There is a fortune out there to be made each summer on the golf course, and you don’t have to be a great player to wind up putting some of it in your pocket. I will explain here what a Calcutta is, and how to crack the delicate system.
Calcuttas are golf events designed for scramble teams; generally, three-man-scrambles are the most popular. The basic idea is this: after the first day of the two day event, teams are flighted, usually in Championship, A, B and C Flight. The flights group together teams who shoot similar scores, from best to worst. The teams are then auctioned off the evening after the first round. Suppose, for example, that there are 10 teams in A Flight. The Calcutta money, which is comprised from the money that is auctioned for each team, is divided into a first, second and third place cash award for each flight. If you purchase a team at auction, and that team wins, then you will receive the very lucrative first place prize money for the Calcutta.
There is additional money to be won, which is called Tournament Money. Tournament money is allocated to the best three two-day totals in each flight. After the second round, the tourament committee will draw a number from a hat, usually a 3, 4 or 5. If a team improves by more than this number, the “shoot out” number, then it is ineligible to win Tournament Money, although the team can still win Calcutta money.
Calcutta money is usually bigger than Tournament Money, and so this provides an incentive for teams to do all they can to win the Calcutta, and consider the Tournament Money a secondary goal. Because there is such a high-priority placed on winning the Calcutta, teams wishing to insure an improvement on the second day will shoot intentionally badly in the first round. This is called “sandbagging”; sandbagging is not illegal, although some consider it dishonorable for the reason that it involves not trying as hard as you can.
Sandbagging is a practice done by, in my estimation, at least 80 percent of the field. Teams that don’t sandbag, except in Championship Flight, will be at a disadvantage in the Calcutta because they will be up against Sandbaggers-players in their flight who are better than they played the first day.
If you elect to Sandbag, the best way to do it is this: play a few rounds with your three-man-team and get a clear idea of what score you can expect to shoot on Sunday, keeping in mind that the course will always be ‘tricked up’ on Sunday.
Suppose your team shoots 59 and 61 in your practice rounds. Chances are, you should bank on shooting around a 63 on Sunday when the course is tough. Add four to this number, and that is what your team should shoot the first day. There is some reasoning behind this. Because 4 is the median between the other two shoot-out numbers, it is usually a pretty wise bet to try to improve by 4. You don’t want to improve by much more than this on the second day-even if it is possible to do so-because the most profitable outcome will be to ‘double-dip’: that is, to win Calcutta money without shooting yourself out of the Tournament. There are exceptions to this strategy, though. If the Calcutta money is especially high, and much more than the Tournament money, then it would be best to shoot as well as you can Sunday, even if it means shooting out of the Tournament.
You can find out about Scrambles by calling local courses and asking what scrambles they will be hosting and what the format will be. Beware, though, that once your names get recognized as Calcutta winners, folks will remember this and your Calcutta team will cost you more the next year, if you choose to play the event again.
Two last points: suppose that someone else buys your team in the Calcutta; you still have the option of buying half of your team from that person. This requires that you pay for half of the auction price and then split the profits. Another word of advice: get to bed early after the first round-playing a tricked up golf course with a hangover is, from experience, not the smartest move. Drinking an O’Douls at the Calcutta auction might be save you thousands.
