Changes to singles format could benefit deeper squads
June 8, 2016 by Steve Hill in Livewire, News with 0 comments
College Disc Golf announced a change to the National Collegiate Disc Golf Championships scoring format earlier today, with all scores of singles rounds now being added to team totals for the 2017 iteration of the event.
The move is a shift from the prior College Disc Golf format that found the lowest score of a four-player team being dropped from total scoring and will take place primarily at the season-ending NCDGC, though College Disc Golf General Manager Alan Kane said he expects larger qualifying events to follow suit. The adjustment was needed, Kane said, to accommodate the sport’s growth at the collegiate level.
“This was definitely a long-term movement,” Kane said. “In the first five or so years, we’d have teams have trouble putting four players together. Only adding the three scores to the team total allowed teams to have some flexibility. We have thought about making this change each offseason over the last few years. This year we saw only one team compete with three players because of a last minute drop.”
While the shift will make calculating scores easier on the administrative front, Kane also said that the move could benefit deeper units.
“I think it will bring the top 15 to 20 [teams] closer together,” Kane said. “There’s been quite a few teams over the years that maybe didn’t have the best players, but had four good quality disc golfers. Those squads will have a chance to show that consistency off against some teams that may have been able to lean on their top players.”
Paul Fraser, a former player on the University of Oregon disc golf team, said having the lowest score on a team not count toward the total actually helped him from a mental standpoint.
“As the guy whose score was most commonly dropped, I can say that I appreciate knowing that my dismal singles performance didn’t hurt my team,” Fraser said. “I was a help in the doubles format, but dead weight in singles. I took some solace knowing that my team wasn’t being actively weighed down by my bad singles rounds.”
As a result, Fraser said he was still digesting the impact the change might have on team dynamics at the NCDGC.
College Disc Golf kicks off its season in September.
This article was updated to add quotes from Paul Fraser.
