Sometimes Change is the only way to improve or survive! You should all have recently got an email from the Club regarding the new Format we are rolling out for this year`s Winter League. It was certainly pretty obvious in my 3 previous winters that the enthusiasm and participation in the current Winter League Format was distinctly on the slide. With the new format our hope that it falls under the banner ‘More Inclusive – Less Intrusive.’

Meaning hopefully more people will enter because they are not restricted (or committed) to Time Blocks, Set Fixtures or Inclement Weather!

Format for Winter Season 2018/19

1. Sign up to the competition as a pair. Once entered and “first round” of competition played, partners cannot be changed. (However Pairs could enter or Pairings change at any time over the winter, but only their scores from when they enter as a new pair going forward would count.)

2. Winter Fours qualifying programme will run from Saturday 20th October 2018 through to Saturday the 23rd February 2019 so a total of 19 weeks.

3. The competition is played on a Stableford basis over 15 holes only.

4. The Professional Shop will run a “Sweeper” on the day that all players can enter, regardless of whether they have entered the “Winter Fours”.

5. Each of the playing partners scores are logged into the system, with the best 8 scores at the end of the qualifying period from each player being counted and then added together (so hopefully 16 scores in total), and organised in a League structure. Based upon a cumulative stableford points tally.

6. League table will be updated weekly and displayed.

7. Given the uncertainty of Winter Weather we will base the number of qualifying rounds as 40% of the Saturday’s that the course is open. i.e. if we lost 4 Saturday’s due to the course being closed, then we take 40% of 15 rounds, so best 6 qualifying scores would be counted. For the avoidance of doubt, the number of rounds required would be rounded to the nearest full number.

8. No minimum commitment from a member to play, and pairings do not need to play together, so offers flexibility around tee times. An individual player can play on a Saturday even if their partner is unavailable.

9. At the end of the qualifying period, the top eight pairs would be identified. They would then be requested to confirm that at least one of them could play in each of the match-play stages. Making clear to each pair that only 1 substitute per match would be allowed in the knock out stages. If any of the 8 teams have to decline, then the offer moves down the list to team 9 etc as appropriate.

10. Teams would be seeded 1 to 8 and play in seeded order as per other match play draws – 1 v 8, 2 v 7 etc.

11. In the qualifying rounds players will get full Handicap allowance regardless of winter or summer greens. In match-play stages Handicap would be 9/10ths difference on Full Course, and 50% difference when on frost Course.

Sign-up sheet is now up on the main golfer’s noticeboard.