A flight is a division of golfers that are grouped together in a golf tournament.
Flights are used to create additional competitions within a tournament.
Golf flights make tournaments more equitable and fun for all, particularly in gross (no handicaps) competitions.
Instead of a tournament only having two winners, one for overall gross score and one for overall net (handicaps included) score, the tournament would also have gross and net winners for each flight.
How Are Flights Determined?
Flights are typically determined by skill level or age.
Skill Level
If flighting a tournament by skill level, players are grouped according to handicaps.
For example, if a tournament has four flights, the divisions may be as follows:
- <6
- 7-13
- 14-21
- 22+
That way, there can still be net and gross competitions within each division. If there weren’t, anyone with a handicap higher than about 5 would have virtually no chance of winning the overall gross competition.
Age
If flighting a tournament by age, players are grouped according to age.
Typically, something like this:
- Open
- 50+
- 65+
For age-flighted tournaments, players can usually choose to compete in more than one flight, provided they qualify.
For example, a 67-year-old player could choose to compete in all three flights, only the 50+ and 65+, or only the 65+.
Or a 54 year old could choose to compete in the open division and the 50+ division, or they could just compete in the 50+ division.
Flighted divisions by age are also very common in youth and teenage events.
How Flighted Tournaments Work
Flighted tournaments will have the following winners:
- Overall Net
- Overall Gross
- Flighted Gross
- Flighted Net
Championship Flight
Many flighted tournaments will have a Championship Flight.
This flight is composed of the best players and is typically the only flight that is eligible to win the overall tournament.
Handicaps are not used in the Championship flight, although they will be taken into account to determine the overall net winner.
Who Uses Flighted Golf Tournaments?
Professional tournaments or highly competitive amateur tournaments never use flights.
Flighted tournaments are commonly used in the following settings:
- Club tournaments
- Member-Member
- Member-Guest
- Club Championships
- Smaller local amateur events
- Youth events
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