Some context:
In mid-December, WGT introduced free weekly UEL singles tourneys, kicking off with courses we can't normally play in Uneven Lies, Cabo and Whistler. Since then, there's been an UEL single every week, covering almost the full rotation of courses (still haven't been to Congo and St Andrews though… hopefully the next 2 weeks?), and a total of 550 different players have taken part (in just the TL and L tiers).
I decided it might be fun to create a Tour from these tourneys for all the players who love UEL, or who are looking for some extra incentive to give it a try and get better at it. Now that these tourneys appear to have become a regular fixture, that's possible. With this first set of tourneys, I've created a template for the Tour, which I plan to start again in 3 weeks time, once these 15 weeks are complete.
I was also planning to use a Leaderboard from these tourneys as the basis for qualification for the inaugural UEL Ryder Cup which took place Feb/Mar. In the end, that competition was by self-selection, but our next major Ryder Cup event will be qualification-based, and will be held at Pinehurst after a 2nd edition of this Tour for qualification prior to the VUSO, and a break for summer (after which Pinehurst is anticipated to be available for UEL play).
The Tour Standings spreadsheet:
(click here to see the google doc spreadsheet or click on the sample images below; once in the sheet, navigate via tabs at the bottom)
(right-click, open in new tab to see these example images full-size)
Notes on the sheets:
1. Tiers:
I've only included Tour Legend and Legend tiers for now. If there is a strong demand to include Tour Master, Master, etc, please let me know (and I'll consider if I can add that to the workload).
2. Criteria for Score Inclusion:
I had to set a limit somewhere, so decided to set these criteria: any score that earned credits (i.e. top 70 finish), or a score of par or better, was included. In practice, this meant every TL score in every tourney has been included, and typically it's been 2-3 pages of the L leaderboards.
3. Status:
The sheet will always be 'in progress'. As of today, it has Scores from the Whistler round that ended last night, but not the credits yet as prizes have not been allocated.
4. Workings:
I've left visible for now the background workings of the sheets, for transparency. Please note that I'd also welcome hearing about any errors if you come across them; feel free to tell me about anything that's not working as it should, as I'd like to use this as a model for Tours on WGT in the future (both for my own events, and as open-source if anyone is looking for a template to use… although I should add I'm an amateur compared to such excel geniuses that help out in so many cc's here, such as Rac, AlbertoQ, Cygnus, etc).
The Sheets themselves:
Structure:
The spreadsheet has tabs at the bottom that you use to navigate.
There are several color-coded sections:
a) TL standings:
- in cumulative Credits won;
- Points earned (using the same simple model as used in prior Ryder Cup events [30 pts for a win, dropping by a point for each place below that];
- ongoing Average (with requirement of at least 4 rounds);
- cumulative amount Relative to Par;
- and an alphabetically-organized Placings sheet (so you can find yourself in the list and see where you've finished across each tourney).
Those sheets are repeated for b) Legend Tier….
Cross-Tier Comparison:
… and then c) there are a few experimental sheets attempting to get a meaningful comparison across the TL and L tiers, with combined credit standings as one version, and score relative to par as another (including versions that take each player's best 9 scores). A case could be made for preferring the credit standings as it gives more weight to top finishers...
But, even though the difference in prize fund between TL and L goes some way towards equalizing the different standard, it's probably not enough. So, another approach could be Score relative to Par, which, since the TLs have had Low wind since wk02, while Ls have had Mod wind, in some way compensates for the much harder Champ greens TLs have had to deal with.
Obviously, no comparison system will be perfect, but I'd be interested to hear people's feedback and ideas.
Data Sheets:
After the Combined Standings sheets come the data…
d) Every week in the tour has a Leaderboard sheet (e.g. this one from wk08 BPB), including both the TL and L information, copied from the tourney leaderboards (and includes a link to each of those WGT webpages at the top).
Finally, e) there are some admin sheets: an intermediate place to paste data from WGT, and a Player List sheet, that the standings sheets pull from.
Observations on the Tourneys so far:
1. Clearly, only I knew that I was going to produce this spreadsheet, so in this first example edition, it's not surprising that I'm doing well in the Legend standings (being one of the few to play every week)!
In the TL standings, it's exciting to see the 'battle' (that they didn't know they were having, lol) going on between fmagnets and the steady GolferDadRB for top spots in the different categories. Mags was definitely aided by his astounding perfect round at BPB a couple of weeks back.
2. Some TLs have only played one or two events, but won each time: e.g. sebicu played his first tourney last week and won; cyberete won both that he's entered early on; xfipro, poolmaniac, JJ56 all have wins while only playing one or two events, while GolferDadRB is doing the Phil Mickelson thing, having been runner-up 4 times.
3. For the top TLs, I realize that the prize-money for these free weeklies is unlikely to be attractive. So I'm wondering, other than UEL Ryder Cup qualification, whether there can be any extra incentive. If we can show serious interest in the next edition of this as a real UEL Tour, could it be designated a WGT Nation event, and be allotted the typical double-credit pool per tourney? Or might WGT be willing to sponsor some additional prizes for players finishing on top of particular standings? Or could we as a community offer up enough prize-sponsorship commitments to attract the very best players?
Anyway, lots of possibilities...
Please feel free to offer any and all feedback. And look out for the start of the next tour in 3 weeks, which will be for qualification to play in the UEL Ryder Cup (for which there will be a separate thread in the community tourney forum)!
Thanks, Corwyn
--------------------
I'd like to mention several friends on WGT whose help I asked for to look at this in draft form and advised on formulae, presentation, and possible sheets to track: thank you so much to Racoondad, bhoese, CerinoDevoti, ColumbusStorm, and fmagnets!