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Golf Tournament Format | San Diego Lawyer Events

The Laws and By-Laws of The Attorneys Open
Home / Golf Tournament Format | San Diego Lawyer Events

The San Diego Attorneys Open Format and Rules

Medal Match Format

The tournament will be set up in a unique format known as Medal Match Format. This is the format that was adopted by the NCAA for their championship match play series. The format is a hybrid between stroke play and match play. We will score the end result the same as the Ryder cup, 1 point for the winning team in a match, and 1/2 point to each team in the result of a tie. The difference is that we will not be playing on a hole-by-hole basis like traditional match play. To win 1 point for their team, the contestant must beat their opponent in stroke play, and that is the outright lowest total score of the pairing. For example, if the Plaintiff participant scores an 89 and the Defense Participant scores an 87, then 1 point will be awarded to the Defense team. If both participants scored an 89, then 1/2 point would be awarded to each party. The team with the highest cumulated points, that is, the most matches won, wins the trophy. Click here to read about the tournament venue.

Why We Are Not Adopting Exact Ryder Cup Format

In the traditional Ryder Cup match play format, the contestants compete against one another on a per hole basis. The first person essentially to win more than half of the holes wins 1 point for their team. If one person wins at least 10 holes, there is no way the opponent can come back and win because there would not be enough holes left in the round to win. The problem with this format is that it is very likely that most matches will fail to finish an entire round of golf, and it is also possible that a match could end in as little as 10 holes if a beat down occurs (sorry, but thats what its called when you lose 10 holes in a row). To allow every participant to play an entire round, we have adopted the medal match format. Also, this format forces the contestants to not take holes off and play every single shot, including those 2 foot gimmes. Although we cannot bare to watch tournament goers miss multiple 2 foot putts, it is only fair.

How We Will Pair Opponents

Hall of Fame golf coach and instructor, Mike Wydra, will be the official referee of the tournament. He will also be doing the pairings for the matches. Pairings will be based on the players’ indexes. He will pair participants with similar indexes plus or minus 2-3 strokes of their respective handicaps. If a participant does not have an index, we will require that they give their best estimate of their average score on the golf course. Once paired, golfers will play head to head and no strokes will be allotted for handicaps. Only in the event of extreme circumstances or uneven participant indexes on each side will we consider granting strokes in a pairing. This will only occur if it absolutely must. We also reserve the right to make any changes to the pairings  up until the start of the match. Participants will also be required to list alternates in the event that they cannot make it to the tournament. We want to solidify that everyone has a match to play. Wydra will also be setting up the course with the tees and pin placements to make for a great competition. He is known to be a little bit devious.

We wanted to use a format that forces the participants to fight until the very last hole. Traditional match play can end as early as hole 10.

Mike Wydra

Fun

Competitive

For Bragging Rights