League Playoffs and Position Rounds

Playoffs vs Position Rounds

Golf League Tracker treats playoffs and position rounds the same. You will set up the schedule manually for each.

Playoff Formats

What's the best format to play, and what do most leagues do?  It's really up to you, but here are some ideas. I also recommend getting your playoff format into your league rules BEFORE the season begin.

First and Second Half Winners

In leagues who break their season into first and second halves, they usually have the winners of each half have a final match to determine overall champion.  In my leagues, I have everybody else play a 2-person handicapped scramble where everybody throws in a few bucks.  The USGA has recommendations on how to handicap 2 and 4-person scrambles which you can read about in this article.

Multi-Round Playoffs - Brackets

An alternative if you play 2 halves, or if you play a a single segment, is to take the top 4 players or teams, and have them play in a 2-round elimination match.  For those who play in a single segment, you'd take the top 4 teams, while those who play in 2 halves would take the top two from each half.  If there's a team who makes the top 2 in each half, you might give them a "bye" in the first round (also, check those handicap settings... this is REALLY hard for someone to accomplish!).

If you want to do a large playoff bracket, check out PrintYourBrackets.com. They've already created seeded brackets so that you don't have to figure out how to make it, along with a double-elimination bracket system.

Single Round-More Than 2 Teams

One final idea is to play a stroke play low Net score winner take all for the final round. This would enable you to have more than 2 teams or players while only have one round of playoffs

Setting Up Playoffs/Position Rounds

• You first need to have a blank round for each round. If you didn't include those rounds when you initially set up your league, you can add a blank round by going to League Setup -> Scheduling -> Add, Delete, or Move Rounds.  You may want to put the playoff rounds into their own segment so points are reset before the playoffs begin. Position rounds are usually the last round in the segment, but your league may differ.
• You will set your matches manually by going to League Setup -> Scheduling -> Edit Schedule For a Single Round.  From there you can choose which course, side and teams or players are playing. It's recommended that you set that rounds for position/playoff as a "Position Round" so that players know that is not a regular season round.
• Enter your scores as you normally would after play is done.

Freezing Handicaps for Playoffs

Some leagues don't want handicaps to change in playoff rounds. There are two ways you can do this, depending on what you want to achive:

• Never Use Playoff Scores for Handicapping: If you never want the scores in playoffs to count for handicapping, even after the playoffs are done (i.e. next season), uncheck the "HDCP" checkbox when entering scores for the players. This will exclude that score from being used when calculating handicaps
• Use Playoff Scores for Handicapping After Playoffs are Finished: If you only want the handicaps to freeze for playoffs, but then use those playoff scores to be included for handicapping after the season, you must change your handicap calculation to a "Manual" calculation. Do this by changing Setting #7 Automatic Handicap Calculation to "GLT (Manual)". This will tell Golf League Tracker not to automatically update handicaps after entering scores. When your season is over:
  • You MUST change Setting #7 back to "GLT (Automatic)"
  • Then go to Weekly Admin -> Update Handicaps to do a one-time update of handicaps, so that handicaps are updated for the start of next season