Format and Rules

Team golf is a winter league where teams of players compete in head-to-head matches to win weekly team matchups and accrue league points as a team.

Each week, teams will square off against another team from their conference (round-robin format) and compete in two rounds of play. Each round consists of five matchups, four playing singles rules and one playing doubles. In each matchup, players will throw a handicapped round where the winner secures one point for their team. Six points are up for grabs each round (two for the doubles matchup) for a total of 12 points per event.

Handicapping – A handicap is a score bonus added to a player’s card to allow competition between players of differing skills, explained in more depth further down the page. All players are assigned an initial player rating, and singles perfomances throughout the season are used to recalculate that rating each week. Player ratings are then used to generate that players handicap for the event depending on the SSA of the course to be played.

For Singles head to head matchups, each players’ handicaps is added to (usually a negative value that reduces) the players’ score, which is then comared directly to the score of their competitor. The result is either a win, loss or a tie for each team, lowest score wins. The raw score for the player is then also used in the next calculation of that players’ rating and resulting handicap.

For Doubles matchups, two players from the same team compete in a best shot doubles format. Most of the same from Singles still applies. The difference: the greater / less generous of the handicaps of the two players is applied to the pair’s score when determining which team’s doubles pairing earned the win. As a result, doubles pairings are generally two players very close in their assigned handicaps. Doubles performances do not impact future players ratings.

Example of play – Week 1:

In week 1, the Northern Conference will play an event at Blaine.
In this event, team A is matched against team B. This match will consist of a morning and afternoon round, each for six points.
In the morning round, the captain of team A nominates six members of his team to play, four in singles and two in doubles.

Round	Team1	Handicap		Team 2	Handicap
1	Ron	-5
1	Ryan	-1
1	Reggie	-6
1	Randal	-10
1	Rusty	-15

Captain A delivers this list to Captain B, who assigns members of his team to complete each match up. This nomination order will reverse in the afternoon round.

Round	Team1	Handicap		Team 2	Handicap
1	Ron	-5		Joan	-4
1	Ryan	-1		Jamie	-3
1	Reggie	-6		Jesse	0
1	Randal	-10		Jim	-1
1	Rusty/Rami	-15*		Justin/Justine	-12*

Each matchup plays a complete round, applying their handicap to the final score. In the first matchup, both Ron and Joan shoot a 54. After adjustments, Ron scores a 49 (54-5) while Joan’s smaller handicap nets her a 50 (54-4). Ron wins the match and secures one point for his team.

In the second matchup, Ryan shoots a 60, while Jamie scores a 58. After adjustments the match is a tie and each player scores half a point for their team.

In the fifth matchup, the doubles teams apply the handicap of the higher-rated player (lower handicap). After tying the match by both shooting 65, the handicap adjustments give the win to Rusty and Rami. This match is worth two points.

Round	Team1	Handicap	Score	Adj Score	Team 1 Points	Team 2	Handicap	Score	Adj Score	Team 2 points
1	Ron	-5	54	49	1	Joan	-4	54	50	0
1	Ryan	-1	60	59	.5	Jamie	-3	62	59	.5
1	Reggie	-6	55	49	0	Jesse	0	48	48	1
1	Randal	-10	66	56	0	Jim	-1	49	48	1
1	Rusty/Rami	-15*	65	50	2	Justin/Justine	-12*	65	53	0
Totals					3.5					2.5

Season Schedule / Format

In the first six weeks of the season, each team will match up against other teams in their conference, playing all 3 of the other teams in their division, and three of the four teams of the division paired with their division in the conference for the season. At the end of the season, the champion of each conference will face off to claim their spot as kings in the north.

Rules

TDG League Divisions shall consist of 6-12 Teams grouped geographically.

The cost to participate shall be set by the board and shall include a donation for Team Disc Golf Participation, a membership in the NW WA Disc Golf Club, and a donation to the Ace Pot.

Team Divisions may get adjusted each year in order to balance the numbers of teams in each division/conference. Conferences will rotate annually with two divisions in each conference and repeating the Division/Conference pairing every three years.

Team Rosters

Team rosters will be formed by the invited parties. Player selection is at the discretion of the Team and is expected to adhere to the same guiding principals regarding the players’ contribution to Disc Golf.

Each Team shall be made up of 9 players. Teams with fewer than 9 players on their roster after December 21 may have players assigned to their roster by the board for the upcoming or current season. A player assigned to a Team by The Board may not be cut from that Team without prior approval from The Board and shall play in at least one round at each Event where he/she is present and has arrived no later than 8:00am.

Tentative Team Rosters must be submitted to The Board no later than December 1 for the upcoming season so they may be compared to identify potential conflict and to verify Team participation in the upcoming season. Also on December 1, the Team Captain shall be identified and that person will assume the associated responsibilities of the role. Final Team Rosters shall include for each player

• Name
• PDGA number, or indication that they do not have one*
• *In the case a player does not have a PDGA number, or is not current, also provide a listing of any PDGA sanctioned Events the player participated in during the year
• In the event there is no other accurate way to apply a rating to a player, the Captain and Board shall work together to apply a Captain’s Rating (see “Captain’s Rating” under “Ratings, Handicaps, and Scoring”). This is a ‘last resort’ type option as it is very hard for a player to win his/her matches when using a Captain’s Rating.
• A player using a Captain’s rating will forfeit their round if they score 30+ points above their Captain’s rating.

