What next?
Thanks for dangling the carrot of an 18-hole contest, Rogin the Armchair fan. As it's turned out I'm glad to have downsized my original concept for the Ryder Cup, which was to have adhered more closely to the structure of the real thing. The rhythm of nine-hole matches suits our context well, and no one would want to find themselves 6 down or whatever. A medal play (ie strokeplay) version would be too much of a headache to run, with the ever-present risk of someone missing a hole.
It would be a fool's errand to try to schedule a multi-player tournament over the summer, as we'd never get everyone's availability to coincide. In the autumn (Sept-Nov) I envisage staging another individual matchplay tournament and Ryder Cup, with the same caveats that Wordle remains free to play and hasn't run out of juice.
To sustain some momentum until then, I am proposing an open-challenge grading ladder, whereby any players may arrange a nine-hole head-to-head matchplay as is mutually convenient. I've calculated a performance grade for all 33 players who have been part of either or both of our tournaments; these chiefly take account of stroke average, with a matchplay component included to obtain better differentiation. The majority of these grades are in the range 150-240 (the higher the better), and any new joiners would be very welcome on to the ladder with a starting grade of 180. (Whether or not you join the ladder competition, the grades will give me a reference point for determining pairings in any future Swiss-style tournament.)
Once you join the grading ladder there will be no further recalibration of your grade by strokeplay etc; all subsequent changes will be governed by matchplay results. In multi-player tournaments, head-to-head matches will count towards the grading ladder where both players have elected to be on it.
It would be up to the playing pair to keep track of how their match progresses, and the only information I'd need would be 'X beat Y' or 'X halved with Y.' The victory margin is immaterial to the change in grading, and lower-graded players have more to gain and less to lose, viz.:
If Player A's grade is 0-24 points lower than Player B's grade:
If Player A's grade is 25-49 points lower than Player B's grade:
If Player A's grade is 50+ points lower than Player B's grade:
You may challenge any player on the ladder, not just someone above you. Players will be invited to submit their 'open dates' when they are available for a match. There are a few other points of order I can outline if this gets some traction, and I'd put it all on to a new thread.
If I get some expressions of interest, there's no reason why this shouldn't start straight away.
Thanks for dangling the carrot of an 18-hole contest, Rogin the Armchair fan. As it's turned out I'm glad to have downsized my original concept for the Ryder Cup, which was to have adhered more closely to the structure of the real thing. The rhythm of nine-hole matches suits our context well, and no one would want to find themselves 6 down or whatever. A medal play (ie strokeplay) version would be too much of a headache to run, with the ever-present risk of someone missing a hole.
It would be a fool's errand to try to schedule a multi-player tournament over the summer, as we'd never get everyone's availability to coincide. In the autumn (Sept-Nov) I envisage staging another individual matchplay tournament and Ryder Cup, with the same caveats that Wordle remains free to play and hasn't run out of juice.
To sustain some momentum until then, I am proposing an open-challenge grading ladder, whereby any players may arrange a nine-hole head-to-head matchplay as is mutually convenient. I've calculated a performance grade for all 33 players who have been part of either or both of our tournaments; these chiefly take account of stroke average, with a matchplay component included to obtain better differentiation. The majority of these grades are in the range 150-240 (the higher the better), and any new joiners would be very welcome on to the ladder with a starting grade of 180. (Whether or not you join the ladder competition, the grades will give me a reference point for determining pairings in any future Swiss-style tournament.)
Once you join the grading ladder there will be no further recalibration of your grade by strokeplay etc; all subsequent changes will be governed by matchplay results. In multi-player tournaments, head-to-head matches will count towards the grading ladder where both players have elected to be on it.
It would be up to the playing pair to keep track of how their match progresses, and the only information I'd need would be 'X beat Y' or 'X halved with Y.' The victory margin is immaterial to the change in grading, and lower-graded players have more to gain and less to lose, viz.:
If Player A's grade is 0-24 points lower than Player B's grade:
| Result | Change to A's grade | Change to B's grade |
| A wins | +3 | -3 |
| Halved | 0 | 0 |
| B wins | -3 | +3 |
| Result | Change to A's grade | Change to B's grade |
| A wins | +5 | -5 |
| Halved | +2 | -2 |
| B wins | -2 | +2 |
| Result | Change to A's grade | Change to B's grade |
| A wins | +8 | -8 |
| Halved | +4 | -4 |
| B wins | -1 | +1 |
If I get some expressions of interest, there's no reason why this shouldn't start straight away.
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