The Ace in the Hole miniature golf tournament. 

When:  November 2nd 2024, starts at 12:00 p.m. with the organizer’s games, who will play the games publicly and enter the contest themselves, then immediately following,  the organizers will run live footage while refereeing the other contestants.  

Where: Alien Vacation Mini Golf in Medina Ohio.  Venue is indoors, therefore come rain or shine

Cost: In addition to the everyday Green fee charged normally by the establishment for casual players who do not want to be in the tournament,  $8 must be paid in advance to my PayPal address.  October 31st is the last day to pay and get the early bird discount.  To pay at the time of the venue cost $10 plus the normal green fees charged by the establishment. 

Pro Leagues: want to take on all comers and put your money where your mouth is?  Put as much money you want in $5 increments on a “bet on yourself” each $5 increment is a level and you're only competing against those people at the same level of course more expensive levels are still able to win the cheaper levels and there will be rich boy tiebreakers in case certain levels are not resolved where everyone in alevel is eliminated before the amateur jackpot is awarded.  Any levels you are willing to pay for that no one else is willing to compete in will be refunded.

If two or three contestants are in the highest level, then 90% of the money you need to those higher levels goes to the winner among those who put in the highest bets on themselves.

If a level has four or five contestants the highest player of that level  wins 55% and the second highest 35%. 

On all levels that have six or more contestants 50% goes to first place 30% goes to second place and 10% goes to the third place. 

If you pay for a higher level you're eligible for all lower levels.  If you pay only for lower level, you are limiting your winnings to those who bet the same and lower levels as you. 

$2 from every $8 amateur entry fee pays for the amateur jackpot.  $4 of each entry, when pooled,  pays the green fees for the elimination rounds.  The amateur jackpot is increased whenever someone finishes a game earlier than the maximum possible length, which will be six holes on each elimination round.  The amateur jackpot is $20 plus $2 per player entered in the tournament.

End of first round: as long as there is interest in the tournament live on game day with participants willing to pay to enter the tournament the qualifying rounds will continue until either natural closing time November 2nd or earlier if there is a period when all organizers have no golfers to escort.

The lowest (lowest as in best scores because the object of golf is to shoot a few strokes as possible) 50 % of 18-hole stroke totals will qualify for the elimination rounds.  In case there's an odd number of entries the exact median score will enter bringing the total above 50%, but that Bubble Boy will have a disadvantage in round 1 of the elimination of having one hole  loss against their opponents automatically in a 2  hole to one matchup lead.

Also the better performing 18 hole scores get first choice of opponents and first access to first round byes if they so choose to take them.

First round byes: if there is not a perfect power of two number of entries in the tournament, there will be extra positions called byes that will represent automatic wins for the selector of a bye opponent.  The total number of entries plus byes equal the next integer power of two higher.   

Rank: Your rank changes throughout the tournament based on the most recent elimination around done first. 

First item determining your rank is your most recent elimination match followed by each earlier one, one by one, as follows:

People who won the latest round three holes to nothing in a sweep get higher ranks.

Followed by:

3 ½ wins in 4 holes

3 wins in 4 holes

3 ½ wins in 5 holes

3 wins in 5 holes.

2 ½ wins in 5 holes, in which case a guaranteed tiebreaker  hole called a Big Kevorkian will be played. (Hey, if most sports are able to call games where the next points win “sudden death” I'm just stretching this analogy to its logical conclusion, to force the tournament death of one of the two contestants by the end of the hole.)

If that is tied then the next most recent round is compared until the tie is broken

A first round bye win  is considered ahead of a three nothing win in the Wild Card round.

Finally your 18-hole score is your baseline rank. 

If those are tied the 19th Hole which is a ball muncher, will be played in a format that's similar to speed golf where fewest putts it takes to get in the hole wins, and if tied in that number, quickest time to get that putt wins.

If still tied, the chronologically earlier paid entry wins the tiebreaker.

However if the difference between either getting a first-round bye or not or the difference between getting a spot or no spot is up for grabs, instant one-on-one Big Kevorkians will break the tie instead of letting Promptness of payment be the sole determiner of who gets the first round bye or gets the last tournament spot.  Instead the earlier payer will have an advantage in the Big Kevorkian in either choosing the hole to play among holes ties for favorite,  or choosing the game if there's a tie for preferred game, or make a deferred pick based on an opponent's choice in the category of the winner's choice.

3d Course Effects.  During your qualifying run you do not necessarily have to wear the Chromadepth 3D goggles. However any golfing done by you  that counts, when done after the 19th hole ball muncher hole, must be played with the house-provided hard plastic Chromadepth overglasses being worn whenever you are addressing the ball and actually putting.  However you may take them off to analyze the hole or to move yourself around so that you don't trip and fall accidentally.  

Each round is a maximum of five holes in regulation and one big Kevorkian hole in case tied after five holes except for the first game involving the Bubble Boy, if there is one.  That only lasts two holes plus a big Kevorkian if necessary.

If you win and avoid the Big Kevorkian, you get paid 50 cents for finishing in 5 holes, $1 for finishing in 4, and $2 for finishing in 3.  The jackpot also has those amounts increased

Honor: in regulation the person who has the higher rank gets to choose whether they want to go first or second on the first hole, or whether to pick the tiebreaker among the ranked favorite holes of the players, or to defer the choice. 

Hole and Kevorkian selection.  After completing their 18 holes each contestant who goes on to elimination must rank their holes, in order of their preferred hole from 1 to 18, with 1 being most favored in 18 being the least favored, using consecutive unique  integers from 1 to 18.  Likewise they rank their preferred Big  Kevorkian game.

The holes that are determined for each game is ranked as the combined ranking of the two contestants in that matchup.  Since lower scores mean more favortism, the lowest combined score the two contestants gets played as the first hole then the next lowest etc until the match is decided.  In case of a tie in rank, whoever has the first tiebreaker right gets to break the tie and then the tiebreaker rights alternates to the next person if needed again.  Likewise if you lose a hole you get the choice of who goes next to the next hole and if the hole is tied the honor flips.

If the game goes to Big Kevorkian, whoever has honor gets the tiebreaker pick for which Big Kevorkian game to play in case the Big  Kevorkian game ranks are tied for lowest.

Payout game exceptions:

The third place match among the 2 semi-final losers will be a single Big Kevorkian tiebreaker.

Likewise any rich folk tiebreaker matchers among those who got eliminated in the same round where all further contestants were not eligible for the higher levels will be played as a single Big Kevorkian or a single elimination mini tournament of single Big Kevorkians if more than 2 people involved.  The jackpot amounts will be reduced in accordance to the number of games played.  $2 for every three player-holes played to tie break.

The championship matchup will be two standard games played back to back.  If they both have the same winner they win first place if they have different winners then either a single big Kevorkian tiebreaker if a Big Kevorkian was ulplayed in either or both championship matchups, or best 2 out of 3 Big Kevorkians will determine the champion, with the advantage going to whoever won their regulation match more convincingly based on holes needed to win then strokes to win holes.  The person with the advantage can either tiebreak a hole, or a Kevorkian game, with the other person getting the other honor.