May 3, 2004

WINSTON-SALEM, NC — It's what it is all about.   The Golden Jacket and Championship trophy.  This year brings a larger field, more beer, better course conditions, better weather, and two new awards named appropriately.  The Rusty Rod and the Golden Rod to be given the players that exemplify consistent performance year after year after year.

Starting in 2004, the Captains Club will be rewarding the player that denotes the best long putter in Spackler History (Golden Rod) and worst player in Spackler History (Rusty Rod).  These awards are rotating awards and will be engraved for labeled each year with the winner, returned, and defended by the winner.  The only requirement is a player must participate in a minimum of 3 Open Championships to win.

Tom McCauley is sponsoring this year's Golden Rod Award and Jeff Cowan is sponsoring this year's Rusty Rod Award.

The awards will be calculated by Long Putt Ranking located off the Tournament Leaderboard page.  Only players that have played three tournaments will be eligible for the award.

The Rod winners are determined by the average number of career long putt points scored.  In addition, each golf trip is given a set of points called a "pot".  Each trip gets 1.375 more points than the last.  For example, a trip is 2001 received 2.75 points.  The 2002 pot had 4.125 points, 2003 gets 5.5, and so on.  This ensures the latest tournament gets an edge.

For example, Josh plays in the 2002 tournament and makes 13 long putts.  At 2 points per putt, that makes 26 points plus 4.125 points from the trip pot.  Multiply by 10.  That gives Josh a 301 ranking.

Another example, David played in 3 tournaments.  He scored 14 putts in 2001, 14 putts in 2002, and 7 putts in 2003.  That is 28 putt points in 2001 plus the 2.75 pot.  That is 28 putt points in 2002 plus the 4.125 pot.  That is 14 putt points in 2003 plus the 5.5 pot.  That is 30.75, 32.125, and 19.5.  Average the numbers to 27.458 and multiply by 10.  That gives David a ranking of 275.

Although, all players have a Long Putt Ranking, only players finishing three complete golf trips will be displayed when sorted.  Players that have only completed 1 golf trip can find their ranking on the Tournament Leaderboard for the given year of play.

The 2004 Carl Spackler Open is scheduled to begin in 37 days.  Most of the players have received complete eligibility for this year's tournament and are excited about June has to offer.