Longest putt

How a longest putt contest works

Every other skill contest lives on one hole. Longest putt cannot, because a 60-foot putt can drop on any green at any point in the day, so the contest is live on all eighteen holes. When a player holes a long putt the group measures from where the ball was to the hole and records it. The longest putt holed by anyone during the round wins.

The putt has to go in. A 70-footer that finishes an inch short is a fine putt and worth nothing here. That is the difference between longest putt and the proximity contests: closest to the pin measures where a ball finished, longest putt measures a ball that finished in the hole.

Most clubs add that the putt must be from the putting surface. A chip that rolls in from the fringe is a chip, not a putt, however far it travelled. Parful records the measurement the group enters and leaves that condition to the club.

Measuring and ties

Measurements are recorded in feet and inches, from the spot the ball was putted from to the hole. A new entry replaces the leader only if it is longer; a shorter putt is kept in the history and changes nothing. Because the contest runs all round, an early 25-footer may lead for four hours and be beaten on the eighteenth.

An exact tie, two holed putts both measured at 31 feet 6 inches, is shown as tied rather than awarded to the first one entered. The organizer settles it and records the winner.

Longest putt is an open contest on Parful, one contest for the whole field without a men's and women's split, because a putt does not depend on which tee the player drove from. A club can still restrict it to one division, and its guest policy decides whether a guest can win.

How Parful runs it

1. 1Longest putt sits in the club's contest library switched off. A club that runs it turns it on once in settings and every later outing seeds it, ready to play with no hole to assign.
2. 2On every hole the group scorecard shows the contest and its current leader, so a group can record a putt the moment it drops. The leader updates live and the outing feed announces the change.
3. 3A club whose event plays longest putt on one green only, the eighteenth in front of the clubhouse for instance, can pin the contest to that hole instead, and the prompt then appears only there.
4. 4At close-out the leader is frozen into the results with the measurement. The organizer can assign or override the winner from the admin page.

Parful ranks purely by the measurement recorded. It does not check that the ball was on the green or that the putt was for any particular score; those are conditions for the group to apply before it records.

Worked example

A worked example: one round, five putts recorded

Across the day five groups record a holed putt worth entering. Entries arrive in the order the groups finish the hole, which is not hole order.

• infoCal's putt on the 5th was recorded after Ana's on the 7th because Cal's group was behind. Order of recording never matters; only the measurement does.
• infoParful compares total inches: 44' 9" is 537 inches against 378 inches for 31' 6".

Common variants

Longest putt on one green

The contest is played on a single hole, usually the eighteenth, so the gallery can watch. On Parful a club pins the contest to that hole and the prompt appears only there.

Longest putt for birdie

Only a holed putt for birdie or better counts. Parful does not check the score on the hole; the group applies the condition before recording.

Longest putt in feet only

Rounded to whole feet for simplicity. Parful records feet and inches and shows the leader that way; a club using whole feet enters 0 inches.

Fewest putts

A different contest: the fewest putts over the round rather than the longest single putt. Parful runs it as its own game, Fewest Putts, from putt counts recorded per hole.