The MCA has announced Saturday, May 21, 2016, as the date for a new golf croquet team test to be held at Kactus Creek Croquet Club in Parkville, Missouri. Full details are still under discussion, but the concept lines out as a test between three-player teams representing Kansas and Missouri. Dylan Goodwin will captain the Kansas team and Matt Griffith will captain the Missouri team.
The format will include one doubles game and three rounds of singles games. That means all players will play against all of the players from the other side. If the series is tied, one final doubles game will be played. The game format is likely to be seven-point games with 75-minute time limits.
Right now, the captains are starting the process of selecting two teammates each with the primary requirement being that they must be a resident of the state that they represent on the date of the event.
Missouri has a deeper pool of players to pull from as Griffith and Steve Jackson both carry international GC rankings. Kansas currently has no players with official ranked golf croquet game experience.
"Selection will be a bit subjective for the launch of this event," said Goodwin. "The key is to just give this a trial in year one and if we like it, I suspect you'll see a more formal selection process next year. You might even see some selection events develop out of this."
One detail that has been decided is that the event will forgo treating the test games as ranked GC games. However, it will move toward that in year two.
Goodwin said, "This is something I've wanted to try for several years and I want to keep it simple and make it fun. With the USCA Midwest Regionals being hosted here in Kansas City as a golf croquet event in June, it seemed like the perfect time to give it a go."