The Format
At its simplest, the Team Challenge works like this: over two days, 4 teams (each representing baseball, basketball, football and hockey) will golf for the chance to claim the $100,000 first prize for their charity. (The Friday Pro-Am does not count toward any team results.)
Day 1 (Saturday): In best ball match play, the teams are positioned by their captains, and once on the golfers are on the course, the player with the lowest score for any particular hole is the winner for the team. It is that score which is counted as the entire team’s point. The teams will play three 9-hole rounds, so every team will have the chance to meet each other through round robin play.
Day 2 (Sunday): In modified skins play, four groups set off, one player from each team being represented. The best score on each hole earns that player 3 points, second place gets 2 points, third gets 1, and last none. In the event of a tie, the score is the mean of the positions won.
Germane to both of these matches is the proprietary notion of accelerated scoring. By this scoring system, a player is rewarded for finishing out his opponent early in the match. Player handicaps are also factored in determining the winner of a hole.
For example, if one golfer ends 5 and 4, meaning he has bested his opponent in the first five holes with four holes unplayed (and unnecessary since the opponent has no chance of ever catching up or surpassing), then the one golfer receives as score of 9 points rather than the 1 of Ryder Cup match play.
Take into account that the ProCoaches will be deciding the 2X player, the player whose accelerated score counts as double, which will possibly affect the results of the game. To wit, anything can happen between the ProCoach votes being cast and the players teeing off.
Therefore, in the above 5 and 4 example, if that golfer were lucky enough to be chosen as the 2X player, he would earn 18 points for his sport and charity.
Golf blogger Jay Flemma views the Team Challenge format details under his microscope at The GolfSpace.com
