GB2508846A - A method of operating an online pro-am golf competition - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of operating an online golf competition comprising the steps of: publishing a list of professional golfers online; receiving competition entries online from participants including data relating to the participant and at least one professional golfer from the list; the participants and the professionals playing their rounds of golf at their given venues and thereafter the scores of the participants and the professional golfers are entered or retrieved and for each competition entry they are combined into a team score and compared against the team scores of other competition entries. In this way, a virtual pro-am competition is run online using the actual results from the golf professionals round of golf and the amateur participants rounds of golf, thereby introducing golfing skill into the competition, enhancing the enjoyment. The competition may be run with more than one professional on a team and may be run over several rounds of golf. The competition may be run over the internet or over a mobile telephone network, perhaps via SMS.

Description

"A method of operating an online golf competition"

Introduction

This invention relates to a method of operating an online golf competition.

It is known to stage golf tournaments in which amateurs are paired with professionals.

Often, these tournaments are played as part of a professional golf tournament or on one or more days preceding a professional golf tournament. Such tournaments, commonly referred to as "Pro-Ams" are popular with a large portion of the public due to the fact that often celebrities are chosen as the amateurs and there is general interest in seeing the celebrities and in particular the quality of the celebrities' play. Pro-Ams are also popular with the event organisers and sponsors as the presence of celebrities will help to raise the profile of the tournament and attract more media attention which is to the organiser's and sponsor's mutual benefit.

Although highly entertaining to watch, these tournaments do have their shortcomings.

By-and-large! participation in Pro-Ams is the preserve of celebrities or the very wealthy amateur golfer that is able to afford entry into the Pro-Am or warrants a sponsor's invite due to a business relationship with the sponsor. Accordingly, most amateur golfers never get the opportunity to play in a Pro-Am event and therefore there is still a disconnect between the Pro-Am and the common golfer. Most golfers would relish the opportunity to compete alongside a professional golfer and feel an association with the golfer.

There are online competitions, commonly referred to as Fantasy Leagues, which allow individuals to select a team of players and score points depending on the performance of the players in their team in certain real-life competitions. These Fantasy Leagues have been particulaily popular in football and rugby circles for many years whereby individuals are appointed as their team's manager and they select their team of eleven (football) or fifteen (rugby union) players for the competition. Points are awarded for the team based on each of the individual players' performances in that days games.

For example, for each round of the Rugby Union Six Nations Tournament held over a number of weekends each spring annually between Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy, the team manager must select fifteen players for their team from the squads of the six competing nations. They may be limited as to the number of players they can/must have from each nation. Each player in the competition is scored based on their performance. For example, if they start the match, the player may be awarded three points and if they come on during the match as a substitute, they may be awarded a single point. If the players should score a try, they may be awarded five points and if they provide the final pass to the try scorer (an assist), they may be awarded two points.

Scores may be deducted if they are found guilty of foul play and sin-binned (given a yellow card) or sent off and similarly points may be deducted if they are sent off permanently during a match (red carded). The entrants into the Fantasy League compete with other individuals that are entered into the Fantasy League over the course of the tournament and the individual with the highest team score at the end of the tournament typically wins a prize.

One such Fantasy League for golf enthusiasts is now operated by the European Tour, whereby an individual selects their team of ten professional golfers and points are awarded to their team based on the prize money won each week by the professional golfers in their team. The Fantasy League is run over the season and at the end of the season, the team with the most points wins the League. Although this game is enjoyable and requires good judgement by the participant in selecting their team, it is not entirely satisfactory in that it relies solely on the performance of the professional golfers and therefore is more a game of golfing knowledge and judgement than a game of golfing skill. These Fantasy Leagues are also notorious for high participant drop-out rates and it is difficult for these Leagues to maintain participant's interest over a prolonged period of time such as an entire season.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an online golf competition that overcomes at least some of these problems with the known online golf competitions. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an online golf competition that introduces a requirement of actual golfing skill as well as golfing knowledge and chance.

