Men’s Wednesday League Rules
The Men’s Wednesday League is divided into 3 divisions. The Yellow division is an 18 hole League starting at the first hole from 12:30 pm onwards. The White division is a 9 hole League starting at 5:00pm onwards from the 1st hole in week one, the 10th hole in week two and continuing to alternate throughout the league season. The Green division is a 9 hole League starting at 5:00pm onwards from the 10th hole in week one, the 1st hole in week two and continuing to alternate throughout the league season.
Players
Players are two man teams who play other two man teams each week. The opponents are different each week and are determined by a ‘Round Robin’ schedule created before the start of the League season and posted at the pro shop prior to the first round being played. Copies of the schedule and the lists of teams with contact phone numbers are available to players at the pro shop.
Entries
The entries for the League must be received by the closing date which is two weeks before the start of league play. Players are strongly encouraged to enter the League as a team of two as it is not always possible to pair up a single golfer. Entries must be submitted before the closing date stated on the entry form to satisfy priority requirements. Entry priority is given to players in teams who played regularly in the prior year’s Wednesday league, followed by players who played in the prior year’s Wednesday league and have lost their playing partner, followed by players who have played in a previous year’s Wednesday league, followed by new players and finally, any entries received after the closing date. The number of teams in each division is limited and every effort will be made to accommodate all entries, but sometimes the leagues are oversubscribed and not everyone is able to play in their chosen division or at all. If there is no room for a player in the league, a list of substitute players is maintained at the pro shop and the player may add their name and phone number to that list. League members who participate in less that 50% of the rounds in a season will not be given priority for inclusion in the following year’s league unless proof of extenuating circumstances, such as long term illness is submitted to the organizers.
Tee Times
Tee times must be made by the players in advance of play. The earliest a tee time can be made is two weeks before the day of play. Check with your opponents to make sure they are able to play at the time you propose. You are expected to play each Wednesday. If you cannot play on the Wednesday, be considerate and contact your opponents to tell them you will not be there, but intend to make up the round at another time. It is not the golf club’s responsibility to apologize on your behalf to your opponents when you do not show up to play a league round.
Playing
Rounds are played according to the USGA rules of golf plus any local rules. Golfers play from the same tee boxes each week. Players under the age of 65 play from the white tees. Players 65 or older before the start of the first league round may play from the Gold tees. Players must make it clear to the organizers which tees they will be playing from if they turn 65 years of age before the league begins, otherwise it will be assumed they will be playing from the white tees. It is not allowed to change tee boxes part way through the league season. If you turn 65 part way through the season, you must continue to play from the white tees through to the end of the league season. Please note that course handicaps are different when playing from the white or gold tees.
Score recording
Each pair in a team is responsible for recording all the scores for all the players in the group. One player from each team should take the responsibility to fill out a scorecard with the full names of all the players in the group and to record the gross score for each player on each hole. Check with your opponents after you leave each green to make sure you all agree the scores for the hole just completed and mark the scores down on the card. At the end of the round, check with your opponents that the total scores for each player tally with the totals on their card. Once you are in agreement, write down the totals, then sign and date your card and take it into the pro shop and place it in the league scorecard box on the counter. When two cards are submitted by each group it helps take away any guesswork when trying to read handwriting and decipher scores. Too often, for various reasons, cards do not make it into the scoring office and that disadvantages all the golfers in the group. Sometimes a substitute is playing for a team member so it is essential that the subs full name is written on the card for the scoring office to identify them in the system. If you imbibe “tee many martoonis” on the course and accidentally leave the scorecard on the cart after your round, then you cannot assume that card will ‘magically’ find it’s way into the pro shop, so please make sure you hand in your card. Two cards from each group also mitigates the event where one team assumes the other is keeping score when in reality neither are doing it (it happens!).
If for weather or other reasons a round is not completed you must agree with your opponents to return to the course as soon as possible, before the following Sunday evening and finish the round. Return to the hole where play was abandoned and carry on playing where you left off. We cannot enter incomplete rounds into our system. Incomplete scorecards will be discarded.
Make up rounds
If you cannot play on the league day, it is possible to play a make-up round any day before Wednesday, or up until Sunday evening following the Wednesday. Score cards for make-up rounds must contain the following information: Full name of player(s) (just writing ‘Bob’ will not do!), Division name, date of missed league round, the gross score for each hole and total gross score. If you play in a 9 hole league, make sure you play the correct side of the course – we cannot use scores from the wrong nine. Make up rounds must be played with at least one other golfer who must attest to the score on the card by also signing it. Only one make up round attempt is allowed and your intention to play a make up league round must be communicated to the pro shop counter staff before playing and will be recorded on the tee sheet. Failure to follow the above rules may result in the make up score card being rejected.
Scoring Match points
The format of scoring is matchplay. Each team member is either the ‘A’ player or the ‘B’ player. The ‘A’ player is the player with the lower handicap index (not the lower playing handicap). If both players have exactly the same handicap index then the ‘A’ player is determined by the first named player in the team name. In a match of four persons (2 teams) the ‘A’ players play against each other and the ‘B’ players play against each other.
The higher course handicap player is given shots by the lower course handicap player. The number of shots given is the difference between the course handicaps of the two players. Those shots are allocated based upon the handicap rating of each hole. For example, in the nine hole division if Bob has a course handicap of 18 for the front nine and Joe has a course handicap of 12 for the front nine then Bob receives 18-12=6 shots from Joe. Bob receives those shots on the 6 hardest holes on the front nine which are (in order of difficulty) Holes 2, 5, 9, 3, 1 and 6.
