Australian Golf Digest
Order of Merit
FAQ

We plan on running 4 competitions with the first being Summer 2019/20 – that is 1 December 2019 until 29 February 2020.  Then we will have competitions running through 2020 being Autumn (March to May), Winter (June to August) and Spring (September to December).

Absolutely not.  You can enter at any time through the first 2 months of the qualifying period and all competition rounds played and recorded in GolfLINK since the start will automatically be included.  So you might already be well on your way to the final and don’t even know it yet! 

The Order of Merit is based on 6 regions and there will be 6 qualifiers from each region that will be attending the final to be held once the qualifying period has entered.  The top points scorer from each Grade in each Region will win their way to the final – where the 6 Grade winners will be announced.  So there’s plenty of spots in the final up for grabs!

Well if the chance to play in the final, bragging rights, an Order of Merit Cup and a spread in Golf Digest magazine weren’t enough there are always monthly random prizes that we will allocate along the way.  And instead of the leaders all the time receiving the prizes we will come up with some weird and wonderful variations to keep it interesting for everyone.

$5 per month for each month of the qualifying period – yes that right $15 in total!  That includes as many competition rounds you can play over 3 months – that’s just over $1 per week to be in the running!  Competition rounds are those recorded on your Golf Australia handicap record (GolfLink).  So, if you play 1 competition round on average per week for say 12 weeks– that’s a $1.25 comp fee per round to be in the Australian Golf Digest Order of Merit!  We think that’s pretty good value for money. 

5 – but you can play as many as you want.  The more you play the more rounds count and the more your chances of being on top of the LeaderBoard and being invited to compete in the final.

Through our partnership with MPower Golf (they administer the Golf Australia handicap system) we can see all competition rounds you’ve played.  Its fully automated so you only need to tell us if something hasn’t worked (very unlikely but you never know).  But be aware, only rounds that have more than 7 players (by gender) involved will count.

If you qualify, a fully inclusive round of golf at one of Australias Top 100 courses.  You’ll need to get yourself there and look after your accommodation but on the day it will be all about the golf, food and beverage and prizes – on us!

Lumping you all together just doesn’t work.  So, to make if fairer, we’ve come up with six Grades.  3 Male and 3 Female as below based on your Golf Australia handicap as at the start of the qualifying period (the start of the competition):

We’ve broken it into six regions – Queensland, New south Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia & Northern Territory and Western Australia.  The top point scorer in each Grade from each region (that’s 36 spots in total) will be invited to attend the final.  Finalists will be competing against the other Grade qualifiers from the other regions, to be crowned Australia’s best Amateur Grade Golfer.

Now this is where it gets a bit tricky.  As you can imagine coming up with a program that compares golfers across Australia playing on different courses in different conditions is not that simple.  There must be a way that makes it fair to all and rewards those that do well (that is what an Order of Merit is about after all).  So, we worked with our friends at MPower Golf who know a lot more about this (important) technical stuff than we do (after all we’re concentrating on trying to putt!)

Australian Golf Digest Order of Merit points are calculated by establishing the Z-score for each Stableford score returned in a club competition (provided there are at least 7 players in that particular competition).

Um, OK so what on earth is a Z score?  First, we need to establish a mean (average) score for each competition and then calculate the standard deviation.  The standard deviation is a number used to tell how measurements for a group are spread out from the average (mean) or expected value. A low standard deviation means that most of the numbers are very close to the average. A high standard deviation means that the numbers are spread out.  The Z-score is the number of standard deviations a given score is away from the mean in a relevant competition. This number will then be multiplied by 10,000.

Huh – what did you just say?  Ok, let’s say that you score 34 Stableford points and that the average of that competition was 30.23 with a standard deviation of 5.4, your score will be calculated by dividing (34 less 30.23) by 5.4 and then multiplying by 10,000 for a score of 6,981 points. On the other hand, if another golfer had a score of 29 points for that same round, they will score -2,278 points ((29 – 30.23) / 5.4 x 10000). (Our guess is that they will probably want to play another round and play for a better result).  This is the fairest way to compare scores from different competitions played at different courses.

But when all is said and done, just think of it this way.  The more Stableford points you score above the average, the better you’ve played, and by comparing that with the rest of the field on the day potentially the more Australian Golf Digest Order of Merit points you accrue.  Play well as compared to others in the competition and you get rewarded – don’t . . . (we’ll leave that up to you to finish).

Scores are the total of the best 5 Australian Golf Digest Order of Merit points over the qualifying period.

We’ll be honest and say what we’ve come up with isn’t foolproof.  For as long as golf competitions have been around there have been ‘burglars’ and no-one has ever come up with a bullet proof way of overcoming that.  We’ve got a system that uses competition rounds, Z scores (see above for a refresher) and we will be doing a few random audits if someone is shooting the lights out consistently.  But you’ve also got a role to play.  If you reckon someone is rorting the system – let us know and we’ll do a bit of digging around as well.

But let’s also state the obvious – some days you just have a great day out.  It’s not about cheating or manipulating your handicap, it’s just a day where everything seems to click.  The only problem is it doesn’t happen all the time.  So, lets acknowledge that we all can have a great day and not assume the worst (all the time anyway).

Call us on 1300 216 809 or drop us an email at info@agdevents.com.au and we’ll get back to you.

Australian Golf Digest has partnered with the team at 3 Links Golf to create Australian Golf Digest Events Pty Ltd.  Everyone knows Australian Golf Digest, but 3 Links Golf are probably one of the best kept secrets in the golf industry.  They’ve been around since 2014 and run over 90 events for the Qantas Golf Club (they originally took the idea to them all those years ago).  With a couple of golf tragics at the helm and with a team that’s been together for nearly 25 years they understand what golfers want.  Good golf, great memories and outstanding value for money.  They tick all those boxes (and a lot of their clients will tell you they do). 

Easy – we’ll tell you.  Once a week we’ll send you an email with an update – or alternatively visit the website and you can see the leader board as and when it suits you.

Ah, no not yet (but we are working on it!)  What we have done is team up with some great brands so that if nothing else you get great value for your $5 per month.  Our partners come from a diverse range of industries (not just golf) but as this is a golf program, we are constantly looking at ways to give you benefits. Our current range of benefits for joining the Australian Golf Digest Australian Order of Merit are:

Look, we all play rubbish from time to time (that’s why we are amateurs after all).  But 1 bad round (or 2 or 3) does not a golfer make.  We all have those great days and it is for that reason you owe it to yourself to join up.  There’s really no reason not to have a go and see what happens.  But if you want one more reason how does a lucky draw sound?

Ok we know that not everyone is an Adam Scott or Jason Day in the making (we wish) which is why we decided that we would draw one non-qualifier per Grade out of the hat at the end of the qualifying period to be able to enter the finals.  That’s right, even if you have the worst 5 rounds of your golf career and your points count in the order of merit is -249,175 (don’t know if that’s possible by the way but it could be) then you could still be pulled out of the hat and compete in the quarterly final.  And who knows, when you’re there you might just have the round of a lifetime . . . (but if not then you’ll still have a lot of fun and some great memories).

We can’t be much fairer than that . . .

Couldn’t be easier – head to Join the Australian Golf Digest Order of Merit  and register today.

Ah, No

You need to speak to your home club to get that sorted out

That’s because you haven’t submitted enough rounds yet.  Do that and your well on your way to meeting the minimum 5 rounds required to qualify for the Australian Gofl Digest Order of Merit.  Speak to your club for more information

We look forward to welcoming you to the Australian Golf Digest Order of Merit and all the best on your qualifying rounds for 2020!