[RotoGuru logo]

GuruGolf 2010 - Rules

Note: All rules are tentative prior to the start of the regular season. All rules shown in blue reflect changes from the 2009 season rules.

  1. The game is free to enter, and you may enter as many teams as you wish. Up to ten teams may be managed under a single login. If you wish to manage more than ten teams, you will need to register more than one login ID.
  2. Each team receives $4000 to start. (fantasy money only!)
  3. Each team has 4 roster spots to fill. If any slots are vacant at the time of the freeze, that team's tournament score will be zero. However, if the invalidity appears to be due to a technical glitch, the Commissioner (i.e., Guru) will exercise judgment in restoring the roster to a valid state which appears to be consistent with the intent of the manager. If a manager believes that his roster is incorrectly specified, it is that manager's responsibility to alert the Commissioner as soon as possible. The Commissioner may refuse to consider roster adjustments after the first round of a tournament is completed.
  4. Each teams gets 4 trades to start. 2 additional trades are added after each subsequent freeze. Only a sell transaction counts as a trade. A buy transaction does not count as a trade, so you can set your initial roster without using any trades. (Clarification: Prior to the first tournament of the season, trades will be unlimited, so you can set your initial roster without regard to trading. Once the first roster freeze occurs, all teams will have their trade capacity reset to 4. The weekly addition of 2 trades will begin with the second freeze.)
  5. For each team that has the tournament winner, a bonus trade will be awarded at the end of the tournament. This trade will be added to your total available trades, and may be used at any time thereafter. If an invalid roster (i.e., a roster with less than four golfers) includes the winning golfer, no bonus trade will be awarded.
  6. You may purchase extra trades each week, paid for by reducing your roster cash. For any week, each extra trade will cost $100. There is no need to purchase more than 2 trades in any week, since you have only four roster slots and 2 trades are allocated each week for free. If you need more than 4 trades, reset your roster to the last freeze, and retrade.
  7. There will be NO special trade limitations for the final two events (as was the case in 2009). Standard trade rules will apply throughout the entire regular season
  8. Each tournament roster will freeze at the scheduled tee time of the first round. If the opening tee time is delayed due to weather, the freeze time will not be adjusted unless the entire first day is postponed, in which case trading will be unlocked until the scheduled opening tee time of the following day. Rosters will remain frozen throughout the tournament. You cannot make daily trades during a tournament.
  9. Tournament scoring is calculated by hole, relative to par. If you have a golfer who is not active for a round, he is ignored for that round's scoring. If a team has no active golfers for a round, the team score for that round will be zero.
  10. Scoring will be calculated on two bases: best ball and worst ball.
    • A team's best ball score for a hole will be the lowest score (relative to par) for any active golfer on that hole.
    • A team's worst ball score for a hole will be the highest score (relative to par) for any active golfer on that hole.
    • If a team has no active golfers who complete a given hole, the score for that hole is zero for both best ball and worst ball scoring.
    All teams will be scored both ways, and separate standings will be maintained for each scoring basis. It is not necessary for a team to designate in advance which scoring method it is pursuing.
  11. If a player withdraws during a round, any completed holes will count in the scoring. The only exception is if the withdrawal occurs during the first round and the golfer is eligible to be replaced by a provisional golfer, as defined below.
  12. Each week, you may designate one "provisional golfer" for each team. A provisional golfer can replace an eligible golfer who withdraws from the tournament prior to the completion of any holes. The purpose of the provisional golfer is to protect against a last minute withdrawal. The following rules govern the provisional golfer feature:
    • The designation of a provisional golfer is optional, and must be re-specified each week. There is no carry-over.
    • A provisional golfer will only be eligible to be added to your roster if one of the golfers in your foursome withdraws after the preliminary field is announced, but prior to the completion of the first hole.A golfer who was never in the tournament field, either as an active player or as an alternate, is not eligible to be replaced. A golfer who completes at least one hole before withdrawing is not eligible to be replaced.
    • In the event that more than one of your roster golfers is eligible for replacement, the following rules will prioritize those golfers:
      1. All golfers added since the last freeze have the highest priority, and are sequenced LIFO (last in, first out). This allows each manager to set the replacement priority, if he/she desires.
      2. All remaining golfers (i.e., those carried over from the prior freeze) will then be sequenced in descending price order. If two of these golfers have the same price, then the most recently added golfer will have the higher replacement priority.
