Many thanks to Ron Pittman, Bill Bullington, and Chuck Kennedy for pointing me in the right direction.
Let's get this ball rolling!
Williamson County Disc Golf Club
Thursday Night Singles Handicap League
Liberty Park Disc Golf Course
Thursdays 5:30 pm (will change to 6:00pm mid-June)
Handicap leagues allow players of wide-ranging skills to compete in a fair way. It helps to attract and retain the interest of beginning players when they know that no matter what they normally shoot, if they have what is a pretty good round
for them, they have a chance at winning. Perhaps we can inspire some new golfers with our league! If not, we're still going to have some fun. That
is rule #1 after all.
This is somewhat long and convoluted. Bear with me. There will be time for discussion. Nothing is set in stone.
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Weekly entry fees will be collected and prizes will be awarded beginning Thursday July 1 (we are ok
on the 1st, aren't we Ron?). However, I will start recording scores this Thursday May 6. Based on what I've been reading in trying to set this up, and on my own gut feeling, we are each going to have two different averages and two different handicaps - one for the 'A' location and one for the 'B' location. They really are quite different courses in level of difficulty, and (more importantly) it gives us the opportunity for more prizes!...an end of the season 'A' champ, a 'B' champ, and an overall champ. And I don't mind keeping track of it all so that's that.
Even though there is no cash involved yet, I encourage everyone to start coming out now. I think our timing is good; since the baskets have only recently been moved to the 'B' location, we will likely get about a month at each spot before we start playing for prizes in July. So we just may have the opportunity to get at least three rounds at each placement before July and have our averages and handicaps all ready to go. For those who don't yet have three rounds on a given placement by July 1st, no worries! Unfortunately, you can't win any prizes your first week, but you can start winning your second week. After your second round, your two scores will be averaged and the resulting handicap will be applied to your second round's raw score. After that it's always your most recent three rounds.
<aside: Ron, can we request Franklin Parks to give us 6 weeks at each placement from July-September?>
Let's talk prizes! Keep in mind no fees and no prizes until July. After that:
All payouts will be in Club DollarsThere will be an optional $1 CTP pool each week - winner take all
There will be an optional $1 ace pool - pre-established ace pool rules apply
Entry fee for the league is $5 per week. Of this, the club will keep $1 for future projects, insurance, etc. Another $1 will go into the end-of-the-season champion's pool. The other $3 will go into the weekly pool. If we have six players or less in any given week, 1st and 2nd place will split the pool 67/33. If we have more than six playing, 3rd place can win a few bucks too, but maxes out at getting the entry fee back. 1st and 2nd will split the remainder of the pool 67/33. The champion's pool will accumulate all season. At the end of September, the 'A' and 'B' champs will each get 30% and the overall champ will get 40%. You must have at least three rounds at a given basket placement to qualify for the season championship, and at least four rounds total to qualify for the overall championship. Keep in mind, this is a handicap league. All prizes will be awarded based on handicapped scores.
So the weekly prize schedule will be:
# of
players...........................1st.........2nd..........3rd
3.....................................$6..........$3...........--
4.....................................$8..........$4...........--
5...................................$10..........$5...........--
6...................................$12..........$6...........--
7...................................$12..........$6...........$3
8...................................$13..........$7...........$4
9...................................$15..........$8...........$4
10.................................$17..........$8...........$5
11.................................$19..........$9...........$5
12.................................$21........$10...........$5
13.................................$23........$11...........$5
14.................................$25........$12...........$5
15.................................$27........$13...........$5
16.................................$29........$14...........$5
The handicapping -
Since there is not a standard par as you travel from one disc golf course to another, a disc golf handicap is based on an arbitrary reference number rather than an actual par. This reference number is subtracted from a player's average, then multiplied by approximately 80% to obtain the handicap. It should be a number which is at the low end of what you would expect anyone to average on that course. With our 20 hole par of 60 at Liberty, we will use 50 as our reference number. This is partly because I do think it works well for our purposes, and partly because someone else has already done all the calculations and made a handy-dandy table with 50 as the reference number.
The table actually uses a sliding scale starting at 80.4% and going up to 90%. Players with very high averages would have a tough time ever overcoming the 20% differential and winning a prize. Sliding the handicap scale up to 90% at the high end helps to offset this.
The raw average score will be rounded to the nearest 1/2 stroke.
A player's raw average score for any given week will be the average of three most recent rounds at that basket location, as will the raw average for the 'A' and 'B' champs. The raw average for the overall champ will be the average of
all rounds played at both locations.
Example:
raw average is 63....63 minus 50 is 13....13 times 80.4% is a handicap of 10.45
This would be subtracted from the raw score for the round to arrive at the adjusted score from which prizes will be awarded.
Holes will be played in barber-pole fashion, shotgun start
See you Thursday!!
The table actually uses a sliding scale starting at 80.4% and going up to 90%. Players with very high averages would have a tough time ever overcoming the 20% differential and winning a prize. Sliding the handicap scale up to 90% at the high end helps to offset this.
You guys are lucky it won't count...I played horribly...would've given me a huge handicap going into next week.
Looking forward to next week...