OVERVIEW

Another thing that truly sets the Hittin Links Golf Tour apart from the rest, we have a multitude of Championships every single season!

The following players will be automatically be exempt to play in the Tour Championship Finale:

• ALL Major tournament division winners
• Battle of the Bridges Match Play Champion

Tour Champions

The OG and the largest Championship of the Tour Championship.  Every single event Tour player earn points for their performance at every tournament with the players with the most points earning the biggest advantage heading into the Championship.  The Championship is a 2 day championship held each year in a different city.  With Conferences established in both the Bay Area and Sactown, we do our best to host the Championship weekend on courses that are either neutral site (in between the bay and sac) or we split between conferences with one Sac course and one Bay course. The Championship consist of 36 holes on 2 of the most difficult and/or exciting courses in the area to help determine the best!  The Top 15 players plus exceptions and ties from each of the Divisions from each Conference will be qualified to signup and participate in the Championship.  Winners will take home $500- $1000 in Tour Credits and awesome trophies depending on size/strength of field.

The Team Champion

Simultaneous to the Individual Championships, the Team Championship will also consist of players earning points for their performance in every event.  BUT, based on the partner selected at the beginning of the season each playing partners points will be combined and the teams with the highest points will be seeded ahead of the  Individual and Team Championship weekend in October.  Top 20 teams will be seeded based on their point totals headed into the championship and start at -5, -4, -3, etc.  Teams will then compete for the ultimate prize.  Winners will take home $500-$1000 in Tour Credits and awesome trophy.  There will be no divisions or conferences for this championship as all teams will compete and lowest 20 overall will make it to the team championship to be held the Friday on the weekend of the Tour Championship.

The Match Play Champion

Starting in April, players who elected to Participate in the Season long Match Play Championship will be randomly seeded and matches will begin in April.  Each Conference will have it’s own seeding and the top player from each conference will compete for the championship. Every 4 weeks, players must complete their match to move on to the next round which will be single elimination.  Depending on the size of the field, the season long events will take place through the year culminating in the Battle of the Bridges Match Play Championship to decide the winner who will take home the awesome trophy and pot (roughly $500-$1000 in Tour Credits).  All other players will be encouraged to follow along at the championship site.

The Putting Champion

Most tournaments a winner will be determined at the Putting Contest.  All winners will be invited to participate in Putting Championship to be held on the putting green after the first day of the Championship OR the Team Championship. All winners through the season will face off in an epic putting contest to determine the best putter who will take home an awesome trophy and Tour Credit prize of $300-$500.  Putting Championship will be formatted as follows:

On the putting green we will set up the championship.  One hole will be selected and we will mark 10 “tee boxes” around that one hole and each player gets one putt from each tee box to make as many putts as possible.  Participants will have at least 5 mins before they begin the championship to practice on the holes.  We will randomly set the order of the putting championship.  For Round 1 only, any participants that are not currently putting are NOT allowed to watch the other player putt as to not have any advantage coming into their turn.

• Each player for each round will receive 5 mins to complete their circuit and make as many putts as possible.
• After Round 1 we take the top 3 players with the most putts made.
• IF there is a tie for the winner or tie when trying to move to the next round, then we will have a tie breaker from a designated tee box and each player will get 5 putts to make as many as possible to move on.
• Round 2 and the final round contains the top 3 putters who will putt in order of least putts made first.  IF there were any ties we throw a tee to determine who goes first.
• The Championship Round will be the same with players going in order to make the most putts possible in 5 mins with 1 putt from each location.  Most putts made will be crowned Champion!

The Long Drive Champion

Most tournaments will have at least 1 or 2 winners of the Long Drive Contest.  All winners during the season will be invited to participate in Long Drive Championship to be held on the driving range after the first day of the Championship OR the Team Championship. All winners through the season will face off in an epic long drive contest to determine the best Big Bomber on Tour who will take home an awesome trophy and Tour Credit prize of $300-$500.  We set the format of our Long Drive Championship to determine the LONGEST driver on Tour.  To do this, we host the championship in the following format:

• We will set 2 stalls at the driving range secured for the Hittin Links LD Championship. Before the Championship begins each participant will receive at least 5 mins to practice before their round.  If players hit the range earlier they can practice longer. We will have one designated tracker at each stall to track drives and time.
• For the LD Championship we will have 3 rounds.  The first round contains ALL participants.  Round 2 will be the top 4 hitters only.  Round 3 and Final Round will be the Top 2 hitters only.  Each round will consist of each player hitting up to 10 balls in 5 mins.  A player does NOT have to hit all 10 shots if they choose.  A shot must land in the range landing zone to qualify as set at the driving range. Participants will qualify to move on based on their best drive.  In the event of a tie for longest drive or qualifying drive to move on, the tied players will do a 5 shot hit off in 2.5 mins for longest drive to move on or win.
• For Round 1 we will randomly set the order of participants to start the Round. After the Round we take the top 4 hitters to move on to Round 2.  After Round 2 we will have the Championship set for 2 and again do 5 mins of 10 shots to determine the champion.
• IF we encounter an issue with a shot not registering on the technology the player gets an extra 30 secs and 1 more shot.
• NOTE: The balls and the technology are the same for all players.
• NOTE: For clubs, players must only use USGA approved drivers and shafts. Shaft length cannot exceed 48 in and use the linked page from the usga to determine if your club is on the approved list:  https://www.usga.org/ConformingGolfClub/ConformingClubList_M.pdf
• NOTE: Each player is allowed 1 5 min timeout per round if they need to use the restroom or change clubs or anything.

Most Improved Champion

We have created this additional championship to give all players the ability to work toward improving and be rewarded for it!  Over the course of the season from Jan 1st to Oct 1st we will determine the top 4 most improved golfers across the season.  Those 4 players will play in the 2 day Tour Championship and the player that finishes with the lowest overall net in those 2 rounds total will be crowned the Most Improved Champion.  If any of the top 4 cannot play, then the championship will presume with however many are left of the top 4.  If none of the top 4 can participate in the 2 day championship then the leader of handicap improvement will win by default.  If only one of the top 4 can participate then they will win by default.  The winner will take home an awesome trophy and Tour Credit prize of $300-$500.

Results taken directly from the USGA.  Instructions for determining the Most Improved Golfer
Add 12 to the player’s Handicap Index at the start date. This value is A. Add 12 to the player’s Handicap Index at the end date. This value is B.
Divide value A by value B, calculating to three decimal places. This is the improvement factor.
Example:
Starting Handicap Index: 24.3 | Ending Handicap Index: 16.2
Value A: 24.3 + 12 = 36.3 | Value B: 16.2 + 12 = 28.2
A / B: 36.3 / 28.2 = 1.128
Improvement factor: 1.128