High School Golf Scoreboard

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Rankings Eligibility Criteria

In order for a school or player to be included in the rankings they must meet the following criteria.

If the school or player is classified as 5A or 4A:

• Must participate and have a qualifying finish in at least 4 rounds after October 23
• Must participate and have a qualifying finish in at least 6 rounds after March 5 (extended from December 18)
• Must participate and have a qualifying finish in at least 8 rounds after April 16
• 9-hole rounds are not eligible for rankings

If the school or player is classified as 3A, 2A or 1A:

• Must participate and have a qualifying finish in at least 2 rounds after October 23
• Must participate and have a qualifying finish in at least 4 rounds after March 5 (extended from December 18)
• Must participate and have a qualifying finish in at least 6 rounds after April 16
• 9-hole rounds are not eligible for rankings

Course requirements:

• Girls must play on courses of at least 4800 yards
• Boys must play on courses of at least 5300 yards

* Tournaments not meeting these yardage requirements are not counted towards rankings. HSGS in conjunction with the coaches association is working hard to ensure the data and criteria include as many players as possible while meeting the minimum criteria to boost the quality and exposure of Texas High School Golf.

1. Podcast: Talking about rankings with Golfstat’s Mark Laesch

6:15 minutes

In this podcast we will discuss the ranking system with Golfstat’s Mark Laesch.

2. Article: How Texas High School Rankings Are Calculated

Every school that has met eligibility requirements is compared head to head against every other school. In determining which school gets the "Win" in the head to head comparison a filtering decision making process is used. Stroke differential is pro-rated to a per round basis.

FILTER 1 - Head to Head competition. If the two schools have not played, go to FILTER 2:

If the two teams have played the determination is made by which team has beaten the other team more often. If their win-loss record is tied, that tie is broken by the pro-rated stroke differential.

FILTER 2 - Common Opponents: Any common opponents are used to make the determination. A Common Opponent is a School that both teams have competed against. It is figured as follows: 1/2 point is given for the School that is up or down on wins and losses to the common opponent. If they are both either up or down, the 1/2 point is divided. It does not matter how many times they have played. In other words if School A is 5-1 against Common Opponent C and School B is 1-0 against Common Opponent C, they are both up on Common Opponent C. The other 1/2 point is given to the School that has the better average stroke differential against the common opponent. The School with the highest percentage of points is the winner of the comparison.

FILTER 3 - If there are no common opponents the decision is made with this filter. This filter consists of a combination of Adjusted Stroke Average (see explanation below) and Strength of Schedule (see explanation below). When using this filter there is not a weighting system. It is based upon how much one School is up on each category over the other School. The Schools could be tied after this filter, but that probability is minimal.

How do Adjusted Ratings work:
Every time we run a ranking we also run the Adjusted Stroke Average. We start with the raw scoring average versus course rating and slope and then equalize every score to a par 72. Then we adjust it base Then we go into every round of every tournament and look at the scoring averages of all of the players in that field. We compare their scoring average as a group with what they actually average as a group in each round. For example: if we went into an event where the average score of the field (based upon par 72) was 74 and the average score of the field for the first round was 76, we would adjust all scores down by 2 shots. If the next round the average score of the field is 73 we would adjust all scores for that day up by 1 shot. The theory is that we know that something caused those players (as a group) to shoot that average score of the day. We call that difference "conditions". We don’t really care what those conditions are. They could be weather, they could be course set up, or they could be ease or difficulty of the golf course. It is possible that the group, as a group, just had an abnormal day. The law of large numbers works in our favor as the likelihood of "abnormal group days" is quite unlikely. Of course there can be small fields. The adjustment takes that into consideration as those results are weighed with less consideration in calculating the Adjusted Scoring Average. One of the premises of the Adjusted Scoring Averages is that it is better to under-adjust in those situations where data is less reliable than to over-adjust.

The best part of the Adjusted Scoring Averages is that the adjustments are made in a dynamic fashion meaning that every time we run an Adjusted Scoring Averages we take the latest raw scoring averages. Lets go back to our example and assume that the calculation was made in October. By April those same players in that field may now have an average score of 75. Therefore we would now adjust the first round down by 1 shot and the second round up by 2 shots. By doing this, the data gets more and more reliable so that by the end of the season (the most critical time), we have identified those rounds of those tournaments that "conditions" dictated scores that were "not normal".

Strength of Schedule Calculation:
Strength of schedule is determined by the team adjusted scoring average of a schools opponents. The adjusted scoring average of those opponents has an additional adjustment component for this calculation based upon the minimum rounds played by the opponent compared to the current minimum rounds required for a school. Any opponent not having played that required minimum number of rounds will have their adjusted scoring average adjusted upward.

3. Uploading Tournaments & How Rankings Work Part 1 of 2

25:18 minutes

In this audio from our February conference call we provide another avenue for coaches, parents, players and the media to ask questions and hear scenarios on how exactly the rankings work and how to get your school and players involved for one main reason: to provide statewide & national media exposure as well as collegiate coach exposure for scholarships.

4. Uploading Tournaments & How Rankings Work Part 2 of 2

25:54 minutes

Continuation of Part 1... In this audio from our February conference call we provide another avenue for coaches, parents, players and the media to ask questions and hear scenarios on how exactly the rankings work and how to get your school and players involved for one main reason: to provide statewide & national media exposure as well as collegiate coach exposure for scholarships.