The Cup
The same spine as Lisbon — a Ryder Cup run across the week with a singles competition underneath it. Three changes to the shape of it, and one correction that should have been made a year ago.
Wednesday's men's night and Friday's wolf sit outside the cup, as does every optional round. If it is not in that table it is not worth a point.
Men's night is not worth a point. It is the audition.
Everybody plays, 8th Man candidates included, and both captains are in the field watching.
The draft follows that evening, once the prizes are done.
Which makes the first eighteen holes of the week eighteen holes of evidence, played on eight hours of jet lag, in front of the two men about to pick sides.
It is also when the course handicaps get worked out and the tees get agreed, so nobody is doing arithmetic on the first tee at Castlegar on Thursday morning.
The scouting report is written before any of this. Half of it could be obsolete by 19:30.
Two captains. One pool. Alternating picks.
The seven Masturds and the full 8th Man roster go in together. Nobody is pre-assigned to anything — not Jack, not Tim, not the 8th Man.
Hozel Rockets defend with Liam captaining as holder. The challengers take their name and their captain from whatever the group decides.
The 8th Man can go first pick. He can also go last, and has to stand there while it happens.
Team sizes are whatever the draft produces. All that matters afterwards is that every session is played with equal numbers on both sides.
Rest a man and your opponent rests one too.
A captain may rest any player from any session. The opposing captain must then rest one too. Equal numbers, always.
This is doing more work than it looks. The 8th Man will not be the same player every day and Alexei is playing one round a day on a torn-up shoulder. Rather than write either in as an exception, the same rule covers both.
Sunday afternoon's scramble is the designated rest session because a scramble absorbs any number — though the allowance changes with the count: 25/20/15/10 for four, 30/20/10 for three, 35/15 for two.
Open question for Tom: can a captain rest the 8th Man to protect a Masturd, or do the seven always play?
Lisbon ran every format at 100%. That was wrong, and it changed results.
A flat allowance is simple and it distorts every format that is not singles. In a four-ball, full handicaps hand a systematic edge to the pair with the higher combined index — the high man only needs one good hole in nine to bank a net birdie.
The scramble was worse still. It was played off scratch, which quietly handed it to whichever side struck the ball better. Sagres won it two-nil, and it was the only session they took outright all week.
One card. Two sets of arithmetic.
The cup and the singles competition use different allowances for the same round, so write down gross scores and nothing else. Everything after that is arithmetic and arithmetic can be done in the bar.
Allowances apply to course handicap, not index — index × (slope ÷ 113) + (rating − par), then the allowance, then round. Redstone, Castlegar and Balfour will all give different numbers off the same index. Work them out once at the combine and write them on the back of everyone's card.
Play your own ball, better net score wins the hole. Holes won and lost, not totals.
Allowance. 90% of course handicap, taken as differences off the lowest of the four. The low man plays off scratch and everyone else gets the difference on the stroke index.
Both partners drive, take the better one, then alternate in. Foursomes without a 28-handicapper having to hit the tee shot on 17.
Allowance. 60% of the lower handicap plus 40% of the higher, giving one team figure. The match is played off the difference between the two.
The prettiest course of the week and the first big points day. Own ball, most points wins the match.
Allowance. 95% — the stableford allowance, applied in full rather than as a difference, because you need an absolute figure to compute points. Same number the singles competition uses.
Two points a hole. One for the better low score, one for the better high. The only format where the back markers decide matches.
Allowance. A four-ball variant, so 90% as differences, exactly as Session 1.
Both teams play as units. This is the designated rest session.
Allowance. Four-man scramble: 25% of the lowest handicap, 20% of the second, 15% of the third, 10% of the highest, summed. Three-man 30/20/10, two-man 35/15. Lisbon played this off scratch, which handed it to whichever side struck it better — and Sagres won it 2–0.
The decider. Straight 1v1, holes won and lost, last morning before the flights home.
Allowance. The only session at a full 100%, and the only one where that is correct. Taken as the difference.
Five counting rounds, five titles, and a flat 95% throughout.
Every cup round except Sunday's scramble counts: Castlegar, Friday morning, Balfour, Sunday morning, Monday morning. Optional rounds and men's night do not.
Lisbon flighted at 0–21 and 22-plus. Applied to a seven-man field that puts five men in A and leaves Cartwright and Beswick alone in B — which is not a flight, it is a grudge. Recut at 17:
The 8th Man counts for cup points but not for the singles competition. That stays between the seven.
These notes come from the group chat rather than from playing the course. Four of the six sessions are here. They need confirming before anybody relies on a word of them.
10 — long forced carry over the creek. The first hole that can properly hurt a match.
11 — the biggest carry on the property.
16 — drivable for some. Which means drivable for Jack and Tim and a three-shot hole for everyone else who tries.
17 — par 3 over water. Cannot go long, short or right. Tom has been complaining about it since January.
18 — a hard finishing hole, and where the cup gets decided on the Monday.