Johnsen, Evan - Junior Golf Competition - "Personal Par" Scoring

Property: The First Tee of Greater Seattle

Location: King County, WA

Property Type: Daily Fee, Public (Non-profit Organization)

Program Contact: Evan Johnsen, Program Director (The First Tee of Greater Seattle)

Contact Phone/Email: Evan Johnsen: 425-503-4851, evan@thefirstteeseattle.org / Cole Clearman (Snoqualmie Ridge): 425-396-6000, cclearman@tpcsr.com

Name of PD Program: Junior Golf Competition - "Personal Par" Scoring

Type of PD Program: Junior Golf Program

Dates of Program: Year-round

Results of Program

Create competitive junior golf events for all skill levels, which encourages players to play their best and not feel discouraged that they can’t win the event.

This is not a direct revenue-generating program, but will help to enhance and expand your junior golf camps and programs in the long-term. More players will participate and are more likely to return in future seasons/years.

Details of Program

• The First Tee of Greater Seattle hosts a chapter-wide seasonal tournament every spring, summer and fall at two locations: Crossroads Par-3 & Jefferson Park GC. With 8 weeks of regular classes, this is known as the “Week 9 Championship”.
• Participants of all skill levels are invited to play and encouraged to play their best. Format is shotgun, stroke play, and organized by age and level in the program.
• With up to 36 players in each field and trophies distributed to 1st, 2nd and 3rd for boys and girls separately, most players in the field will not receive an award, or likely ever be able to due to the higher skill levels of some players.
• The Personal Par (PP) division was introduced as a third category to give anyone a chance to compete and win. A player’s Personal Par is their scoring average from all previous events, and their score in the PP division is essentially a “net” calculation, or the differential between their pre-calculated PP and that day’s score.
• Not only does the PP division recognize a new category of players; it also indicates a measure of improvement upon previous performances, which is so important for all players, and especially juniors.
• Enrollment in the seasonal Week 9 Championship has increased every season and is a highlight for participants. Over 300 youth participated in the fall 2016 event alone!

Recommendations

• Calculating one’s Personal Par requires accurate record-keeping of all event scores and the ability to retrieve that data on tournament day.
• With nearly 1,800 members annually, The First Tee of Greater Seattle uses a custom spreadsheet to store, calculate and retrieve each player’s PP.
• The spreadsheet does not factor course difficulty (rating), so it would need to be enhanced to include that index in the calculation.
• Cole Clearman, Assistant Professional at the Club at Snoqualmie Ridge, tried the Personal Par spreadsheet in 2016 with his junior program, and can provide his feedback.