How do you run a club match play championship?

A seeded single elimination, one full round of golf per match, with each round given a fortnight for the players to arrange a tee time. Sixteen entrants is fifteen matches over four rounds.

How is a golf match play bracket seeded?

Usually by handicap, lowest first, so the strongest players are spread across the draw and any byes fall to the top seeds.

Can this run a strokeplay competition?

No. This draws match play, where each match produces a winner. A strokeplay event is a leaderboard rather than a bracket, and nothing here would help.

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A club match play championship is the one draw on this site measured in weeks rather than hours. Sixteen players is fifteen matches over four rounds, and because each match is a full round of golf, most clubs give each round a fortnight and let the two players arrange their own tee time inside it.

That changes what the bracket is for. Nobody is standing at a board waiting to be called; the draw goes up in the clubhouse in March and the final is in September. Print it for the noticeboard, or share the link in the members newsletter so everybody can see who they play next and who is waiting in the round after.

Which format to run

Single elimination, seeded from handicap, is the club match play standard. A third place play-off is unusual in golf and most clubs skip it. Round robin suits a small internal league of four to six, where every member wants several matches rather than a title.

Running it on the day

A match is a full round, so plan four hours plus travel. The schedule below is measured in rounds rather than in hours: give each round a fortnight and let the pairing sort out the tee time.
Handicap strokes are given off the low marker in each match. The bracket records the winner only, so agree the shots on the first tee rather than the eighteenth.
A field that is not a power of two gives byes to the top seeds, which is the usual way clubs handle an entry list that is not exactly sixteen or thirty two.
Print the draw for the noticeboard and share the link as well. Both carry the whole bracket, including the half nobody has reached yet.

How the draw is structured

Entrants

Matches played

Rounds

Byes

Round by round

Round	Matches	Entrants left after it
Round of 16	8	8
Quarter-Finals	4	4
Semi-Finals	2	2
Grand Final	1	1

Opening round by seed

Seeds are paired so the strongest and weakest meet first, which keeps the top seeds in opposite halves of the draw. This is the order the board is drawn in, top to bottom.

1 v 16
8 v 9
4 v 13
5 v 12
2 v 15
7 v 10
3 v 14
6 v 11

How long it takes

Rounds run one after another, because a round cannot start until the one feeding it has finished. Matches inside a round can all run at once, so the number of tee times you have decides the day more than the number of entrants does.

Tee times	120 min matches	240 min matches	360 min matches
1	30h	60h	90h
2	16h	32h	48h
4	10h	20h	30h

Playing time only. Add changeovers, warm-ups and the gap between rounds.

Questions

How do you run a club match play championship?: A seeded single elimination, one full round of golf per match, with each round given a fortnight for the players to arrange a tee time. Sixteen entrants is fifteen matches over four rounds.
How is a golf match play bracket seeded?: Usually by handicap, lowest first, so the strongest players are spread across the draw and any byes fall to the top seeds.
Can this run a strokeplay competition?: No. This draws match play, where each match produces a winner. A strokeplay event is a leaderboard rather than a bracket, and nothing here would help.

Brackets for other sports

The same draw, in detail

16 Team Single Elimination BracketA full sixteen team knockout with no byes: round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, final. Fifteen matches, four rounds.