In the White and Green (9 hole) divisions the matches are played over 9 holes between two players. In a 9 hole match between two players they are competing for 18 player points (2 per hole) and 2 team bonus points, making a total of 20 points available. For example; when Bob (team 1, ‘A’ player) and Joe (team 2, ‘A’ player) play each other the winner of each hole (the one with the lower net score for a hole) wins two player points. If a hole is tied each golfer wins one player point. In addition to the player points there are two bonus team points available for the match winner. If Bob wins 5 holes and Joe wins 4 holes Bob has 10 player points and Joe has 8 player points, but because Bob won the match his team receives an extra 2 bonus team points so his contribution to the team score is a total of 12 points. If the players are tied on points at the end of the round at 9 points each then the two bonus team points are divided between the two of them and they each end up with 10 team points total. This is the way the points are divided up, regardless of how their team partners (the ‘B’ players) get on in their matches. The total team points for each round are the total team points scored by the ‘A’ player added to the total team points scored by the ‘B’ player. The maximum theoretical team score for a round is therefore 40 points for 9 hole matches of two man teams.
In the Yellow (18 hole) division the matches are played over 18 holes between two players. In a match of four persons (2 teams) the ‘A’ players play against each other and the ‘B’ players play against each other. The scoring is identical to the 9 hole league except for the number of holes being played; so over 18 holes there are 36 player points (2 per hole) and 4 bonus team points available to win by each player in the match. The front and back nines are not treated as separate competitions; the player points won after 18 holes determine how the bonus team points are awarded (4 to the match winner or 2 points each if the match was tied) The player points and any bonus team points earned by each player in a two man team are added together to determine the round total team points. In the 18 hole league the maximum theoretical team score for a round is therefore 80 points for matches of two man teams.
Scoring against no opponents
There are circumstances when a team may not have any opponents. One such scenario exists when we have an odd number of teams in a League Division and therefore every week there will be one team who will be playing a “Bye” match i.e. they will not have a team to play against on the course. When this occurs, the individual team members will be playing against the course and scoring 1 point ever time they make a net par on a hole. If the player makes a net birdie or better on a hole they win 2 points and any net bogies or worse result in 0 points. Bonus team points are also awarded to a player as described in the ‘Scoring Match Points’ section. The same system of scoring is applied when a team’s opponents do not play nor make-up the round before the deadline. The team that does not play their round will score zero player and zero team points for that week.
Sometimes one player from a team is unable to play his round and is not able to find a substitute golfer to play in his place. In this situation his partner, the other player in the team, will be scored for the total match team points against their opponent (as usual) plus he will be scored for the total match team points against his opponents partner. This keeps the team scores fair for both teams. Please note, the player who plays against two opponents only accrues player points from his regular match opponent and nothing from the extra opponent to avoid ‘double dipping’ therefore also keeping the player points table fair.
Handicaps
The club maintains players local handicaps using similar calculation principles as the USGA World Handicap System. If a player joins the league without a local handicap he is strongly recommended to play a minimum of three 18 hole rounds to establish a local handicap prior to playing any league rounds. New players in the league with an official USGA GHIN handicap initially will be allocated a local handicap based upon his GHIN records. Scores from league rounds played will be uploaded to the GHIN system for players who are members or the Golf Association of Michigan, but the local handicap used for continuing league rounds will be derived from the local system and not from GHIN. A new player with neither an official handicap, nor a local handicap may play in the league, and the system will calculate a course handicap based upon their performance on the day only for the purposes of scoring the match.
Games
Each Wednesday the club will run games for the participants of all the league divisions. The games are optional and players may participate by signing-in for them in the pro shop prior to playing their league round on a Wednesday only. Payment of entry fees for the games must be made at the time of signing-in. The entries for the games are only valid for league rounds started after 12:30pm on Wednesday.
A closest to the pin (CTP) competition on the par three holes is run each week. Cost per player of entry is $4 for those playing 18 holes (yellow division) and $2 for the 9 hole league players (white and green divisions). The four winners of the CTP competition will be posted prior to the start of the following week’s round and the prize money will be available for collection from the following Wednesday onwards. The winners of the weekly CTP competition will be automatically entered into the CTP shootout competition held at the end of the season after the league banquet with a significant cash prize going to the ultimate winner who also automatically qualifies for the first shot at the following year’s shootout competition.
A skins competition is available at a cost per player of $4 for those playing 18 holes (yellow division) and $2 for the 9 hole league players (white and green divisions). Prizes are awarded to the players who were the only ones to achieve the lowest gross score on any hole. The winners of the skins competition will be posted prior to the start of the following week’s round and the prize money will be available for collection from the following Wednesday onwards. You must ask for you prize at the pro shop counter if your name is on the list of winners.
Weekly Leader-board
The results of the points won by teams and individual players will be posted just prior to the following weeks round. A league table showing the total of individual points scored will be posted together with a league table showing the total team points scored. The individual player points table does not include bonus points awarded to teams. The bonus team points are only included in the team point table.
Each division has their own online leader-board portal where details of every match and an analysis of each players performance (including number of eagles, birdies and pars) can be found. The details of the portal web address and password (GGID) for each division will be posted in the pro shop for players after the first round has been scored. The portal access details will remain the same for the entire season.
The league team season is divided into two halves of 9 weeks each when possible. The winning team of the first half will play the winning team of the second half in a special ‘playoff’ round which must be completed before the prize-giving and dinner event at the end of the season. Prizes awarded at the end of the season for individuals: most points, most eagles, most birdies and most pars. For teams there are prizes for first and second half winners, playoff winners and second place. In addition each team will receive a prize for the number of points earned throughout the season.
