For additional commentary on GuruGolf strategy and results, please follow the daily blurbs at RotoGuru.net, and the RotoGuru Golf Forum.

Sunday, September 24, 2017:
Best ball champion: Waddups
Worst ball champion: Jose Maria ILostMyBall

For the FedEx Cup Contest, these were the GuruGolf contest winners:
Best ball: WB-JeffG
Worst ball: shankopotomus 4

Prize determinations for the entire 2017 season will be resolved and emails will be sent to all winners sometime in the next week or so. Note that each registrant may win only one prize during the season. The prize awarded will be the prize with the highest value for which the registrant has qualified.

Thanks to all for a great season! GuruGolf will most likely resume with a new season in early 2018.

Sunday, August 20, 2017:
Dog Days Contest prize winners:
caddies (best ball: -194, 3-way tiebreaker)
Grass Cutter (worst ball: +147)

The final contest of the season will be the “FedEx Cup”, covering the last four tournaments.

Sunday, August 13, 2017:
PGA Championship prize winners:
Long Island Bytes (best ball: -43)
louky2 (worst ball: +59)

Combined Majors prize winners:
Lefty Rules (best ball: -148)
Bald Eagles (worst ball: +194)

Sunday, July 23, 2017:
British Open prize winners:
Waddups (best ball, -40)
Liters3 (worst ball, +50)

The next contest is the “Dog Days Contest”, encompassing the tournaments from the RBC Canadian Open through the Wyndham Championship (four events).

Monday, July 17, 2017:
"Open Faced Sandwich contest" prize winners:
Best ball: Cyberwahoo4
Worst ball: little moe

Best ball and worst ball prizes will be provided for the British Open. Remember also that as a major tournament, the British Open is not eligible to be a mulligan week for the full season standings.

Sunday, June 18, 2017:
"U.S. Open" prize winners:
Best ball: Birdie Man cometh and Drive for Show (-45, tie)
Worst Ball: ArtsyShotsOfOps (+56)

There are three tournaments between the U.S. Open and British Open. The next prize contest will cover those three weeks - the "Open Faced Sandwich" contest.

Sunday, June 11, 2017:
"Spring to the Open" prize winners:
Best ball: Waddups
Worst ball: Cyberwahoo3 (tiebreaker)

Best ball and worst ball prizes will be provided for the U.S. Open. Remember also that the U.S. Open is not eligible to be a mulligan week for the full season standings.

Also, if you would like to add any of the unlisted U.S. Open golfers to your foursome this week, please send me an email (davehall@rotoguru2.com) by Wednesday morning and I’ll add them.

Saturday, April 15, 2017:
I just discovered that the 2107 Zurich Classic tournament will use a new team format that renders it inviable for GuruGolf play. Two-man teams will compete this year instead of individual play.

As such, that week (April 24-30) will be a bye week for GuruGolf. No trades will be awarded that week, and all rosters will be locked until the Wells Fargo Championship field is announced. Plan accordingly.

Sunday, April 9, 2017:
Masters prize winners:
Best ball: Smith32-WB (-43)
Worst ball: Mid Mashie (+61)

The "Spring to the Open" Contest starts this week, and includes the nine tournaments leading up to the U.S. Open.

Thursday, April 6, 2017:
I have now adjusted the standings program to reflect the "mulligan rule". For the full season competition, each team gets to throw out its worst weekly result - except that major tournament scores cannot be excluded. A few explanatory notes:

• Mulligan scoring will only be applied for scoring over the entire season, with all weeks included for both best ball and worst ball scoring. If you select any other weekly option, mulligans will be ignored in the standings report.
• This means that if you want to see full season standings without the mulligan adjustment, you can simply run the standings with The Honda Classic selected as the start week. While that is technically the same as "entire season", the program will not apply mulligans in this instance.
• To see the mulligan details for any team, position the cursor over that team's season total score. The details will appear in a title bar, just like the foursomes appear when you hover over any team name. If there is a tie for the mulligan week, the most recent week will be cited.

Sunday, April 2, 2017:
The first GuruGolf Contest of the season is now completed. The winners of the "March to the Masters" Contest are:
Bestball: mashies
Worstball: shankopotomus 5.

Note that all prizes will be awarded at the end of the season. This will allow me to avoid awarding duplicate prizes to the same manager, while ensuring that every manager receives the best award for which they qualify during the entire season.

Sunday, February 19, 2017:
The preseason tournament has ended. All rosters have been cleared, and trades and cash values have been reset. There is effectively no limit on trading this week; once rosters freeze on Thursday, you will have 4 trades to use starting next week (or 5 if you happen to have the winner of the Honda Classic).

Saturday, February 11, 2017:
Welcome! And to those of you who played in last year's game, Welcome back!

The first tournament for GuruGolf 2017 will be the The Honda Classic, with the first round starting on February 23. You will not be able to set your roster for that tournament until the field has been announced for that week. In the meantime, we will have one preseason event (the Genesis Open, Feb. 16-19), allowing you to learn (or reacquaint yourself with) the basic operations, and giving me a chance to simultaneously field test the system. There is no requirement to participate in preseason event, nor is there any tangible carryover advantage for the regular season. All rosters will be emptied prior to The Honda Classic, and all team cash will be reset, so everyone will start on an equal footing. Your participation in the preseason tournament is purely voluntary.

