Where: Myrtle Beach, SC
When: Play starts on Friday, October 5 and ends on Sunday, October 7. We suggest that you fly in the night before and not schedule a flight out of Myrtle until after 4:00 on Sunday.
What: Overly competitive golf. Here is the itinerary:

• Friday PM at: Farmstead Golf Links
  
• Saturday AM and PM at Myrtlewood
• Sunday AM at  Tidewater
• Lodging on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at No Egrets.
  

Ooopen 2007: The War by the Shore

Welcome to the 6th Annual Ooopen Championship, held in (hopefully) sunny Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Teams:
There will be two teams of six players. Teams will be selected on Thursday night in a live drawing. Each team will have two players from the A flight, two from the B flight, and two from the C flight. Players have been allocated to each flight based on their most recent handicap indices. In order to insure balanced teams we have handcuffed some players.

Flight A:
Drew Fine (3), Will Wiseman (6)*, Pete Nichols (R), Tim Doyle (2)
Flight B:
Tyler Curtis (6), Chris Zimmer (R), Mike Bryce (4), Rupert Dooley (2)
Flight C:
Jordan Weinstein (6), Mike Contarino (4), Sean Feeney (4), Bobby Swennes (4)*

* Former Ooopen MVP

Format:
There will be four rounds of play with 14 matches.

Friday: Fourball (AB vs AB, BC vs BC, AC vs AC)
Saturday AM: Four-man scramble (ABCC vs ABCC), Two-man scramble (AB vs AB)
Saturday PM: Acey/Deucey (AA vs AA, BB vs BB, CC vs CC)
Sunday: Singles (Random draw)

Fourball, acey/deucey, and singles matches will be handicapped. Fourball and singles will be match play while both scrambles will be stroke play. Acey/deucey is like fourball, except both the high and low scores are matched on each hole; the winner of the high and low each earn 1 point. For the four-man scramble each player is required to contribute two tee shots. Teams will decide on their pairings in the fourball, acey/deucey, and scramble formats. For singles play matchups will be determined by "call-outs." If you've seen The Contender, this makes sense. If not, we'll explain on Thursday night.

Rules:
The standard rules of golf apply, with the following exceptions:

Out-of-bounds: OB will be played like a lateral hazard, however, unlike a lateral hazard you will not be allowed to play a shot from OB in order to avoid the one stroke penalty. You must take one of the three drop options available: the spot of the original swing; two club lengths from the point of entry into OB, no closer to the hole; on a line keeping the hole and the point of entry into OB, no closer to the hole.

Mulligan: In the singles match each player may use a mulligan for any shot not played from the green or the fringe. The player must declare their intention to play a mulligan immediately after their shot.

Rain – Should it rain during any match, the teams will decide whether to play through the rain or wait it out. Should rain or lightning result in the failure to complete a match, the current result of the match will be used if at least 12 holes have been completed. If less than 12 holes have been completed, the match will result in a draw, regardless of current score.

Tiebreaker -- Should the matches end 7-7 the following tiebreakers will be used. First, we’ll use cumulative scores on par 3s for the singles matches. Second, cumulative birdies made during the singles matches. Third, we Rochambeau.

Handicaps:
Based on the rounds entered into Yahoo (or, in Pete's case, a real golf club that uses the USGA handicapping system), here are the handicaps that will be used for competition at this year's Ooopen:

Fine: 6.5
Wiseman: 10.1
Doyle: 10.3
Nichols: 11.3
Curtis: 11.5
Zimmer: 12.0
Bryce: 14.7
Dooley: 15.1
Weinstein: 15.3
Contarino: 25.0
Swennes: 35.4
Feeney: 36.4

Some of these don't match the handicaps you see in Yahoo. That is the case if you haven't entered 20 scores, and unfortunately, the handicaps in Yahoo are wrong. Yahoo does its calculation based on the 10 best scores you have in the system, or all of the scores in the system if you have fewer than 10. According to the USGA, this is incorrect. I've manually calculated the handicaps, which is what you see above.

Courses:
Farmstead Golf Links (Friday): The newest course we'll play, it opened in 2001 and sits on the North Carolina/South Carolina border. The 18th hole is a 767 yard par-6 that starts in South Carolina and ends in North Carolina, and there are 5 par-3s ranging from 143 to 228 yards.

Blue tees: 71.8/128, 6566 yards, par 72 (HCP < 20)
White tees: 69.1/123, 6097 yards, par 72 (HCP > 20)

Myrtlewood Palmetto (Saturday AM): Lots of doglegs and shorter par 4s should allow for a lot of birdies during the scramble round. Water comes into play on 11 holes.

White tees: 71.4/132, 6472 yards, par 72 (HCP < 20)
Gold tees: 69.3/123, 6059 yards, par 72 (HCP > 20)

Myrtlewood PineHills (Saturday PM): The only Arthur Hills design in Myrtle (he's not that famous, but he's done some great courses in the DC area and has done renovations on Oakmont, Congressional, and the University of Michigan course). Even more water than the Palmetto course, it's also a little longer and straighter and lumpier.

Blue tees: 72.0/133, 6640 yards, par 72 (HCP < 20)
White tees: 69.7/124, 6112 yards, part 72 (HCP > 20)

Tidewater (Sunday): We finish the tournament at a course currently ranked the 41th best public course in America according to Golf Digest. The course is notable for the views of the Intercoastal Waterway, and is said to have an "old school" design, which is rare for Myrtle.

Gold tees: 72.5/139, 6630 yards, par 72 (HCP < 20)
Silver tees: 70.2/129, 6164 yards, par 72 (HCP > 20)