Although various fantasy league formats exist and are well known it is an object of the present invention to introduce a novel format whereby the casual weekend amateur can include his or her actual scores into the competition thus providing an element of added interest and enjoyment to their participation in the sport.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an online golf competition that is customisable to cater for different levels of golfing knowledge as well as different levels of golfing skill, and enables scores to be compared across different courses and that provides a useful choice to the consumer.

Statements of Invention

According to the invention there is provided a method of operating an online golf competition in a system comprising a central competition server having an accessible memory, and a plurality of remote participant's user devices in communication with the central competition server by way of a communication network, the method comprising the initial steps of, prior to a predetermined round of golf in a professional golf tournament being played: publishing a list of professional golfers that qualify for selection by the participants in the online golf tournament; the competition server receiving a competition entry from each of the participants via their user device and storing the competition entry in accessible memory, the competition entry comprising at least a player identifier indicative of the participant and a pro identifier indicative of one of the qualifying professional golfers selected by the participant; and the method comprising the subsequent steps of, after the predetermined round of golf in the professional golf tournament has been played, the competition server: obtaining the scores achieved by each of the professional golfers in the predetermined round of the professional golf tournament; obtaining the scores achieved by each of the participants in a round of golf played by the participants that coincides with the round in the professional golf tournament; retrieving the competition entries from accessible memory and for each competition entry, calculating a combined team score by combining the competition entry's participant's score in their round of golf with the score of the competition entry's professional golfer in the predetermined round of the professional golf tournament; comparing the combined team score for each competition entry with the other combined team scores of the other competition entries; and determining a winning competition entry based on the combined team scores.

By having such an online golf competition, the participants will be more involved in the competition as they will, to a degree, be more actively participating in the completion as their own golf score in their round of golf will count towards their competition entry score.

In this way, the participant will feel a greater connection with the professional golfer on their team for an enhanced participant experience. Furthermore, the online golf competition will introduce a level of golfing skill on the part of the entrants and it will not simply be a matter of golfing knowledge and judgement. It is envisaged that these tournaments will enhance the public awareness of the professional golf tournament which is to the sponsors and tournament organiser's benefit.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which the competition entry comprises a plurality of pro identifiers, each of which is indicative of a professional golfer selected by the participant. In this way, more than one pro may be selected on a team. Preferably, the participant will select three professional golfers with which the participant will together form a fourball team. However team sizes may vary from two up to whatever number the organizer feels is best suited to attract participants to the format.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which the competition entry comprises a plurality of player identifiers, each of which is indicative of a participant. In this way, the participant may include one or more of their friends or acquaintances in their team and a plurality of amateurs can get a feel for competing with a professional. This is also seen as a fun way of team building if desired.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method which comprises the additional subsequent step of, prior to calculating the combined team score by combining the competition entry's participants score in their round of golf with the score of the competition entry's professional golfer in the predetermined round of the professional golf tournament, applying a participant weighting factor to the participant's score. This is seen as a particularly preferred embodiment of the present invention. By applying a weighting to the participants score, the degree to which the competition outcoriie depends on the participants golfing skill or their golfing judgement can be altered. For example, depending on the handicap range of the golfer, it may be piefeisble to apply a greater weighting to theft score than to the professional goiters score so that more will depend on their golfing skill than their golfing judgement.

In one embodiment of the invention theie is provided a method in which the step of applying a participant weighting factor to the participants score comprises multiplying the participants score by a team captain's weighting value multiplier. For example, in a preferred embodiment the participants score could be multiplied by two so that their score counts for more relative to the other scores on their team.