The game will be the same as last year, including the ability to sell up to 10 trades during the season at a price of $50 each. This will allow managers who excel at trade conservation an opportunity to benefit from trades that might otherwise go unused. This feature will not be available until the second tournament of the season (WGC-Mexico Championship). Be judicious about any decision to sell a trade. In particular, be aware that if you need to buy it back at some later date, it will cost you $100.

Once again, there will be a limitation on duplicate prizes. Each registrant may win only one prize during the season. The prize awarded will be the prize with the highest value for which the registrant has qualified. Therefore, all prize awards will be deferred and distributed at the end of the GuruGolf season. (See the rules for a listing of all prizes.)

Please review the rules page. "Mulligan scoring" will again be used to determine the full season results, which essentially allows each team to throw out its worst tournament score during the season. The only exception is that each of the four Majors must be included, and cannot be thrown out. The mulligan rule is designed to give every team "forgiveness" for one unfortunate week, whether it is due to lousy golfer selection, or vacation, or forgetfulness, or whatever.

As has been the case for several years now, a golfer can only be replaced by a provisional golfer if he fails to complete any holes. If you select a provisional golfer in any week, please be sure that you understand how it is applied. Each season, some managers select a provisional golfer who is effectively worthless - when that golfer is too expensive to be able to replace any golfer in the foursome. For example, if your four golfers are all moderately priced and you have little spare cash, do not select a high priced golfer as your provisional golfer, as it won't do any good. Most managers choose to designate a provisional golfer who costs less than the sum of the roster's cheapest player plus any unspent cash. By doing that, you ensure that the provisional golfer could replace any golfer in your foursome if needed (subject to the potential cost of buying an extra trade, if required to make the provisional substitution.)

I have retained all GuruGolf registrations from last season, as well as all teams and team names. You may manage up to 10 separate teams under a single registration. You may rename a team after it has been created, but you may not completely delete a team. If you wish to enter fewer teams than you did last year, simply leave some teams dormant. Inactive teams will not appear in the standings.

Standings will continue to list both the team name and the manager name. By default, your manager name will be your login name (unless you elected to change it last year.) If you wish to use a different manager name for display purposes, you can specify that name on the "My Account" page. Note that changing your manager name will not change your login name. It will simply keep your login name private. If you specified an alternate manager name for display last year, that information has been retained.

At the bottom of the "Manage Roster" page, you will continue to see a chronological record of each transaction made for that team since the last freeze. In the event there is a question about your roster moves, this will serve to document your recent actions. This is provided solely for informational purposes, and has no direct bearing on game play. Just be aware that this historical log is provided, in case you need to review your moves for the week. It's usually out of sight, but all you need to do is scroll down to find it.

All golfers have been repriced since the end of last season. In setting initial prices for 2017, recent World Golf Rankings and last year's GuruGolf performance were considered. General price changes will not be processed based on the results of the Genesis Open (preseason) tournament. However, selected prices may be adjusted prior to the start of the regular season if there are apparent anomalies.

The repricing algorithm this season will be the similar to that used in recent years. To recap, each golfer will be scored based on how he performs relative to the field, and relative to the difficulty of each hole. A birdie on a hole which is birdied by only a few golfers will be worth much more than a birdie on an easy hole. Pars will also be considered, which will also benefit golfers who par difficult holes. Each of the 72 holes will be separately "handicapped" based on actual tournament results, so that even alternate pin placements will be implicitly considered. This system is designed to reward golfers who provide distinctive value by scoring well on the most difficult holes. In addition, golfers who fail to make the cut will not automatically decline in value, as they will be repriced under the same algorithm. However, because those golfers will not be able to "beat the field" for the missing holes, those price changes will still decline in the vast majority of cases.

The official standings for this game will include the results of all 28 regular season events (adjusted for the mulligan). (Note: weeks 14 & 15 will be “bye weeks”, to accommodate a travel period in which I am likely to be periodically “off the grid” and therefore unable to manage tournament processing.) As before, the standings program will provide a number of alternative scoring periods. Once again, one of these alternatives will be "even week" and "odd week" scoring. If you wish to manage your team(s) without a need for trade conservation, you may choose to set your rosters every other week, skipping any transactions (and scoring) for the intervening weeks. Since 2 trades are awarded each week, you would have at least 4 trades available to use in alternate weeks, and could manage your rosters without consideration of upcoming events. This scoring feature will evaluate all teams on a consistent basis, whether or not those teams are being managed every week or not. You do not need to specify a team as an "even" or "odd" week team. You may, however, wish to name your team in such a way as to easily identify the underlying strategy. Be aware that no prizes will be awarded based on even or odd week scoring.

Prior year GuruGolf histories for all golfers are still available. Although the price change link for each player will bring up a page of 2017 GuruGolf history (which is pretty useless at the beginning of the season), that page will contain a link back to 2016 history (which will in turn provide links back to 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, and 2004, if you are a real glutton for statistical overload). Only events covered during each of the previous GuruGolf seasons are listed. The same will be true for 2017.

To get started, click on the 'My Account' link in the upper left, and create one or more teams (unless you already have teams carried over from last year.) You can then start filling your roster on the 'Manager Roster' page. Hopefully, everything is intuitive.

Have I forgotten anything?

Oh yeah. Enjoy the game!

Guru