliest opportunity. In the event of a tie on the completion of the replayed match, it will then go to sudden death commencing from the 1st hole.
h. The final date for completion of each round as indicated on the draw sheet will not be extended under any circumstances unless amended by the appropriate Competition Committee. Any ties not completed before the final date for completion, will mean that both entrants will be disqualified.

 

[Garush34]

Entered matchplay for the first time last year and had no issues arranging a game. Only one evening I generally can't play due to playing basketball, so maybe because I was flexible it helped.

Moved clubs this year and considering entering again. I noticed the sheet was up in the clubhouse and it does say the top name is responsible for making the first contact to arrange the game. We'll see how this year goes, I enjoyed playing matchplay last year doing well in the process.

 

[GB72]

I have never entered for the simple reason that I can only play at weekends and cannot get home in time to play 18 in the evening so feel that my calendar is too restricted to be fair to people I am playing against.

 

[upanddown]

Thanks for all the responses.

I knew we wouldn't be the only ones having issues with these ties, so was pretty sure there would be alternative solutions already in play.

I have been pushing for putting both out if the tie isn't played, as it will remove the option from the opponent to sit back and hope that the challenger doesn't contact them.

Ultimately, if the tie isn't organised, then neither of them can have been that bothered about it.

I think I will look to incorporate an option to present a case to the committee where all reasonable effort has been made by a particular individual to arrange the tie, only to be rebuffed and/or ignored by the other party.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

We've made both players equally responsible. If they miss the deadline they are both knocked out and any extensions have to go via the captain to be discussed and agreed. Working well and people are slowly realising they actually have to be proactive. The gaps between rounds is usually pretty generous and even in holiday season there should be time to get games played.

 

[duncan mackie]

Thanks for all the responses.

I knew we wouldn't be the only ones having issues with these ties, so was pretty sure there would be alternative solutions already in play.

I have been pushing for putting both out if the tie isn't played, as it will remove the option from the opponent to sit back and hope that the challenger doesn't contact them.

Ultimately, if the tie isn't organised, then neither of them can have been that bothered about it.

I think I will look to incorporate an option to present a case to the committee where all reasonable effort has been made by a particular individual to arrange the tie, only to be rebuffed and/or ignored by the other party.

Without the committee referral you have to DQ a pair that are willing and able to play every single day that the tie is due......how ridiculous is that?!?

 

[davidg2010uk]

Used to love match play comps but had a few bad experiences with people not phoning/texting back then making all sorts of excuses. I get that life sometimes gets in the way but surely if you can't play you would just tell the other person to take the tie? Would rather play golf and get beat than try and get through without playing golf.

 

[cliveb]

Related to this thread, I'd like to ask people's opinions on this scenario:

Last year there was a foursomes knockout. In one round, due to various holidays, illnesses, etc, members of boths pairs couldn't make it by the due date. It was therefore up to the pairs to choose a way to send one them through. Pretty much anything would have been acceptable: toss of a coin, game of darts, outcome of a footie match, etc.

As it happens, one of each pair was available on the due date, so they decided to have a singles match - an actual game of golf - to decide the outcome. Both pairs were happy with this. But after the fact, others in the competition heard about it and objected. The result was that both pairs were DQ'd.

Now to my mind, choosing to play a singles match to decide the winner seems eminently reasonable, but the objectors seemed to think it was pretty much the one thing they shouldn't be allowed to do, and the committee sided with them. ("It's a pairs competition, you can't play singles"). Seems bonkers to me when if, say, they'd had a raindrops on the window race that would have been deemed OK. What are other people's thoughts on this?

(PS. I was not involved at all in this - my pair had already been knocked out in an earlier round).

 

[duncan mackie]

Related to this thread, I'd like to ask people's opinions on this scenario:

Last year there was a foursomes knockout. In one round, due to various holidays, illnesses, etc, members of boths pairs couldn't make it by the due date. It was therefore up to the pairs to choose a way to send one them through. Pretty much anything would have been acceptable: toss of a coin, game of darts, outcome of a footie match, etc.

As it happens, one of each pair was available on the due date, so they decided to have a singles match - an actual game of golf - to decide the outcome. Both pairs were happy with this. But after the fact, others in the competition heard about it and objected. The result was that both pairs were DQ'd.

Now to my mind, choosing to play a singles match to decide the winner seems eminently reasonable, but the objectors seemed to think it was pretty much the one thing they shouldn't be allowed to do, and the committee sided with them. ("It's a pairs competition, you can't play singles"). Seems bonkers to me when if, say, they'd had a raindrops on the window race that would have been deemed OK. What are other people's thoughts on this?

(PS. I was not involved at all in this - my pair had already been knocked out in an earlier round).

Those are the rules; my thoughts remain that you can't be selection those you wish to apply. The only fairness in the rules is that they are applied equally to anyone in the same situation.