Road Trip Golf Tournament Rules: Best Rounds Count

The rules

A Road Trip runs over the whole trip, on top of whatever the group plays each day. Every golfer plays his own ball and holes out, and every round he finishes goes into the championship.

Set the trip

The organiser adds the rounds, with a course and date for each, and picks how many count.

Score each round to par

A net 70 on a par 72 is −2. A gross 79 on the same course is +7.

Your best rounds count

Add up your lowest rounds to par, up to the counting number. The rest are dropped.

Two champions

Lowest net total takes the net title. Lowest gross total takes the gross title.

Net and gross are picked separately. Your best seven net rounds and your best seven gross rounds don’t have to be the same seven. A round where you got a lot of strokes might count for net and be dropped for gross.

A worked example

Ten rounds around Ireland, best seven count, net title. Scores are net to par. Dropped rounds are struck through.

GOLFER	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	BEST 7
Ciarán	−2	+1	+4	−1	+3	+6	E	−1	+2	+1	E · 1st
Aoife	+3	−1	+5	E	+2	−2	+8	+1	−3	+4	E · 2nd
Declan	+1	+2	−4	+3	+2	+5	+1	+7	−1	+3	+4 · 3rd
Mark	−3	−1	−2	E	–	–	−4	–	−2	–	6 rounds · not eligible

Ciarán and Aoife both finish on level par over their best seven. The tie goes to the final round: Ciarán shot +1 at the tenth course and Aoife +4, so Ciarán is champion.

Mark’s six rounds add up to −12, the best golf of the trip, but he missed four days and six rounds is one short of seven. He isn’t eligible for the title. His rounds still count in the side games he played.

Why to par

A trip rarely plays ten courses with the same par. If rounds were added up in strokes, a 70 on a par 70 would count the same as a 70 on a par 73, and dropping rounds would favour the golfer who happened to miss the long courses.

Scoring to par puts every round on the same footing. Level par is level par wherever you played it.

Handicaps on the trip

Strokes are worked out again for every course from its slope and rating, so you get more strokes on the harder courses and fewer on the easier ones. The organiser picks how the index itself is handled:

Fixed for the trip

Everyone keeps the index they arrived with. Simple, and fine for a short trip.

Updated before each round

Each golfer’s current index is used for every round. On a ten-round trip the golf you play could be half the rounds in the index calculation, so a golfer who is playing well picks up fewer strokes as the trip goes on.

Either way, the organiser can adjust an index by hand. The change applies from the next round that hasn’t started, and rounds already played stay as they were scored.

The net double bogey cap is set separately for each title. The organiser can turn it on for the net championship, the gross championship, both or neither. With it on, no hole counts for more than net double bogey, so one bad hole can’t ruin a round.

Missing rounds

To be eligible for a title you have to finish at least as many rounds as count. In a best-7-of-10, that means seven. Miss one or two days and you’re still in it, because those are the rounds you drop.

A round you start but don’t finish doesn’t count towards the championship. While the trip is on, the leaderboard shows how many more rounds each golfer needs and whether there are enough rounds left to get there.

Ties

A tie for a title is decided by the final round of the trip, lower score to par wins, whether or not that round was one of your counting rounds. If it is still tied, or one of the golfers didn’t play the final round, go back to the round before, and so on until one of them is lower.

Side games each round

Every round of the trip is also a day of golf in its own right. The organiser picks the side games for each round, and there are two kinds.

Across the field

Games every group plays at once, with one leaderboard for the day: low net, low gross, Better Ball, Irish Rumble or 40 Balls. They have to give each golfer a real score of his own, so scrambles and alternate shot aren’t offered. The organiser sets the pairs for each round, so partners can change from day to day.

Inside the group

The foursomes can choose to also play side games within the foursome, such as Skins, fourball, Sixes or Wolf. Each group picks its own and settles it among themselves.

Side games start again every round and pay out on the day. They don’t change the championship.

Scoring it without a spreadsheet

Ten courses, two titles, rounds dropping in and out of the count every day. Halved keeps the table from the scores each group already posts.

A trip leaderboard

Net and gross tables, with every golfer’s counting and dropped rounds.

Strokes for every course

Course handicaps worked out from each course’s slope and rating.

Each day set up once

Side games and pairs by round, set up before you leave home.

The whole trip in one table.

Free for the whole group. Post your scores at each course and Halved works out the strokes, picks your best rounds and keeps both titles up to date.

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Questions people ask

How does a Road Trip tournament work?

The group plays several rounds, usually on different courses. Each round is scored to par, and each golfer’s best rounds up to the counting number are added up. Lowest total wins. There is a net title and a gross title.

Why score to par instead of total strokes?

Courses on a trip have different pars. Scoring to par means a level-par round counts the same on every course, and nobody gains by dropping the long ones.

What if I miss a round?

You stay eligible as long as you finish at least as many rounds as count. In a best 7 of 10 you can miss three. With fewer, you aren’t eligible for the titles.

Can the organiser change a handicap during the trip?

Yes. The organiser can keep every index fixed for the trip or update it before each round, and can adjust any index by hand. A change applies from the next round that hasn’t started. Rounds already played keep the handicap they were scored with.