The Carl Spackler Open rooming list consists of lodging assignments for the event. It must be successful or the event dissolves. There is a system to assigning roommates and it is explained here. The system uses 'preferences' in a logical backward sequence to match up golfers, however there is a human element. This document will share the process, but also includes (1) protections for the roommate matching process and (2) explain why 'highest ranking preferences' do not dictate roommate assignments.

THE SYSTEM BY STEP
A working roommate matching system with 100 golfers will collect more than 500 ranked roommate preferences.

The first step is to generate a list of golfers who were not selected by any of their fellow registrants. The original referral for a golfer not receiving a preference will be contacted to see if he wants to add him as possible roommate. If that doesn't resolve the issue, golfers not receiving a preference will be offered a full refund and/or single occupancy at an increased cost.

The second step is to match up rookies with their primary preference.

The third and final step is to match up everyone else.

Our rooming list is not started until late cancellations are known, hotels are chosen, and Tuesday night reservations are made. This is generally 3 to 4 weeks prior to the practice round.

MATCHING EXPLAINED
Paraphrasing a common statement. "I have a man crush on John and John has a man crush on me. It's simple and we completed our options as such. Why in the hell are we not in the same room?"

Answer: "Preferences are not orders. You are not considering everyone else attending. The Carl Spackler Open must provide a solution for everyone."

Rookies are matched first. So 13 rookies will remove 26 golfers from the pool of available roommates. These rookies and their selection must have matching hotel reservations.

Then a database query is run to generate a list of popular roommates sorted by least popular person. (The most popular roommates are located at the bottom of list.) Roommates are matched in this order, but also use matching hotel reservations and selected preferences.

Power Drinking Pete, Snoring Sam, Crazy Curt, Weird Walter, Quiet Quinton, Chatty Christian are likely at the top in the unpopular portion of the list with 1 or 2 golfers who prefer to room with them. These golfers will be matched and placed on the rooming list. This sets off a chain of events that causes highly ranked matches to become void.

The matching system continues down the list of golfers when it eventually reaches the bottom. The bottom contains two dozen of the most popular available roommates, where flexibility is less necessary and roommate popularity increases.

EXAMPLES
Example #1: Nobody preferred Quiet Quinton as a roommate, who is a super cool dude. Everyone is focused on others and he receives no preferences. Quinton's referral is contacted to see if he is interested in rooming with Quinton. If not, Quinton is offered a full refund and/or single occupancy.

Example #2: Weird Walter was preferred by one person. Larry. Larry has Weird Walter on his list ranked 15th. Weird Walter has 10 preferences with Larry being 6th on his list. A successful rooming list must ignore Larry's Top 14 preferences and Christian's Top 5 preferences. Weird Walter is matched with Larry. A popular Larry is now removed from 42 preference lists.

Example #3: Charming Charles is cool as a cucumber. He is preferred by 45 fellow participants and 11 have him as their #1. Charming Charles likes everyone, but desperately wants to room with buddy Charismatic Karl. Charles plays defense and provides the bare minimum roommate preferences. He calls Charismatic Karl to ensure they match up preferences. The time comes for very popular Charles to be matched with a roommate, but none of Charming Charles?s preferences are available. They are already matched with Snoring Sam, Power Drinking Pete, and Chatty Christian. Charming Charles is contacted and asked to provide more roommate options, but ultimately is dissatisfied without Charismatic Karl. Charming Charles has a popularity issue that the system leverages. The Carl Spackler Open uses player pairings to address these situations. Charming Charles and Charismatic Karl would experience priority during creation of player pairings.

These examples can frustrate people and that?s understandable. However this is how the Carl Spackler Open has operated for 15 years. We do spend reasonable time looking for the best match. Golfers who do not like the system should not accept these parameters upon registration.

ROOMMATE PROTECTIONS
There are 3 roommate protections starting in 2019.

(1) The first was already explained regarding Weird Walter. (2) Single occupancy rooms are now being sold when available. (3) Our event has capital reserves and uses them to make problems go away. Please do not hesitate to contact a Captains Club member during your vacation with an unexpected roommate problem. (There has never been a problem reported that extended beyond obnoxiously unreasonable snoring.)

We encourage suggestions to better our roommate system, but prefer to discuss ideas between August and December. The system will likely be tweaked for 2020.