We’ve all been there: You are kicking the crap out of our opponent and there’s just no way they can beat you. You’re already in with a par and they’ve just got a 6 footer for bogey. You are killing it in your Quota and they are struggling to make theirs. There shouldn’t be any harm in giving someone a putt, right? In a quick look back at the stats from 2014 and early 2015, there’s strong evidence to suggest that you might not want to give them that putt.

The Team point is up for grabs in this manner. It first takes the sum of how all players on a team performed against their quota. For instance, if Pat Donahue was +3 vs Quota, Mike Carroll was +3 and Bob Moran was -3, then the Team performance was a +3 (3+3-3=+3). That Team performance is compared to the team you are matched up against. In Week 3, the Pat-Mike-Bob team was matched up against a team that had a Team performance of +1 (5-2-2=1). