For the first time, I am assisting in the setup of our annual 4-ball tournament. In the past, sandbagging has been a problem so we are attempting to setup the tournament to lessen its influence.
Here is how the tournament has been run the previous few years. Friday night is the calcutta where you are flighted based on your qualifying score. This qualifying score is suppose to be based on to the score you and your partner shoot on Friday prior to the calcutta. On Saturday and Sunday there are 18 holes of 4-ball stroke play. There is no re-flighting based on tournament play - everything is based on the scores turned in Friday evening. You are allowed to improve 14 strokes (cumulative for both days) under the lowest qualifying score in your flight. For example, if the lowest qualifying score in your flight is 70 (140 for both days), you can shoot an average of 63 (126 for both days) without penalty. The penalty for shooting too low is your team will be bumped up to the next flight. However, this is easily avoided by throwing a few holes on Sunday.
Last year my team turned in a 79 although we usually shoot between a 71 to 73. But if we turned in a 72 as our qualifying score, we would be placed with teams that can shoot mid-60s.
Any suggestions on how to setup this 4-ball tournament to help diminish the affect of sandbagging?

Not to hi-jack, but just to throw in something I have seen although not pairs. My Dad and his buddies played golf almost every Sunday back in the day. They played each other either $1 or $2 per hole match play. The kicker was they adjusted the strokes after every 9 holes. Meaning if I beat you 3 holes on the front then I have to give you 3 on the back. It carried over each week. It evened things out right away. If you had a bad 9 you knew you could make up for it on the back getting strokes. Sometimes I think they just traded the same money back and forth for about 15 years.

I suggested to determine flighting based on actual tournament play of 9 holes from the first day and 9 holes from the second day. Which nine, either front or back, would not be determined until after the tournament with the flip of a coin. I don't know how to incorporate this method with the Friday Night Calcutta. Other members are concerned about negatively affecting the amount of the wagers in the calcutta.

Looks like ya'll are as stumped as I am.

Unfortunately, I think people who are determined to cheat will come up with some way to do it. The only way to completely eliminate sandbagging is to not use handicapping.

1. Offer better prizes for the lower flights.
2. Don't tell competitors what they can shoot without penalty

Maybe of the qualifying 18 holes you take a random 9 holes. That way they don't know what 9 holes you are selecting and it would be hard to sandbag. Then you can utilize the penalty situation if need be as the tournament progresses.

Also you could have prizes for the qualifying round, low gross and low net. Again with the random 9 holes. That way there is incentive to play well to win something and you can't really sandbag because you don't know what holes are being chosen. I know the random part is a little silly, but if you have a sandbagging problem you need to address it in different ways. Randomness makes it difficult to predict what holes will be selected, etc.

You could also use 60 to 80 percent of handicap to help lessen the effect of the sandbagging.

You could also do away with the qualifying, turn that into a skins game (75 percent handicap with both gross and net) and set up the flights based on the combined team handicaps.

JAT

I hate hdcp events because of this very problem but as DRGJR72 stated.......we actually use 50% and it does minimize the sandbagging to an extent. Unfortunately, cheaters will be cheaters.

I'm convinced the only way to run a legit tourney is to just use gross. No HC's or "net" scores. It's real golf, let your game talk or be quiet. This comes from a legit 14 HC who gets sick of seeing 17's shooting a 77/81. If it's a HC event and I play, I'm playing just for the fun of playing and most likely the course and company. i have entered a few gross four ball events with a single digit partner and we did repectable. I felt much better about that than any HC event.

In a word..........................NO

I agree with BDLz. Played in a lot of these types of events. I have rarely seen one without some sandbagging when handicaps are involved. I think the only way to minimize the effects are to reset handicaps each day based on the previous days play but this puts a damper on the Calcutta.