The CLC Matchplay - Season 5 is here! Launching at 1242!

Swing_hard_and_hope · February 28, 2022, 3:56am

To follow the lead of my dear friends at the BBBP, golf news is incoming!!!

Tuesday March 1 we will officially launch the CLC Matchplay for 2022. For those who participated last year, welcome back, time to go take down @BrooklynAJ. For those who are new, welcome. we are pumped to have you and bring you into a competition of the purest form of golf, matchplay!

There are a bunch of similarities to how we did this thing last year, but plenty of key differences:

We have 71 competitors, yes that number is messy, so pods will be different sizes. I wanted everyone to play who wanted to.
Group stage will involve more matches. The goal is you will play everyone in your pod twice over the next 4.5 glorious golf months we have upcoming. If you have ever ended a match and thought, man I would love another go… this year you get it!
For the most part the top 2 of each pod will advance on to the knockout rounds, but sorry SC and VA we are going to have to get a little creative for your pods. I’ll follow up individually.

I released in the last message, but the yearly schedule will be as follows:

Group Stage: 3/1 - 7/15 (yes a long time to get your matches in and there will be plenty of them to happen, watch this space)
Round of 32: 7/15 - 8/16
Sweet 16: 8/16 - 9/16
Elite 8: 9/16 - 10/14
Final 4 and Championship Match will be hosted the weekend of 10/15 with a 36 hole day.

The Play:

Full handicaps will be used
Competitors can choose which tee they would like to play from during competition, but we all know it makes it a little better if both competitors play from the same tee
During the group stage the competition can be ended in a tie. Please see “The Points” section for more information.
An 18 hole match is suggested, but if needed for time purposes and agreed on by both competitors a 9 hole match will be allowed.

The Points:

Group Stage

Winning your match = 3 points
Tie match after 18 = 1.5 to each competitor
- The competitors can agree BEFORE their match to a “tiebreak”. This can be anything i.e. one additional hole, putting competition, flip of a tee, etc. (feel free to get creative)
- IF this occurs winner of the “tiebreak” will get 2 points, 1 point for the loser
Lost match = 0 points
Match not conducted in the timeframe = 1 point per competitor

The Guidelines:

You are asked to notify this thread when your match has been scheduled and occurred. Pictures, stories, and details are encouraged. Go back and read through this thread, it’s more fun when folks are detailed.
A suggestion to schedule your match, go with the “3 and 1 approach.” One competitor can offer three options of courses. The other competitor can narrow it down to the course of choice. This way both sides are happy with no one gaining a significant advantage.
If you are unable to schedule you match in the given timeframe you will be awarded one point to each player. This does not mean to do the mental math and avoid matches.
Play the ball down, unless conditions force otherwise and agreed upon by both competitors
Being matchplay, you can concede a hole at any time. Pump a couple OB you can tell your competitor the hole is theirs and move to the next hole.
Also do not scoop a putt up until your competitor has let you know it is good, we don’t want any Kuchar v. Sergio situations out there.
And of course, when in doubt, don’t be scummy.

The Tracking:

This is the master sheet for the year: 2022 CLC Matchplay Tracker - Google Sheets
I am going to ask a member of each pod to “duplicate” the Example Tracker Sheet and make a separate tab for your pod. This is where we will track match results and pod standings. I will be glad to help in any way, just reach out.
My hope is that your pod will be able to assist in the tracking / auditing. We are going to have 142 matches between now and July. I am not going to be able to be hands on for all, so this was my solution.
If matches can not be played, that’s all good, just record it as such and each competitor will get one point.

The Money:

For those keeping track at home: 71 * 25 = $1775. So not an insignificant amount of cash.
To be honest the primary reason we added that part in this year was to keep folks committed to making their matches happen. I talked to a lot of people that thought the small fee would help make that happen.
I tried to be up front, the plan is for that to cover trophy / prize expenses and ideally make the final 4 rounds heavily discounted (or free) for the competitors.
We may think of other creative things along the way, and the money helps us be able to do that, but I’ll be transparent with any transactions and any money left over will be donated to charity (likely The First Tee).

I’m a little tired, so my hope is that I’ll do the dramatic drip campaign to release all the pods tomorrow… Maybe a little teaser tonight. I’ll at least announce the CLT pods…