In one embodiment of the invention there is piovided a method in which the step of applying a participant weighting factor to the paiticipant's scoie coniprises applying a course complexity weighting to the participant's scole. In this way, the score of the participant may also be weighted so that participants playing on couises of different complexity will have a degree of equalization applied to their scores. Those participants playing on easier courses will be penalized to a degiee and those paiticipants playing on difficult courses will be subsidized. This will be done according to a formula that takes into account the course rating and ihere available, the slope rating of the particular course.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a niethod in which the method comprises the additional subsequent step of, prior to calculating the combined team score by combining the competition entry's participant's score in their round of golf with the score of the competition entry's professional golfer in the predetermined round of the pi-ofessional golf tournament, applying a weighting factor to the professional golfer's score. For example, if the course that a particular professional golfer is playing on is considered to be particularly difficult, like the renowned "Blue Monster" at Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami, Florida or Pebble Beach on the Monterey Peninsula, California, one or more shots may be deducted from their score. This may be necessary if there are players on the team that are playing on different tours or indeed if the players on the teams are playing in different tournaments on the same tour as may happen when there is a "Major' tournament or a World Golf Championship (WGC) Tournament being played on a particular weekend.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which the step of applying a weighting factor to the professional golfer's score comprises applying a weighting depending on the professional golfer's current ranking. In one such embodiment, the step of applying a weighting factor to the professional golfer's score comprises adding or subtracting a number of strokes from a professional players score, in much the same way as the handicap system is used to alter an amateur player's score. The number of strokes may be dependent on the professional player's current or past world ranking, their position in a money list or other such criteria.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which the step of the competition server obtaining the scores achieved by each of the participants in a round of golf played by the participants that coincides with the round in the professional golf tournament further comprises the competition server retrieving the participants scores from an electronically accessible score database in which the participant entered their score. This is seen as a particularly effective way of operating the invention as the scores of the participants can be retrieved electronically and score management will be kept to a minimum. For example, many golf clubs now require their members to enter their score into an electronic scoring system and the record in the electronic scoring system may be used for the purposes of the online golf competition also.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which the step of the competition server obtaining the scores achieved by each of the participants in a round of golf played by the participants that coincides with the round in the professional golf tournament further comprises the competition server receiving a validated copy of the score card submitted by the participant and thereafter entering the participants score into the corresponding competition entry in accessible memory. In those cases where the participant does not enter their score electronically into a database-type system that is accessible by the central competition server, the paper copy of the scorecard, stamped or otherwise verified by the members club can be sent to the central competition server operator for entry into the accessible memory by the central competition server operator.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which the predetermined round of golf in a professional golf tournament is the final round of the golf tournament.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which, prior to the online golf competition commencing, a plurality of future professional golf tournaments are designated as qualifying competitions in a series and in which the competition entry is valid for the plurality of the qualifying competitions in the series, and in which: the method comprises the additional steps of, after the predetermined round of golf in the professional golf tournament in each of the qualifying competitions has been played: calculating a series team score for each competition entry by adding the combined team score achieved in that qualifying competition to the combined team scores particular to that competition entry achieved in qualifying competitions already played in the series; comparing the series team score for each competition entry with the other series team scores of the other competition entries; and determining a winning competition entry based on the series team scores.

In other words, the online golf competition may be run not just over one round of golf, but may be run over multiple rounds of golf throughout a season. In this way, a participant will be able to enter their score each week that there is a qualifying competition and compete against other participants over the course of the year.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which the step of calculating the series team score comprises omitting the lowest combined team score achieved in one of the qualifying competitions in the series. It may be possible for the participant to discard more than one score from the qualifying competitions. In this way, if the participant were to have a particularly bad week or they were unable to play one week, they would be able to discard one or more rounds of the online golf competition.