    • The system will automatically insert the provisional golfer in place of the withdrawn golfer with the highest priority, provided that funds are sufficient to make the transaction. If the withdrawing golfer with the highest priority cannot be replaced due to affordability constraints, then the other roster golfers will be similarly evaluated in the priority order specified above.
    • In the event that a roster golfer is to be replaced by the provisional golfer, if a trade is required to make the substitution, it will be charged. If an extra trade must be purchased, it will be. But if a trade can be conserved by replacing a golfer who was added since the last freeze, it will be.
  13. If the early rounds of a tournament are played on multiple courses, player scorecards will be matched by course played, rather than by round. Details will be posted as each of those tournaments comes along. Suffice it to say that all rounds will be scored in a fair and consistent manner.
  14. Scoring will be based upon information which is deemed to be reliable. In the event a golfer's score is reported differently by different sources, the score reported by PGATour.com will generally be considered to be correct, unless another score is demonstrably the correct one. RotoGuru.net will make its best efforts to obtain and report accurate team scores on a timely basis. If a game player believes that his score has been incorrectly calculated, he or she should notify RotoGuru.net via email (davehall@rotoguru2.com) as soon as the error is discovered. Seven days following the completion of any tournament, all team scoring for that tournament shall be final - unless RotoGuru.net believes that the best interests of the game are served by restating the score for a previous tournament.
  15. At the conclusion of each tournament, each golfer will be repriced based upon his actual performance in that tournament. RotoGuru.net will be the sole determiner of price changes, and will employ a quantitative formula which is consistently applied each week. In general, golfers who fail to make the cut will suffer price declines, and most golfers who survive the cut will enjoy price increases. The primary factors in determining each golfer's price change will be his total score, his below-par scores, whether he makes the cut, the proportion of the field which makes the cut, the general strength of the field, and the golfer's starting price. The minimum price for all golfers is $500. There is no theoretical maximum price, although a golfer will need to get on a sustained hot streak to attain a price of $2000 or higher.
  16. After players have been repriced, the roster freeze will be released and trading will be open once again for the next tournament.
  17. Full season scoring will allow for one "mulligan tournament". The mulligan tournament score for each team will be excluded from that team's full season score. The mulligan tournament will be determined as follows:
    • For best ball scoring, the mulligan tournament for a team will be the tournament that produced the highest weekly score for that team, except that a "Major" tournament may not be the mulligan tournament.
    • For worst ball scoring, the mulligan tournament for a team will be the tournament that produced the lowest weekly score for that team, except that a "Major" tournament may not be the mulligan tournament.
    The purpose of the mulligan adjustment is to allow for one bad week, which may be a week with inferior performance, or may be a week when a roster was invalid or was not updated. However, the scores for all four Major tournaments (Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship) must be counted for each team, and cannot be excluded by the mulligan rule.
  18. As described in the prize section of these rules, shorter contests will be conducted during the season, for which prizes will be offered. These contests will be based on the scoring for a subset of tournaments, and will not be adjusted for mulligan scoring. All tournaments during a contest period will be included in a team's score for that contest.
  19. The lowest cumulative score at the end of the season wins the overall best ball prize (adjusted for the mulligan tournament). The highest cumulative score at the end of the season wins the overall worst ball prize (adjusted for the mulligan tournament). In the event of a tie, the team with the greatest franchise value (among tied teams) will win the tiebreaker.
  20. Contest ties will be decided in favor of the team with the greatest team value appreciation for the tournament weeks covered by the contest period. (Note: Posted standings may not always accurately reflect the tiebreaker.)
  21. Official contest standings will include all weeks from the Northern Trust Open through the TOUR Championship. However, the standings program will be set up to provide scoring for alternate periods, including contest periods. The range of alternatives are solely for the convenience of entrants who may have started late, or who choose to play only limited tournaments, or who would simply like to evaluate performance over a more recent period.
  22. The following prizes will be awarded: In the event that the listed prizes are not available, RotoGuru.net may substitute a prize with a similar value.

