Club Championship - how do you play yours?

Our 1st round qualifier is next weekend - I'm assuming most courses will be around this time of year too. Interested to hear about the different formats out there.

I'm entering my home clubs for he first time this year. 1st round qualifying is on Saturday with leading 32 players competing on Sunday (score combined with Saturday's gross) for 16 matchplay places. The round of 16, quarter finals and semi finals are then completed during the following week, with the 36 hole final taking place that Saturday. With the about 65 cat 1 golfers ahead of me in the club 'rankings', i'd say that realistically I'd be delighted to make it to the 2nd round, though current form would indicated that's pretty unlikely!

My away club has a 36 hole qualifier on Saturday with the top 8 going into the knockout stages. QF on Sunday, then SF and final the following Saturday (both 18 holes).

In addition,my home clubs qualifying for the 'b' championship took place yesterday, with the top 16 scratch scores from 12-28 handicap range qualifying for the knockout stages (+10 to +15 made the knockout) bit bizarre in my opinion to play a scratch competition from such a high handicap range. My away club has a handicap championship which includes the top 8 qualifiers with best nett scores not already qualified for the scratch. this seems both more meaningful and inclusive, as EVERY player in the field has something to compete for. Compare this to the system at my home club where realistically its only golfers off 2 and below or between 12-15hcp that have something to play for, and its a far better system in my opinion .

Its the final of 3 qualifiers at my club next week. The top 10 scratch scores from each round progress through to the final 36hole strokeplay event that take place in August.

Ideally if you can qualify in the first of the 3 events you can then sit back and relax. This is my first time entering the qualifiers and I managed to scrape in 9th place in the first of the 3.

My chance of winning now that I've drifted up to 10 are non existent, but there is a handicap prize available as well on the day.

There is also a handicap championship in august to that takes place the week after Club Championship. The criteria for that are a top 10 handicap finisheg in any 2 of the clubs comps preceding august. I'm looking forward to that more as I have more chance in that one.

I know our place our considering a FedEx type event for next year where you earn points for each event then 4 end of year comps that whittles field down to a finale of about 20-30 players at start of October. Not sure how they're are going to work it out but could be fun.

All these sound incredibly complicated. One of my clubs has a 36 hole medal played over a weekend (one round Sat, the other Sun), with a prize for best nett too.

The other club has a knockout matchplay competition organised at the competitor's convenience, with a 36 hole final usually held in September.

Ours is this weekend and the following. 4 rounds, Sat/Sun,Sat/Sun. Best score wins as they say. There is a few competitions that come from the scores ie best 16 scores on last weekend move into a matchplay competition both Scratch and Handicap.

No chance of being up there in the 4 rounds I wouldnt have thought off 5, so probably more interested in trying to qualify for the matchplay competition.

We just have a straight scratch medal - 36 holes all in one day, am and pm. On a Sunday. It was changed for a short while due to the aging population to 36 holes on different days, but this year with an influx of younger low handicap golfers, we have reverted.

We have just had our 36 hole medal this Saturday. This is a standard handicap medal with both rounds on the same day. Next weekend is the Club Championship which is 36 in a day off scratch.

They used to be run on the same day but it has been changed. There was also talk of doing a cut as mentioned above. The idea is good but this is the only opportunity I have each year to play a 36 hole medal in a day and I love the challenge.

Having said that at lunch after handing in a nett 78 I would have happily gone home!! In my defence it was blowing a 2-3 club wind and only 3 players broke their hc. Then in the afternoon only one. The winning nett score was 2 over. I also played a lot better in the afternoon with a nett 72 (par 70) which was one of the better afternoon rounds so took some small comfort. Everyone was saying it was one of the hardest events they have played in. (I appreciate that this is a normal day for those of you who play links golf!)

Further to my travails yesterday I wanted to show that I am not as bad as it sounds. The scores are just out. The winner was net par, then +2, a couple at +3. In the morning just 3 shot par and 3 broke par then in the afternoon only one broke par and no one else shot par. My net +2 in the afternoon was 4th out of 61 and my day's +10 was 17/61! Hard.

I think most Scottish clubs have a couple of strokeplay qualifiers with the top 16 gross in scratch and top 16 handicap going through to matchplay knockout with a 36 hole final.


Had r1 this week and am sitting pretty.

Sat/Sun 36 holes strokes for us. anybody that breaks 80 goes out in reverse order on the Sunday.

I'd feel a bit cheated with just 36 holes and no matchplay.

For me its the biggest comp of the year as it combines strokeplay and matchplay elements, rewards consistency over a two weekend qualifying period and following knockout sections and crucially in that way is different from the other 36 holers held at the club.

The winner really deserves their name on the board.

Three 18 hole qualifying Medals over a 4 week [approx] period, the top 16 [I think] qualify for matchplay which takes place over the last week of June with semis on the Saturday and 36 holes final on the Sunday.

Off my handicap, all of this does not register overmuch on my radar .......

I understand the idea of having the thing over a period of time but must require quite a bit of wife management. Then imagine if you don't get through and have declined some invite/holiday and could have made it....

At my club in the states - 1 weekend of strokeplay qualifiers, 16 person seeded matchplay (off strokeplay results), 32 hole matchplay final. (Three brackets A/B/C)

I know of people who arrange family holidays around the club championship. I have no idea if they lie to the wife and pretend to have work commitments or actually get away with prioritising the club championship?

When I used to play in club comps I really hated having to commit to them a few days before, never mind arranging holidays months in advance.

Does anyone on here take the club champs seriously enough to take them into consideration when arranging holiday/social events?

Does anyone on here take the club champs seriously enough to take them into consideration when arranging holiday/social events?

In a word "Yes" this year I have worked out what I want to play in and arranged my holidays around it, except for 1 event I cannot play as I am off to Florence for 2 weeks on the 25th this month for a family wedding. That said I'm going to seek out a course in florence to play for fun.

32 hole final? How random. Why not 36?

can't afford holidays and social events make me sick. wouldn't mind being able to do a bit of travelling, but socializing in this country is such a waste of money and time as everyone else seems to think that to have a good and interesting time you have to be pished out of your senses.

Ban, completely agree about the socialising in this country point of view. Rarely do I drink other than weddings, funerals and the odd birthday. Don't need to be leathered to enjoy myself probably why I spend most of my time doing some form of physical activity outside of work.

When I do go out with the lad rarely do I drink, I'm normally the driver and I have much more fun than they do.

Got to say I am not into the whole clubbing and drinking scene that seems to be so rife in our country. Don’t get the appeal of drinking vodka and energy drinks while listening to truly terrible music.

Give me a good pub however and I will happily sit and drink for many an hour.

Interesting to see how many are saying they don't "get" the "go out to get pished" mentality. I thought I was odd in some way. Have to say that the societies at our golf club seem to get handicaps for drinking rather than golf when they go "on tour".

My mistake -- 36 it is.

McLaren wrote:Got to say I am not into the whole clubbing and drinking scene that seems to be so rife in our country. Don’t get the appeal of drinking vodka and energy drinks while listening to truly terrible music.

Give me a good pub however and I will happily sit and drink for many an hour.

For once Mac, I completely agree, even when I was in my youth I loathed Night Clubs. Intolerable music, awful clientele and far too expensive and late for my liking. I was dragged along many a time only to get to the front door, hear the music and decide to go home.

I certainly enjoy a drink, weissbier being my tipple, but usually in the comfort of a pub.