It is envisaged that if the participant is unable to compete themselves due to injury, disability, illness or other impediment to their being available to play, the participant may also be able to designate an amateur or professional substitute whose score may be substituted for their own score if they themselves are unable to play. However, the weighting applied to the participants score may be altered if there is a substitute playing on their behalf, particularly if the substitute is a professional golfer. For example, if the weighting applied to the participant's score is such as to double the participants score before going towards the calculation of the combined team score, the score of the temporary replacement may not be doubled if the replacement is a professional from the list of professional golfers. Similarly, if there is an amateur acting as a temporary replacement, their score may be given a lower weighting such as 1.5 times their actual score rather than the multiplier of two normally applied to the participant's score before calculating the team score. Of course, in some cases, such as those cases where the participant suffers from a major disability, it may not be possible for them to play the round of golf themselves and they may appoint a proxy, such as a family member to be their amateur in which case the proxy would be allocated the full weighting normally applied to an amateur. This is in keeping with the spirit of the competition and the inclusiveness of the online golf tournament according to the invention.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which the method comprises the intermediate step of, during the series, the competition server receiving an amended competition entry from one or more of the participants via their user device and storing the amended competition entry in accessible memory, the amended competition entry a substitute pro identifier indicative of one of the qualifying professional golfers selected by the participant to be used as a replacement for an existing qualifying professional golfer previously selected by the participant. In this way, a participant may amend their competition entry mid-way through a series by substituting one or more pro players for one or more pro players on their team. This will allow the participant to bring in form players into their team or bring in professional golf players that are suited to a particular course.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which each of the professionals is assigned a value and each participant is allocated a qualifying professional golfer purchase fund, and in which the competition entry comprising one or more pro identifiers each of which is indicative of one of the qualifying professional golfers selected by the participant whose aggregate value does not exceed the available qualifying professional golfer purchase fund. This is seen as a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention as the participants will have to select one or more players from their available funds and therefore this can introduce a greater element of golfing knowledge into the competition as the optimum combination of professional players that can be purchased with the available funds will have to be determined in order to succeed. This will also promote familiarity with the less well known professionals on tour and help to build their profile and the public's awareness of these players.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which each participant's qualifying professional golfer purchase fund may be modified depending on the performance of the competition entry during the series. This is also seen as a way of introducing an added dimension and incentive for the participants to take an active role in the management of their team.

Detailed DescriDtion of the Invention The invention will now be more clearly understood from the following description of some embodiments thereof given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-Figure 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a system in which the online golf competition according to the invention may be performed; and Figure 2 is a diagrammatic representation of a user interface that may be used by a participant to select and manage their team.

Referring to the drawings and initially to Figure 1 thereof, there is shown a system, indicated generally by the reference numeral 1, in which the method according to the present invention may be performed. The system 1 comprises a central competition server 3 having accessible memory 4, a plurality of competition entrants' devices, represented here by way of PC 5, laptop 7, tablet 9 and smartphone 11, and a centralised database of scorecards 12. Each competition entrant may have access to one or more different devices 5, 7, 9, 11 however for the purposes of this example, each competition entrant is understood to operate only one of the devices 5, 7, 9, 11. Only one instance of each device is shown for the purposes of simplicity however it will be understood that there may be several thousand competition entrants. The competition entrants' devices 5, 7, 9, 11 are all remote from the central competition server and are temporarily connected to the central competition server from time to time over a communication network, in this case, the internet 13. The central competition server 3 may comprise a web server delivering a website accessible by the devices 5, 7, 9, 11 over the internet.

The centralised database of scorecards 12 is also shown remote from both the central competition server 3 and the plurality of competition entrant devices 5, 7, 9, 11. The centralised database of scorecards 12 may be located adjacent to the central competition server and administered by or on behalf of the operator of the central competition server 3. In the embodiment shown, the centralised database of scorecards 12 is represented as a separate entity and it is envisaged that it will be operated as such yet accessible by the central competition server 3. The centralised database of scorecards may be a database-type system run by or in conjunction with a golfing union or an independent entity such as the site "HowDidlDo" (Registered Trade Mark®) (URL: www.howdididoco,uk) operated by Club Systems International Ltd in Ireland and the United Kingdom. This system has access to the scorecards of players in thousands of separate golf clubs around Ireland and the United Kingdom and is able to retrieve the competition data and manipulate that data if need be. Alternatively! the centralised database of scorecards 12 may be standalone database system provided in a golf club in which members enter their score data after their round into the golf clubs system and the data in this system subsequently becomes accessible to or is sent to the central competition server 3. In such a case, it will be understood that there would be numerous centralised databases of scorecards 12 all of which would be accessible to some degree by the central competition server 3 however only one of which is shown for clarity.

In use, each of the competition entrants enters the competition by accessing the central competition server 3 over the internet 13 using their device 5. 7, 9, 11 and rendering an electronic entry form on their device using a web browser such as, but not limited to, Google (Registered Trade Mark®) Chrome®, Microsoft® Internet Explorer® or Mozilla ® Firefox ® to name just three. The electronic entry form has one or more data fields in which the competition entrant is required to insert information in order to enter the competition. There may be several data fields that will allow the competition entrant to simultaneously enter multiple competitions. The nature of the electronic entry form and the manner of play will be described in more detail with reference to Figure 2 below.

There may be provided one or more data entry fields for information particular to the competition entrant such as, but not limited solely to, one or more of a first name field, a surname field, a telephone number field, a date of birth field, a contact address field and an email field to enable the competition entrant to be validated and/or contacted in the event of them winning a prize. Alternatively, depending on the manner in which the electronic entry form is submitted, an identifier such as a mobile phone number may automatically be sent with the electronic entry form. In a further alternative, the competition entrant may pre-register with the central competition server and have an account and their entry will be identified by referring to an identifier contained in the electronic entry form or attached to the electronic entry form upon transmission and attributed to that competition entrant.

Referring to Figure 2, there is shown a diagrammatic illustration of an electronic entry form 21 as displayed on a graphical user interface (GUI) 23 of the competition entrant's device 5, 7. 9, 11. The precise layout of the GUI presentation may vary from device to device depending on a number of factors including the screen size, the screen resolution and the browser used and will be understood by the skilled addressee. The representation shown is merely intended to be illustrative of how the electronic entry form could be presented. The electronic entry form comprises a plurality of screens accessible by appropriate selection of tabs 25, 27, 29. Tab 25 is currently selected and is associated with a "Team Selection" form. The "Previous Rounds" tab 27 allows access to information concerning previous team scores and the Your Account" tab allows access to account information such as, but not limited to, account password management, contact detail management and the like. Indeed, other tabs could be provided and additional functionality could be provided such as community features (chat rooms, forums, games and social networking access), help screens (including team selection help, accessibility, player substitutions), pro tips (including course information, golf playing tips, rules tips), form guides (including expert analysis, player suitability), and the like.

The Team Selection" form includes a help box 31 containing instructions to assist the participant to select their team, as well as various data entry fields (DEF) that contain participant information. The DEFs include first name DEF 33, a surname DEF 35, an ID number DEF 37, a home club DEF 39, a playing handicap DEF 41, a weighting DEF 43.

In addition to the participant information field, the "Team Selection" form includes a pro-player 1 DEF 45 for entry of an identifier such as a code number or name of a professional player than can be selected by the participant. A second and third pro player DEFs 47, 49 are also provided on the "Team Selection" form. It will be understood that in some cases, more or less pro-player DEFs may be provided depending on the parameters of the competition to be executed. The "Team Selection" form further comprises a warnings box 51 in which warning such as the fact that a professional player currently selected by the participant is not eligible to play in a particular tournament or that they are inactive that week. The participant can take heed of the warnings and amend their competition entry by substituting the player in question if necessary.

The "Team Selection" form further comprises as total available fund box 53 and a fund amount remaining box 55. These boxes will be used in one implementation of the competition in which each professional player is allocated a certain value and each participant is provided with an amount of "virtual money" to purchase the professional players for their team. The total amount of virtual money at the disposal of the participant is entered in the box 53 and as they make selections of one or more professional players for their team, the remaining available balance will be reduced and the amount in the fund amount remaining box 55 is updated and displayed. An information box 57 provides information about the next event(s) that is about to be played and if desired course and/or weather information (in this case both) that will assist the participant when they attempt to make their professional player choices. In this case, the tournament indicated in the information box 57 is The Masters ® however it will be understood that the present invention is in no way connected with the Masters ® tournament and no association is claimed or intended. The reference to the Masters ® tournament has merely been used to illustrate the operation of the present invention. Finally, a submit button 59 is provided once the participant has made all the selections that they wish for the upcoming tournament which they depress in the known manner using a pointer and a mouse or their finger/stylus for a touchscreen other equivalent method known in the art.

