December 24, 2007

HOUSTON, TX — The largest golf trip in America has done it again. They continue to beef up services, camaradarie, and competition inside a simple $359 tournament fee. The group, lead by Vice President of Awards, Jason Watson, was asked to hold a press conference to announce the new 'Four-Man Best Ball' into its tournament schedule.

The four-man best ball is expected to be handicapped and inserted into Round 2 play as additional competition.

"We are happy with our present format, but always looking to try new things to better the tournament week," says Watson. "We believe a four-man best ball adds team fun into an already fun week."

Each team will play in the same foursome and built based on participant preferences and pace of play concerns.

The 'best ball' format means the all four team members play their own ball on every hole. The points scored for each team member for each hole are written on the scorecard as traditionally done. The highest points scored on each hole by a particular team member would be used for the 'team best ball'.

"There is zero extra work involved by our participants," says Brian Long, CIO of Poststats.com. "The computer will pull the scores, points, and teams based on pairings. The computer will have the results immediately and automatically."

The 'best ball' event will be handicapped and scored using points. "An Andy Cohen bogey should be a team high on almost all holes," says Watson as an example. "Unless someone has birdie."

The Captains Club is working on the new team award. An announcement on award is expected this winter.

Jean Dore asked, "Why isn't the 'best ball' on Saturday when most of the field is out of losing or winning the overall tournament?" Watson replied, "We are trying something new to see if it works out. The traditional Saturday pairings are done based on reverse Leaderboard. That means our four best golfers based real-time handicaps are playing on the same team. That would statistically give them quite an edge. We plan to first evaluate the 'best ball' competition at Rock Hollow and make appropriate adjustments in the future."

The 2008 Carl Spackler Open Championship begins with the practice round on June 4. There are 26 spots remaining in the tournament field.