Player Qualifications

All Players who are selected for a team are eligible to play in Northwest Washington Team Disc Golf competitions. Players may be banned for continued or flagrant rules violations or unsportsmanlike conduct. If a player was banned without a specific time-period associated with the ban, that player is ineligible to return without specific approval from The Board.

• Players in good standing are eligible to play any singles round during any regular season event.
• Players may play in ONE Doubles Match, but may not play in a second Doubles Match without completing at least one Singles Match before the end of the day that includes their second doubles.
• Any player MUST compete it at least TWO regular season (weeks one through six) Singles rounds in order to qualify to play in Championship Events (weeks seven & eight).
• A Player may never play in TWO Doubles matches during the same Event.
• A Player with a Captain’s Rating must play TWO Singles matches and obtain a qualified Team Golf Rating before he/she is eligible to play in a Doubles Match.
• A player using a Captain’s rating will forfeit their round if they score 30+ points above their Captain’s rating.

Roster Changes

Players may be replaced on a roster until the third Event without penalty if they have not played any TDG rounds. A player who has paid his/her Team Golf fees and drops without playing before the third event is entitled to their Team Golf Donation to be returned on request. The club membership and Ace Pot donation are not refundable. The replacement player will be required to pay the same cost as all other players including Club Membership, Team Golf Donation, and AcePot.

After the third Event, player replacements will require approval from the board in addition to the standard player fees and unless waived by the board, a $30 team fine. This change will require a written request which must include the reason a player is being dropped as well as the replacement player’s information as required on the final Team roster. Replacement Players will be reviewed by the board, upon approval replacement player will be given a rating by the board and/or captain. Player’s rating will be based on historic PDGA rounds or previous team golf ratings.

Any Players added to a roster after the Thursday before an Event shall not compete in the upcoming Event and will be added to the roster for the ensuing Event.

Ratings and Handicaps

Team Disc Golf is made up of handicap matches. This means that each player in a Head-to-Head match up has the same chance of winning before the first throw is made regardless of skill level.

To accomplish this, we need to take into account as much information as we can about the skill level of the players involved, the course they are playing on, and the conditions they are playing in. Armed with that information, we attempt to determine what the expected difference between the two players’ scores ‘should be’. If all of this works, and one player plays the way he’s ‘expected to’, but the other player makes some shots that are normally ‘above his own expected capability’ – the player who does ‘better than expected’ will win the match – regardless of the difference in the players’ “skill levels” or their gross score.

We are able to use some tools, some known values, and some estimated values that help us get to the point where we’ve identified that ‘magic number’ of “the expected difference between the two players scores”.

The first and most important value we know going in is each player’s rating. This is why EVERY player must have a rating that comes from somewhere. Clearly, some ratings are more accurate than others. For some we are using their PDGA rating which can include hundreds of tournament rounds (in this case, we actually only use their most recent 20 rounds) – these are the “most accurate” ratings we can use. For some we are using their Team Disc Golf rating and rounds from last year – obviously, these are less reliable because they are from rounds played nearly a year ago. For some we use PDGA rounds they played during the past year even though they do not have a PDGA membership which means their particular rounds do not have ratings (though, we are able to look at other comparable rounds in the event to determine the rating of their rounds). For some, we have to resort to the least accurate method we have at our disposal – The “Captain’s Rating”. This rating has been assigned by the Team Captain and is considered the player’s rating based on his/her best guess. The Captain’s Rating is discarded after the player has played 2 recorded team golf rounds and we have some ‘real’ data points to use to establish a team golf rating. The Team Captain must use their best guess due to a potential loss of points. A player using a Captain’s rating will forfeit their round if they score 30+ points above their Captain’s rating. 

The second value we incorporate is significantly more complex and fluid, potentially changing drastically between 2 different rounds in the same day. This value is called the SSA – or, Scratch Scoring Average. This is the number of throws that would be expected in a round that is rated exactly 1000. With this, we can determine how many times a person with ANY rating should have to throw to complete a round. So,… in order to do the math required to determine the “magic number” referred to above (the expected difference between 2 competing players’ scores), we have to estimate an SSA. The reason this number is difficult to estimate, and the reason it is “fluid” is that the exactly 1000 rated round includes many factors – and some of those factors CAN’T be known before the round starts. In order to create the game for Sunday and have everything “ready to go”, we have to set the SSA on Thursday. If the weather changes at noon on Sunday, the SSA for the morning round could differ from the SSA for the afternoon round by several strokes.

With Estimated SSA that we determine on Thursday, we are able to identify how many ratings points will be changed with an additional throw on the scorecard (PPT). By subtracting the Player’s rating from 1000, we know how many ratings points need to be made up for that player to get to 1000. When we divide that ‘rating difference from 1000’ by the PPT, we identify how many strokes the player would need to cut off of their score in order to throw a 1000 rated round… THIS NUMBER is the player’s Handicap. Some players are so good that their Handicap is a negative number… that just means their player rating is over 1000. If I play against you, and we identify the difference between our Handicap numbers, we have arrived at that ‘magic number’ – the difference in the number of strokes I am expected to throw in the round and the number of strokes you are expected to throw.