Editor's note: The old Blind blog post contained inaccurate information regarding the double blind - I'm modifying my original post to catch up to the most current REGL rules enacted in 2018....
My partner and I arrived at the 12th hole for the start of last night’s round. We’ve once again been zeroed out and restricted to playing for a wildcard playoff bid, but we’re comfortable with that – having earned the wildcard spot two years running in Tuesday Night East. Late in the season a lot of goofy things happen. Some teams just decide to pack it in for the year, or they have trouble fielding two players. When Steve and I got to the tee at 12, we expected to see 8 of us ready to play (the 12th is one of the holes that has an A and B group to start play each night), but when 5 PM came along, there were only 5. One of our opponents never showed, and one team didn’t have anyone playing (until a very late arrival after we’d teed off).
It became readily apparent that the single player for the other team hadn’t ever played by himself – he wasn’t aware of the REGL rules regarding one player playing two opponents. If he didn’t know, I bet there are a few others out there in the same boat, so I thought I’d go through what happens for the betterment of all.
The first thing to understand is that REGL frowns on “no shows”. You’re expected to field a team of two golfers each night. Obviously, there will be family emergencies or sickness that may require one of your players to be absent, and REGL does allow it, but there is a penalty to your side. If you’re going out as a single for your team, you will be playing both players on the other side. You’ll be playing the A-player on the other side with half of your handicap (with an exception if your handicap is below 8), and you’ll play the B-player with your normal handicap. Now some math. If your handicap is an even number, half of that is easy – at 10 becomes a 5, a 12 becomes a 6, etc.
However, how about odd number? Half of 9 is 4.5. Do you round up or down? You may know this already, but the back nine at Ruggles Golf Course is statistically the easier of the two nines. (This is why you may see your handicap go up or down by 1 stroke in subsequent weeks without playing.) So, if you’re playing on the front nine and have to take half of your handicap, you’ll round up. A 4.5 becomes a 5. On the back nine, you’ll round down – a 4.5 becomes a 4. Now the exception. Say you’re a scratch golfer (we do have a few in this league!) and you take half of your handicap. Half of zero is still zero! No handicap change at all! Not so fast. Remember that in REGL you’re expected to field a team of two competitors and there is a penalty for not doing so. For handicaps under 7, there is a minimum 4 stroke reduction in your handicap if you’re playing as a single against the other team’s A-player. Back to the example of the scratch golfer. Half of zero is still zero, but with the 4 stroke minimum, he’ll be playing the other team’s A-player with a +4 handicap. So, assuming the other team’s A-player is a 10 handicap, the handicap differential will be 14 strokes. The 10-handicap player will be getting 14 strokes for the match (one stroke on every hole, and two strokes on the holes where the handicap is 1 through 5.
One final math game… You’re a single with a handicap of 5 in the league and you’re playing the front nine. Half of 5 is 2.5, but since you’re playing on the front nine, the handicap becomes 3. However, there’s a minimum 4 stroke deduction in handicap, so you’ll actually be playing as a 1-handicap against the other team’s A-player.
How about playing against a team that doesn’t show up at all? (Here's the big edit in this post...) I was posed this question by the 12B team last night when it appeared that they’d be playing alone. How are forfeits dealt with? Again, the REGL expects you to field a team of two competitors each night. Not showing up at all means a couple of things – the first is that your team will not receive any points for that night’s play. If this is your first offense of the year, you’ll also lose half of your prize money at the end of the year. If this is your second offense as a team, you'll lose all of your prize money, will be ineligible for the playoffs, AND you may be expelled from the league.
It happens every once in a while, so what is the procedure for the team that does show up? Instead of the team you were supposed to play, you’ll be playing against a "ghost" team of 0-handicaps playing from your same tees. They will card pars on all of the holes except the 3 hardest holes on each nine (on the front nine that's #7, #2 and #9, while on the back nine that's #11, #16, and #18 I think), where they will score bogeys. You and your partner play against these two ghosts. At least you'll know what you have to shoot to win....
Now here's an extreme case (don't know if this has ever happened). One team only sends out one player and the other team doesn't show up. How is that match scored? Well, the single player will play the ghost A-player with half of his handicap (as we talked about above), and the ghost B-player with his full handicap. That would be something....