Competition structures
Parful runs thisSingle-round competition
Also called One-day competition, Monthly medal, Single-day tournament, One-round competition.
A single-round competition is decided on one round of golf. Every player is ranked on the axis the format uses (gross strokes, net strokes, Stableford points, quota margin or skins), ties are settled by countback, and the champion and runner-up are the first two prize-eligible positions.
- Rounds
- Exactly 1, played on one outing
- Ranked by
- Gross, net, Stableford points, quota margin or skins, depending on the format
- Ties
- Countback on the back nine, then the last 6, 3 and 1 holes
- Awards
- Champion and runner-up from prize position, ties shared
- Guests
- Can lead the board and still be skipped for prizes
- Also on the day
- The hosting outing keeps its own day prizes
How a single-round competition works
A single-round competition is the simplest structure in club golf: one playing day, one card per player, one leaderboard. The monthly medal, the Captain's Prize, the Presidents Day and most charity days are single-round competitions. What changes from one to the next is the format, not the structure.
The format decides the ranking axis. Stroke play ranks by gross or net strokes, lowest first. Stableford ranks by points, highest first. A points quota competition ranks by the margin over or under each player's quota. A skins competition ranks by skins won. Parful reads the axis from the format and ranks every card on it, so a Stableford card is never sorted by strokes and a stroke play card is never sorted by points.
Handicaps are applied through the allowance the competition froze when scoring opened. A net stroke play competition subtracts the Playing Handicap™ from the gross score. A Stableford competition applies strokes hole by hole against the stroke index before points are counted.
Ties, prize positions and guests
Two players on the same score are separated by countback: the back nine first, then holes 13 to 18, then 16 to 18, then the eighteenth alone. If nothing separates them the position is shared. The leaderboard shows the shared position rather than inventing an order.
Every player has a position on the board and, if they can win a prize, a prize position. A guest playing in a members-only prize list still appears on the leaderboard in the place their score earned, but the prize positions skip them. So a guest can top the board on net 69 while the champion is the member on net 70 in prize position 1.
- Champion: whoever holds prize position 1. If two prize-eligible players share it after countback, the championship is shared.
- Runner-up: whoever holds prize position 2. If the championship is shared by two players, nobody holds position 2 and the runner-up slot is empty.
- Day prizes: the outing that hosts the competition keeps its own low gross, low net and Stableford prizes over everyone who played that day, including players who were not entered in the competition.
When one round is enough
A single round suits a field that plays once and wants a result at the bar. It cannot smooth out a bad day, which is why a club championship usually runs over two or more rounds and why a season-long standings table exists for consistency. If the result should reflect more than one day, use a multi-round competition; if it should reflect a whole season, use standings.
How Parful runs it
A single-round competition on Parful is a competition with a cadence of one outing and a leaderboard structure. The admin creates the competition, assigns it to the outing that hosts it, and the scores that arrive on the group scorecards feed the competition leaderboard live. When the round opens the competition freezes its allowance, tiebreak and countback variant so nothing changes under the players.
At close-out Parful derives the champion and runner-up from prize position on the same standings the admin has been watching all day, so the award can never disagree with the board. The outing's own day prizes are reviewed alongside. Knockouts, round robins and cups are excluded from this derivation because their winner is not decided by one day.
Worked example
A worked example: a net stroke play medal with a guest on top
Six players in a net medal. Gus is a guest and the prize list is members only. Course Handicap™ is applied in full. Ben and Cal are tied on net 71 and countback did not separate them (identical back nine, last six, last three and last hole).
| Player | Gross | Course Handicap | Net | Board position | Prize position | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gus (guest) | 78 | 9 | 69 | 1 | Not eligible | None |
| Ana | 82 | 12 | 70 | 2 | 1 | Champion |
| Ben | 84 | 13 | 71 | T3 | T2 | Runner-up (shared) |
| Cal | 88 | 17 | 71 | T3 | T2 | Runner-up (shared) |
| Dee | 86 | 14 | 72 | 5 | 4 | None |
| Eve | 90 | 16 | 74 | 6 | 5 | None |
- Board position counts everyone. Prize position counts only eligible players, which is why Ana is second on the board and first for prizes.
- The outing that hosted the medal still awards its own low gross prize, which Gus can win if the club allows guests day prizes.
Common variants
- Gross and net prizes from one card
- Most medals award a gross prize and a net prize from the same round. Parful ranks the competition on one axis, and the outing day prizes cover the other, so a club gets both without running two competitions.
- Divisions
- A large field split into handicap divisions, each with its own champion. Parful runs this as flights on the competition, with a podium per flight.
- Two-tee start with a shotgun
- A structural change to the day rather than the competition. The ranking is unchanged; only the groups and start holes differ, which the outing handles.
- Best of two cards
- Some clubs let a player submit the better of two rounds in a window. Parful does not score this as a single-round competition; a club running it by hand can record the result manually.