GAP Team Matches schedule available

  For the third straight year, a record number of teams will compete. This year’s total of 324 is up from 320 of a year ago. A total of 126 clubs, down one from last year’s record-number, will field those teams.

  Teams compete in a four-team sectional round-robin format (which equates to three matches in three weeks). A total of 12 players per team compete with six players staying home and six traveling to the opponent’s club. Clubs are divided and placed in Divisions AA through F based on the previous year’s results. Playoff and Challenges determined the top divisions’ clubs.

  The Interclub Matches, as the GAP Team Matches was originally called, served as the basis for the founding of the Association in 1897, and today, just like then, serves as a source of club pride.

  It is believed that the GAP Team Matches are the single-largest golfing team competition in the country.

  “The GAP Team Matches is a perfect way to begin the season,” said Mark Peterson, Executive Director of the Golf Association of Philadelphia. “It promotes a club unity and an enthusiasm unlike any other golfing experience.

  “The Association is proud to call the Team Matches and the camaraderie, friendships and experiences it generates our own. The Matches, obviously, hold a special place in the history of the GAP and we are proud to continue that in 2008.”

  Last year, Commonwealth National Golf Club’s top team shocked its Association brethren by earning its first title. Commonwealth National Golf Club had been a Playoff finalist since 2005 but managed only a third- and fourth-place showing in those initial two tries. CNGC pulled out a stunning victory with a well-rounded collective effort led by captain John Robinson.

  The GAP Team Matches schedule features two clubs with five teams – Huntingdon Valley CC and Philadelphia Cricket Club – as well 17 clubs with four teams. Bensalem Country Club, Great Bear Golf & Country Club and Woodbridge Golf Club, who all joined the Association in January, will field teams for the first time.

  The composite schedule for the GAP Team Matches schedule takes about a month to complete.

  As previously stated, clubs are divided and placed in Divisions AA through F based on the previous year’s results, including the results from the Challenges. In addition to the year’s prior results, teams in Divisions AA, A and B are also placed in their four-team round robin section based on a rotating system.

  Teams in C, D, E and F also earn their way up (or down). Once the respective sections are set and clubs rotated accordingly, two more determining factors are then used before the groupings are solidified: drive time and duplication. The Golf Association of Philadelphia does its best to keep all clubs within a reasonable drive of their competitors. Also, the Golf Association of Philadelphia does its best to avoid scheduling teams in the same division that have competed on a respective golf course in the last four years. In fact, over that time frame only three teams have had to make a return visit to a venue they’ve competed on in prior seasons. In that time frame, more than 3,700 matches have been contested.

  Founded in 1897, the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) is the oldest regional golf association in the United States and serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. Its 137 Member Clubs and 60,000 individual members are spread across parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. The purpose of the Association is simple: To promote, protect and preserve the game of golf in the region.