Competition formats
Rules and explanation onlyEclectic and ringer competitions
Also called Eclectic, Ringer board, Ringer competition, Eclectic competition.
An eclectic competition is played over several rounds on the same course, and a player's score is the sum of their best score on each hole across all the rounds, gross for an eclectic and net for a ringer. On Parful they exist as season standings methods rather than as a standalone competition format.
- Played over
- Several rounds on the same course, often a whole season
- Player score
- The best score on each hole across every round, added
- Eclectic
- Gross scores
- Ringer
- Net scores
- Ranked by
- Lowest eighteen-hole total
- On Parful
- Season standings methods on Clubs; no standalone competition
How an eclectic works
An eclectic is scored across time. A club opens the board at the start of the season, and every qualifying round a player posts on the course is compared hole by hole with their board. Where the new round beats the board on a hole, the board is updated; where it does not, the board stands. At the close, a player's eclectic is the eighteen best hole scores added together, and the lowest total wins.
The result is a card no one ever shot. A 14 handicapper with a scrappy eclectic of 62 has, at some point in the season, birdied ten holes and parred the rest, one hole at a time. The board rewards persistence and rounds played: a player with twenty rounds has had twenty attempts at every hole, and a player with three has had three.
A ringer is the same board kept on net scores, so each hole's best net after strokes is what counts. A gross eclectic favors the better players; a ringer is a level contest for the whole membership and is the more common form at clubs with a wide handicap range.
As a standalone competition
A club running an eclectic as a competition in its own right sets the qualifying window (a season, a month, a series of named medals), the qualifying rounds (competition rounds only, or any posted round), the scoring basis (gross or net), and a minimum number of rounds to be eligible. The board is public and updated after each round, and the prize is settled at the close. Ties are usually shared, since countback makes little sense on a card assembled from many rounds.
What Parful does
Parful runs eclectic and ringer as season standings methods on Clubs. A club sets up standings for the season, chooses the eclectic (best gross per hole) or ringer (best net per hole) method, and the board keeps itself: every counting outing on the course updates each member's best score on each hole, the standings show the eighteen-hole total and the holes covered, and the ranking is lowest total first. The ringer scales each round's hole scores by that round's net over gross so a round played off a different handicap still compares fairly.
Parful does not run eclectic or ringer as a standalone competition format on a single day or as an Events format, because a one-round eclectic is just stroke play. If your club wants an eclectic prize, the season standings page is the place to set it up.
Worked example
A worked example: three rounds on six holes
Maria posts three qualifying rounds. Her gross eclectic on each hole is the lowest of the three scores; the board is the six added.
| Hole | Par | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Board (best) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| 2 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 5 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
- Hole 4 is still a bogey on the board after three rounds. That is the hole Maria goes after in round 4; nothing else she does on that day can make the board worse.
- On a ringer, strokes would be deducted before comparing. If Maria receives a stroke on hole 4, her board there is net 4.
Common variants
- Ringer (net eclectic)
- Best net score per hole rather than gross. Parful runs it as a season standings method.
- Eclectic over two named rounds
- A weekend competition where Saturday and Sunday cards are combined hole by hole. A variant Parful does not score as a competition; a two-outing season standings board gives the same answer.