It's quite feasible that Stableford is a brand new idea to lots of you who study this weblog. Since this year the Reno-Tahoe Open is switching to this format, I notion a brief lesson was in order.
Most of you're clean about stroke or "medal" play, where individual strokes are counted, and match play, in which scores are decided through the number of person holes won. Match play is not used as an awful lot in pro tournaments due to the fact fits are performed between pairs -- either man or woman gamers or teams -- so it usually takes the form of removal tournaments. Stroke play permits many gamers to compete against every different simultaneously and is therefore extra practical for mass tournaments. Match play (for the professionals, besides) is as a result viewed greater as a "wreck from the fame quo" and is not completed very regularly.
Stableford combines factors of each suit and stroke play. It allows a huge variety of gamers to compete straight away whilst imparting a piece of novelty and unpredictability.
In Stableford, factors are awarded rather than stroke totals. Different tournaments may additionally use special methods of awarding those factors, but here's a listing of the totals with a view to be used in the Reno-Tahoe Open:
- Albatross (double eagle): 8 points
- Eagle: 5 points
- Birdie: 2 points
- Par: 0 points
- Bogey: -1 points
- Double bogey or worse: -3 points
In a word, it changes your strategy. First of all, you can't get worse than -3 on a single hole. (If the organizers allow players to just pick up if they make worse than bogey, the game can be sped up quite a bit!) But look a little deeper...
The cut comes after rounds. In a normal stroke play event, even par commonly makes the cut. But on this Stableford scoring system, what number of points is "stroke play par" really worth?. Let's take a look at some players sitting on par after 36 holes:
- Your first opinion might be that stroke play par is 0 points. And you'd be right -- at least, if you shoot 36 stroke play pars. We'll call this guy Player 1, and he has 0 points.
- But suppose Player 2 shot stroke play par with a single bogey and a single birdie? Birdie is worth 2 points and bogey is worth -1 points, for a net total of 1 point. If he shoots par on the other 34 holes, Player 2 is also at stroke play par... but he has 1 point, not 0! Interesting, eh?
- Suppose Player 3 also shoots stroke play par for 36 holes, but he made 7 birdies and 7 bogeys. He has 7 points! Players 1 and 2 aren't even close!
- And Player 4 gets really interesting. Suppose he makes an albatross (8 points) and 8 bogeys? He has the same 0 point total as Player 1... but his stroke play score is 5 over par!
The Reno-Tahoe Open is played on just such a course. The Montreux Golf & Country Club was designed by Jack Nicklaus, plays 7472 yards (6832 meters) long, averages 5600 feet (1710 meters) above sea level, and has a stretch of par 4-3-5-4 finishing holes lined with bunkers and water. You could see some serious score changes coming down the final four holes!
And with Padraig Harrington playing there this week, and a pairing featuring both John Daly and J.B. Holmes, fireworks are almost inevitable.
So don't write off this alternate-field event as just another minor tournament. This prime-time broadcast could end up being the most exciting tournament of the week. You can get all kinds of info about the event at the tournament page.
And in case you're curious, the photo came from the PGA Tour tournament page, I confirmed the scoring points in this Foxnews.com article and the course stats in this Wikipedia listing.
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