In use, the tournament organisers publish, using the central competition server 3, a list of professional golfers that qualify for selection by the participants in the online golf tournament. The entrants on the list may include all the members of a particular tour, such as the PGA Tour, European Tour, Asian Tour, Challenge Tour or the like.

Alternatively, if the competition is to be run over a single round, the list of professional golfers may comprise a list of tournament entrants. Each of the participants accesses the electronic entry form 21 using their device 5, 7, 9, 11 and selects their teams within the confines of that competitions rules and requirements. They also provide information about themselves to complete the entry including golfing handicap, name and contact details if these have not already been provided in a pre-registering procedure. The competition entrants submit their entries to the competition server 3 which receives the competition entry from each of the participants and stores the competition entries in accessible memory 4.

The participant thereafter plays their regular weekly round of golf in their club competition and records their score by entering their score in the centralised database of scorecards 12. This round of golf played by the participant coincides with but need not necessarily be on the same day as the round of golf played by the professional in the professional golf tournament. The professionals also play their own professional golf tournament and the scores of the professionals in each round of the tournament are stored in a remote server.

One format of the game will be based on the final round of the tournament. In this format professional members of the team may be chosen after the final cut on Friday but before the first players tee off on Saturday. Alternatively the organisers may decide to change the cut off time for team selection to an earlier time such as the start of the first day's play. In the situation where a team member does not make the cut, he can be replaced by one of the reserves. In the event of all the reserves also not making the cut, the computer will automatically select the lowest ranking professional/s who have survived the cut as the replacement player/s for the team. Alternatively if one or more team members do not make the cut then the team may be reduced in size and a penalty may be incurred to take into account the poor performance of the team Another format of the game will be based on all four rounds of the tournament with the professional team members comprising the full team for the first three days and the amateur participant replacing one of the professional members on the final day. Where team members do not make the cut they can be replaced by reserves or can be selected automatically by the computer program or they may be eliminated and penalty points incurred as described in the final round format above.

The method of operating the online golf competition comprises the subsequent steps of, after the predetermined round of golf in the professional golf tournament has been played, the competition server obtains the scores achieved by each of the professional golfers in the predetermined round of the professional golf tournament and obtains the scores achieved by each of the participants in the round of golf played by the participants that coincides with the round in the professional golf tournament. The central competition server 3 could retrieve this information from a remote server (not shown) with the professional scores and the remote centralised database of scorecards 12 or alternatively, the information could be pushed to the central competition server 3.

The information could comprise an electronic record of the participants score in an editable format or could be a more primitive record such as a scanned copy of their scorecard. In one implementation, the paper copy of the scorecard could be submitted duly stamped or signed by an official of the participants club to obviate the possibility of cheating or fraud. If a paper copy or a scanned image of the score card is obtained, the score data will have to be entered by the operator of the central competition server 3 or by their agent.

Once the central competition server has the scores, the central competition server retrieves the competition entries from accessible memory if it has not already done so and for each competition entry, the central competition server 3 calculates a combined team score. The combined team score is calculated by combining the competition entry's participant's score in their round of golf with the score of the competition entry's professional golfer (or golfers) in the predetermined round of the professional golf tournament. The central competition server 3 then compares the combined team score for each competition entry with the other combined team scores of the other competition entries and determines a winning competition entry based on the combined team scores.

It will be understood that one or more winners could be determined or a main winner and runners-up could be selected.

It will be understood that there are a number of ways in which the present invention could be implemented and there are a number of enjoyable competitions that could be implemented. Below is a brief description of some examples of competitions that could be held using the method and system described herein. These examples are not intended to be exhaustive and other competitions that are variants of these will be readily envisaged.

