Submitted by: Anonymous Bell Ringer

Admittedly our handicap system in the FLX tour has led to some HUGE dark horse / longshot / outright bomb winners in our first few years on the Tour. Notably, Brier Koroly comes to mind at the granddaddy of them all last year at Durand. No one saw him coming with his high handicap along with his best round of his life catapulted him to a memorable and historic win at The 2nd Annual Grand Open.

However, in the aftermath of a high handicap winning the first tournament, the dialogue about Young Man of the Year points and how they would be awarded emerged with a strong reactionary sentiment, one that hotly believed the Tour should limit the bell ringers from having access to player of the year competition.

A small vocal minority pitched that we should award ‘gross’ points for each tournament so that the low scorers / low handicaps are further rewarded beyond the other players. 

Another small vocal minority argued against this (to no avail): what was the point of our handicapped tournaments if most of the YMOTY points awarded (half gross / half net) don’t take into account the handicap?

The majority of tour members did not care enough to commit to either position, just happy to be having sky high fun meters, playing with friends, or at least seeing how this system would shake out. To argue for this group, it did shake out in ways that lend support to the system working just fine.

Worked just fine: On one hand, Uncle Chris won the Danny Ott YMOTY with most points (gross points huge here), but no actual wins at majors due to handicaps (net scores). 

Screwed people over?: On the other hand, Sean Sawyer and PMoyns win the Genesee Invitational with the crucial handicap and stellar day of P-Bird a huge part of the victory. 

Yet, even with Pat having a huge hand in a major win, he didn’t sniff at the YMOTY award. That can be said for other major winners who weren’t low gross scorers in the 2023 season: Koroly, Mike Mortillaro, etc.

WIth that said, it is believed by this observer that this year will present true equal opportunity for all players, not just to win majors, which we know can be done by anyone (looking at you Big Guy Brier Koroly). Now, all players will have equal access to YMOTY points as the tour has made the decision to do away with the gross point system that gave half of the overall points to lowest overall scores.

I believe this year we will see diverse leaderboards across the tour, with several dark horses coming off their rookie season where they made major moves at major tournaments, and the changes will lead to unprecedented fun meters and some wild finishes. New history will be made as the FLX tour returns to some of its roots and gets rid of the rich get richer scheming of YMOTY points of yesteryear, and brings back some wild west / land of the free spirit in 2024.

Way-too-early Dark Horse predictions:

Alex M Dooley Handicap 28.3

One commissioner picked Dooley as his dark horse for the FLX cup as it was hosted at a course where the big bastard carted around his backup craft beer cooler all summer at weekly league nights. It is also worth noting that Dooley played a huge role in getting closest to the pin on the way to a T3 Finish with teammate Al Gray at the Churchville Classic

Dooley had to miss one tournament but if you look at his finishes: T3 at Churchville, 5th Place at the Genesee Invitational, T4 at the FLX cup…

With 3 of his finishes in the top 5, he only qualified for T12 in the YMOTY points, and while missing one tournament definitely will put a stop to a pro’s dream of making history as the DOYMOTY, you would still expect a higher placement!

Chuck Pace Handicap 19 —T13 at FLX cup, T12 at the Grand Open, 2nd at the Genesee Invitational

Also missed a tournament, but to quote the honorary tournament Twisted Tea Shotgun starter: “I’m [he’s] not a fucking bellringer.” Sharpened by difficult league nights at Deerfield, dulled by his recreational activities that accompany each round, Pace has serious potential within that middle handicap range, which he argues should be lower (the juice might be worth the squeeze).

Brier Koroly Handicap ‘capped “36”’ – reigning Grand Open champ: 1st at the Open, T2 at the FLX cup, T8 at the Genesee Invitational …. Still came in at T15 YMOTY. Sneaky Big Guy can have a day once a month or so, as we’ve seen; now if only there aren’t any dusty finishes at the first major this year…

Other sneaky Dark Horses with potentially scary net scores: Brandon Moynihan, Steve Nally, Dan Driffill Sr.

Bluntly: 

The new season requiring 10 rounds on 18 Birdies for a legit handicap is enough to make sure that we have fair tournaments. 

Now that the tour is awarding YMOTY points for just net points, the mid to high handicaps finally have a fair shot at the end of the year award. 

Way too early prediction – FLX Tour 2024 – Year of the Dark Horse.

Watch out for some new names and youngsters with some higher handicaps in the mix for the 2024 Danny Ott Young Man of the Year

–Anonymous Bell-Ringer