CGA – Sumter Series Tour

The local Sumter CGA chapter will host a handicapped stroke play tournament series “CGA Sumter Series Tour” played at our local public golf courses. These tournaments will be fun but competitive; with local rules and handicaps established to make it fair for everyone to compete and have a chance to win. The season will consist of 6 tournaments rotating between Crystal Lakes, The Links at Lakewood, and Beech Creek.  These tournaments are in addition to the normal chapter golf outings and will grow our current monthly outings and outreach activities. We will host these tournaments on the 1st Saturday of each month beginning in February with the championship taking place the 1st weekend of August.

Benefitting Sponsors

Rather than getting paid sponsors for the events, ex. “FTC Classic at the Lakes”, we will invite a charity to sponsor at no charge, “United Ministries Spring Classic on the Links” and collect donations for that charity. This will support our mission while bringing awareness to the charities we support.

  1. TBD
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  6. United Ministries

Registrations

A Tour registration fee will be charged. This fee will be used to provide a goodie bag which includes: a logoed shirt, hat, shoe bag, towel, sleeve of balls, tees, and marketing material from all of our charity sponsors. Golfers will then register for each tournament and be required to pay a fee at time of registration. Golfers will pay CGA directly for the event and not the golf course. CGA will add an amount on top of what the course charges each player to cover marketing materials and prizes. Registration and payment will be required by 10pm on Wednesday prior to the event; No refunds will be given after that time (this is so we can plan properly). Tee times will be assigned by Friday at 12:00pm. Since this is a competitive tournament, no pairing requests will be honored, except for children under 15.

Weather Delays/Cancellation

Weather delays or cancelations are up to course officials. We will make every effort to get the round in. Calls are made at the course the day of the tournament. We will not make a weather call prior to the first tee time.

Rules of Play / Local Rules

We will follow USGA rules with the exception of the following local rules (these are in place to allow for players to play their best and to keep pace of play to a minimum). Everyone must mark their ball with a personal mark, don’t just rely on the preprinted markings.

Local Rules

  1. We will always play preferred lies through the green. You can lift, clean and place within 1 club length, no closer to the hole and must remain in the same condition (fairway, rough or sand). You can also move the ball 1 club length in a penalty area or from behind a tree, if possible, within that 1 club length. If by moving your ball 1 club length does not allow for you to make a stroke, you must take a penalty stroke and play per USGA rules (Ex: if you were in a pond, you must take a penalty stroke).
  2. Once all players are on the green, the player closest to the hole will go first and will hole out prior to the next player making a stroke. (This will speed up play and allow the players further from the hole to get the read on putts. No need to worry about standing on lines since any spike marks or indentions can be fixed prior to a player making their stroke thanks to the 2019 rule changes. It will not be considered inconsiderate or rude to stand on someone else’s line, though a player may not intentionally damage the green to mess with another player’s line.)
  3. All out of bounds and lost balls are to be played as if it was an unplayable penalty area. Drop within 2 club lengths of where a player went out of bounds (or believed to have gone out of bounds or where the lost ball should be) for a 1 stroke penalty. You are not allowed to play the ball from where it lies out of bounds.
  4. Each player may tee up two balls on the first tee only and play the better of the two.
  5. Triple bogey max per hole. Pick up after you play your double bogey stroke and score the triple bogey.
  6. Yardage devices are allowed. Slope devices are allowed as well.

CGA Handicap System

A CGA Score Index Number “SIN” (think modified handicap index) will be generated after a players first tournament and used for the next. The number will be recalculated after each tournament round. A player’s new CGA SIN is calculated averaging the strokes above par for the previous best CGA rounds. To figure out how many rounds to average, you divide the number of rounds played in half and rounding up. Once 20 rounds are scored, it will be the lowest 10 rounds of the last 20 played. A player may not post a score for a medal better than 5 strokes below their SIN.  There will be limitations on how fast a SIN can increase so sandbagging is not beneficial.

  1. Rd 1 score = 95, CGA SIN = 23
  2. Rd 2 score = 97-23= 74. New CGA SIN =23
  3. Rd 3 score = 93-23= 70. New CGA SIN = (21+23)/2 = 22

Suggested Tee Assignment

With these being handicapped tournaments, the only thing that matters is that each individual player plays from the same length tees the entire season. If there is a change in tee length, then the player would be ineligible to win for 3 tournaments. As a standard we will set up a tee length by age/SIN though a player may request to move closer or further back as their chosen tee length for CGA events.

  1. 4700-5000 yds - 80ys old men, ladies, 8-11 yr olds. (All SINs)
  2. 5000-5400 yds - 55-79 yrs old men, 12-15 yr olds as long as SIN is above 9. Any age where SIN is above 25.
  3. 5800-6200 yds - 55-79 & 12-15 where SIN is at or below 9. All other ages where SIN is above 9.
  4. 6200-6900 yds - below 54yrs old where SIN is at or below 9.

Awards

1st, 2nd, and 3rd will receive keepsake awards to mark the occasion. Closest to pin awards will be given on all par 3s. Solo birdies and eagles will be tracked and awarded as well (think skins but no cash involved). All awards will be made of metal with the intention of attaching to a golf bag for all to see the accomplishments of the player.

Season Long Points

Season points will be accumulated and used to seed players for the championship tournament.

-1st place 500 points

-2nd and so on is worth 85% of previous place rounded to nearest whole number.

We may choose to do a “Major Tournament” in a later year increasing points for that tournament.

Player aided Marketing

During each tournament, each tee time will be required to email/text a photo during the round with a caption. This could be of the players on the first tee box, a player’s swing, a putt, a ball hanging on the ledge of the cup, a deer walking across the fairway on #16. These will be used for marketing and sharing the day with our social media family. We want to show the fun, and fellowship we are having during these events.

Income Disbursement

10% of the income, minus green fees and before other expenses, goes to National CGA. Income is then used to pay for marketing, operations, prizes, and promo materials. After an appropriate amount of seed money is reserved for the next year’s season, the rest will be placed in the local CGA general fund.

Schedule

  1. March 5, 2022 – Links at Lakewood “ on the Links”
  2. April 2, 2022 – Crystal Lakes “ at the Lakes”
  3. May 7, 2022 – Beech Creek “ at the Beech”
  4. June 4, 2022 – Links at Lakewood “ on the Links”
  5. July 2, 2022 – Crystal Lakes “ at the Lakes”
  6. August 6, 2022 – Beech Creek “ at the Beech”

Tournament Operations

We will also have a pastor volunteer give the 15 min devotional and prayer time 20 minutes prior to the first tee time. This volunteer would need to be scheduled at the same time as the sponsors are scheduled.

On the day of the tournament, we will need 2 workers. They will set up all promo product one hour prior to the first tee time. These display items will give that wow factor, and make a scene for those not participating; getting them to start asking, “What is going on?” Worker #1 will help with check in until the first tee time. Worker #1 will then participate in the first grouping. After Worker #1 finishes their round, he/she will then start the score verification and documentation. Worker #2 will continue the check in process until the last tee time. Then he/she will secure any donations received (having a second person sign off on counting the donations and securing them) and then participate in the last tee time. After Worker #2 finishes his or her round, he/she will then help finalize the score verification and distribute awards. Both workers will pack up the promotional materials for use at the next event. The 2 workers will be entered in the field of golfers free of charge as their “payment” for running the day’s tournament.

 
 
 
 
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