Embodiment 1: In a first embodiment of the invention, a participant selects a single professional player from the list of professional players and completes the electronic entry form. The participant and the professional players play their respective rounds of golf. The scores of the rounds of golf are retrieved by the central competition server 3 which then determines which competition entry achieved the highest score and declares that competition entrant the winner. In the event of a tie, a winner may be selected from the competition entries by applying various other criteria so as to eliminate other competitors with the highest scores and break the tie. The participants score will be their score adjusted for handicap. In order to calculate and add the scores, any of the strokes score, stableford score or V par score could be used to determine the score of the participant and the professional in their respective rounds, provided that the same methodology is used for both players. Indeed, it is possible to combine the rounds of the participant and the professional into an eclectic round whereby the best score (adjusted for handicap) scored by either player is used as the score for the team.

If necessary, a "stableford" score achieved by a competition entrant may be altered into an equivalent strokes" score before adding that score to the chosen professionals score if the competition is to be run on the basis of a combined strokes score. This may require an adjustment from the normal equivalent strokes score to take into account the handicap of the competition entrant. An example of how a Stableford score can be converted to an equivalent Strokes score is illustrated in table 1 below. This formula can be varied slightly at the discretion of the organizer. In table 1, players in category 1 have a handicap range of 0.1 to 5.4, players in category 2 have a handicap range from 5.5 to 12.4, players in category 3 have a handicap range of 12.5 to 20.4, and so on.

Player Category ________________ 1I.'J.5I4I (0.1 5.4)F5.512.41J2.520.420.528.4) Points net stroke play score (above/be/ow par) 33 4 34 3 4 352 3 5 36 1. 2 4 S 37 0 1 3 4 38 -1 0 2 3 39 -2 -1 1 2 -3 -2 0 1 41 -4 -3 -1 0 42 -5 -4 -2 -1 1 43 -6 -5 -3 -2 Table 1 -Adiustment of Stableford score to Strokes score Embodiment 2: In this embodiment, the competition is run in the same manner as that described for Embodiment 1 above however the participant selects more than one professional for their team and the scores of the plurality of professionals and the participant are combined into a team score. In a particularly preferred implementation of the present invention, the scores of three professionals and the participant are used to create a team.

Embodiment 3: In this embodiment, the competition is run in the same manner as either Embodiment I or 2 above with the difference being that the participant's score is weighted so that it counts for more than the professional(s) score thereby placing a greater emphasis on participant player golfing skill. For example, in one preferred embodiment of the invention, the participants score is "doubled" by applying a weighting factor of 2 to their score.

Embodiment 4: In this embodiment, the competition is run in the same manner as Embodiments 1, 2 013 above with the difference being that the participant's score is weighted according to the complexity of the course on which they are playing so that course difficulty is taken into account. For example, in one preferred embodiment of the invention, the participants score is multiplied by a weighting factor of 0.95 if the participant completes their round on a course that is deemed relatively easy generally or on that given day. Similarly, if the course is deemed of average complexity (not too difficult and not too easy), their score may have a neutral weighting applied to it such as by multiplying their net score by 1 and if the course is deemed particularly difficult their score could be altered by multiplying their net score by a weighting of 1.05. Other weightings could be implemented and the three examples of.095, 1 and 1.05 are not limiting but are illustrative of the weightings that could be applied. Instead of a multiplier, one or more shots or points, or part thereof could be added to or subtracted from a participants score as a weighting and the weighting does not have to be a multiplier. The level of difficulty of the course may be ascertained from one or more of the course standard scratch score (CSS) of that course on that day, the standard scratch score (555) of the course, the course rating, or the slope rating of the course.

Embodiment 5: In this embodiment, the competition is run in a similar manner to the competitions described with reference to Embodiments I to 4 above with the difference that one or more further amateur players (effectively, participants) are added to the team.

