WHY JOIN EXPLOSION GOLF?
Explosion Golf is one of Melbourne’s biggest and well-run social golf groups. Using a unique scoring system that doesn’t rely on handicaps, Explosion Golf is a fantastic way to spend one Sunday of each month, as you play against each other at some of Melbourne’s best public access golf courses.
Boasting a playing membership of over 100 players, the benefit of playing with Explosion Golf are numerous, some of which include:
GUARANTEED SHOTGUN STARTS
Each round is a guaranteed shotgun start, which means we all start together, and we can all enjoy a beer together afterwards. No waiting for hours as other groups finish!
NB: Shotgun starts will not be allowed under current COVID-19 restrictions.
SECURED BOOKINGS
With 12 years behind us and a strong membership group, our bookings are not only guaranteed but warmly welcomed amongst the courses we play.
UNIQUE SCORING SYSTEM
Handicaps are thrown out the door as you compete for each hole on it’s own merit. Need a quick rush of points, simply call “Explosion” on any hole (1 each per round) and score double points for that hole. Make sure you know your opponents’ capabilities before calling it!
PERSONALISED SHIRTS
All members receive their own shirt with their nickname embroidered on the back, which is very handy for remembering some of the new people you’ll meet!
STABLEFORD CASH COMP
Approximately 20-30% of our members have official handicaps, and we play a cash competition alongside the regular competition. No pressure to compete, but all Stableford scores are run officially through GOLFLINK and the cash prizes are dependant on the size of the field.
EARLY TEE OFF TIMES
Need to get to the footy on a Sunday or prepare a roast for the family? No problems, you can be home early afternoon to keep the important people in your life happy.
PRIZES EACH ROUND
Closest to Pin and Longest Drive holes for each round, as well as a Round Winner are all part of the prize packages.
SEASON LONG COMPETITION
Compete for the overall title, or for bragging rights with the other members. Our competition accumulates to an exciting crescendo in a final that is AS IMPORTANT for Group 15 as it is for Group 1.
PLAY GREAT GOLF COURSES
Melbourne has some amazing public access courses, every year we try and get on all the best ones with the final every year culminating at The Dunes.
MEET NEW FRIENDS, CREATE NEW NETWORKS
The people who currently make up the membership group consist of business owners, tradies and professionals ranging across a broad range of industries. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know…
WHAT IS THE FORMAT?
As mentioned previously, handicaps don't apply to Explosion scoring. It's essentially a matchplay format counting your strokes, and we assign 12 points per hole.
If you split the hole, you split the points. Easy!
Check out the example scorecard below. On hole 1, NIEVVY and HONKY split the hole, so they split the 12 points.
Player C (HONKY) wins the group with 83 points. Probably got pretty lucky that day I reckon...
DOUBLE POINTS? CALL "EXPLOSION"
The Explosion Curse is real.
Once per round you get to call an "Explosion" hole. Double points are up for grabs for the person who calls it. You can choose any hole you like. The only rule is you must call it before anybody tees off on that hole, and you then must tee off first.
If you can win the hole outright you'll get 24 points and a massive boost in your match. Usually the curse will kick in though and you'll end up duck-hooking into a swamp or casually put your tee shot out of bounds. Such a curse.
Notice in the scorecard above, Player B was able to collect all 24 points on the 4th hole. Everyone else fell fowl to the Explosion curse!
WHO WILL I BE PLAYING WITH?
For the first round we'll try and pair you up with golfers of similar ability. After that, all groups are sorted by their average points scored. You may get spanked from time to time but you'll also dish out some carnage too. By about Round 5 or 6 most groups tend to even themselves out.
Then it's a race to the final at the Dunes. All you'll need to do is beat your playing partners on the day and you'll be winning the major prize of the year.
The Group 1 final is made up of the 4 members with the MOST accumulative points over the course of the year, so it pays to play every round if you want to play with the big dogs. All other groups are sorted by average scores from rounds played throughout the year.
QUALIFICATION FOR FINAL
You must play 5 of the 8 qualifying rounds to qualify for the final. If you miss any more than 3 rounds throughout the year then you can still play, but you'll only be able to play as a guest and your scores won't be added to the leaderboards.