    "March to the Masters" 1-9
    "Spring to the Open" 11-19
    "Open Faced Sandwich" 21-23
    "Dog Days" 25-29
    "FedEx Cup" 30-33
    Majors Combined
    (separate prizes will be awarded
    for each Major tournament as well)     		10,20,24,28

  23. The season will begin with the Northern Trust Open. Tournaments listed below as "preseason" will not count in the final standings. All roster activity and scoring during preseason weeks will be cleared when the regular season begins. The season will continue each week through the the TOUR Championship, held in late-September. A list of covered tournaments appears below. (If a tournament is rescheduled for any reason, RotoGuru.net may amend this list of included tournaments.)

The following tournaments will be included:
(Background colors correspond to the contest periods listed above)
Farmers Insurance Open (preseason) Jan. 28 - 31   Torrey Pines, San Diego, California
Northern Trust Open Feb. 04 - 07   Riviera CC, Pacific Palisades, California
AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Feb. 11 - 14   Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, California
Mayakoba Golf Classic Feb. 18 - 21   El Camaleon, Riviera Maya, Mex
Waste Management Phoenix Open Feb. 25 - 28   TPC Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona
The Honda Classic March 04 - 07   PGA National Champion Course, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
Puerto Rico Open March 11 - 14   Trump Intrntl GC - Puerto Rico, Rio Grande, PR
Transitions Championship March 18 - 21   Innisbrook Resort - Copperhead, Palm Harbor, Florida
Arnold Palmer Invitational March 25 - 28   Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando, Florida
Shell Houston Open April 01 - 04   Redstone GC Tournament Course, Humble, Texas
Masters Tournament April 08 - 11   Augusta National GC, Augusta, Georgia
Verizon Heritage April 15 - 18   Harbour Town Golf Links, Hilton Head, South Carolina
Zurich Classic of New Orleans April 22 - 25   TPC Louisiana, Avondale, Louisiana
Quail Hollow Championship April 29 - May 02   Quail Hollow Club, Charlotte, North Carolina
THE PLAYERS Championship May 06 - 09 TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Valero Texas Open May 13 - 16   TPC San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas
HP Byron Nelson Championship May 20 - 23   TPC Four Seasons Resort, Irving, Texas
Crowne Plaza Invitational May 27 - 30   Colonial CC, Ft. Worth, Texas
the Memorial Tournament June 03 - 06   Muirfield Village GC, Dublin, Ohio
St. Jude Classic June 10 - 13   TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee
U.S. Open Championship June 17 - 20   Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, California
Travelers Championship June 24 - 27   TPC River Highlands, Cromwell, Connecticut
AT&T National July 01 - 04   Aronimink Golf Club, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania
John Deere Classic July 08 - 11   TPC Deere Run, Silvis, Illinois
British Open Championship July 15 - 18   St. Andrews Links (Old Course), Fife, Sco
RBC Canadian Open July 22 - 25   St. George's G&CC, Etobicoke, Ontario, Can
The Greenbrier Classic July 29 - Aug. 01   The Old White Course, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
Turning Stone Resort Championship Aug. 05 - 08   Atunyote Golf Club, Verona, New York
PGA Championship Aug. 12 - 15   Whistling Straits, Kohler, Wisconsin
Wyndham Championship Aug. 19 - 22   Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro, North Carolina
The Barclays Aug. 26 - 29   Ridgewood Country Club, Paramus, New Jersey
Deutsche Bank Championship Sep. 03 - 06   TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts
BMW Championship Sep. 09 - 12   Cog Hill G&CC, Lemont, Illinois
THE TOUR Championship Sep. 23 - 26   East Lake GC, Atlanta, Georgia

GuruGolf is offered solely for the enjoyment of the users of RotoGuru.net. No sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation with the PGA, The PGA Tour, or any of its members is implied, and none should be inferred by the users of this site. Any references to a PGA Tour golfer within this site should be construed only as a shorthand indicator of the golf scores posted by the respective golfer.

Uncommon Cents, LLC, the operator and producer of RotoGuru.net and its affiliated domains, intends to offer GuruGolf throughout the season under the rules outlined above. However, Uncommon Cents, LLC retains the right to discontinue or amend the rules of this game if its continuance would otherwise pose an economic hardship, financial risk, or burden on the resources at the operator's disposal.

(c) 2010 by Uncommon Cents, LLC. All rights reserved.