Preferably, it is envisaged that a team could consist of two amateurs (participants) and two professionals. The participants could enter their details separately along with the details of their chosen professional with an indication of the other participant with which their entry is to be paired or alternatively one participant may enter the details for the entire team including the information relating to both amateur and both professional players.

Embodiment 6: In this embodiment, the competition is run in a similar manner to the competitions described with reference to Embodiments 1 to 5 above with the difference that the professional players are each assigned a purchase price and the participant is allocated a purchasing fund. The participant is allowed to purchase players within the confines of their available funds in the purchasing fund.

Embodiment 7: In this embodiment, the competition is run in a similar manner to the competitions described with reference to Embodiments 1 to 6 above with the difference that the professional players are each assigned a purchase price and the participant is allocated a purchasing fund. The participant is allowed to purchase players within the confines of their available funds in the purchasing fund. The competition is run over a longer period, preferably over several tournaments and possibly spanning several weeks or months with a series of events being nominated in advance as qualifying tournaments in which points will be counted for the purposes of the competition. The combined team scores are aggregated into a series team score and at the end of the series when all tournaments have been completed, a series winner is determined by selecting the completion entry with the highest series score. The participant may be awarded prizes of virtual funds to improve their team on completion of certain challenges or on attaining certain goals during the season and the participant may be allowed to amend their team constituents and introduce substitutes from time to time.

It will be understood that various modifications to the examples described above could be provided without departing from the spirit if the invention. For example, the electronic entry form described above is a web-based form provided for a structured entry of the data by the competition entrant however other simpler formats could be used including an email, an XML file or a simple short messaging service (SMS) message in a structured or relatively unstructured format with information sufficient to allow entry into the competition. For example, an SMS text message could comprise the following message "(Selected Professional Players name/identifier)" and identification of the entrant which will be sufficient to enter the competition (which could comprise their mobile phone number).

It will be understood that various modifications to the above examples could be made within the spirit of the invention and within the scope of the claims. It will be further understood that the method according to the present invention will be performed largely in software and therefore the present invention extends also to computer programs, on or in a carrier, comprising program instructions for causing a computer to carry out steps of the method. The computer program may be in source code format, object code format or a format intermediate source code and object code. The computer program may be stored on or in a carrier, in other words a computer program product, including any computer readable medium, including but not limited to a floppy disc, a CD, a DVD, a memory stick, a tape, a RAM, a ROM, a PROM, an EPROM or a hardware circuit. In certain circumstances, a transmissible carrier such as a carrier signal when transmitted either wirelessly and/or through wire and/or cable could carry the computer program in which cases the wire and/or cable constitute the carrier.

It will be further understood that the present invention may be performed on two, three or more machines with certain parts of the computer-implemented method being performed by one machine and other parts of the computer-implemented method being performed by another device. The devices may be part of a LAN, WAN or could be connected together over a communications network including but not limited to the internet. Many of the method steps could be performed "in the cloud", meaning that remotely located processing power may be utilised to process certain method steps of the present invention. Accordingly, it will be understood that many of the method steps may be performed remotely, by which it is meant that the method steps could be performed either on a separate machine in the same locality or jurisdiction or indeed on a separate machine or machines in one or several remote jurisdictions. For example, the central competition server 3 and one or more of the competition entrant's devices 5, 7, 9, 11 may be in different jurisdictions. The central competition server 3, the accessible memory 4, the centralised database of scorecards 12 and the competition entrant's devices 5, 7, 9, 11 may all be in different jurisdictions or where one or more parts of the system are located in the same jurisdiction with other parts of the system in another jurisdiction. The present invention and claims are intended to also cover those instances where the method is performed across two or more machines or pieces of apparatus located in one or more jurisdictions and those situations where the parts of the system are spread out over one or more jurisdictions.

In this specification the terms include, includes, included and including" and the terms "comprise, comprises, comprised and comprising" are all deemed totally interchangeable and should be afforded the widest possible interpretation.

The invention is in no way limited to the embodiment hereinbefore described but may be varied in both construction and detail within the scope of the appended claims. -21 -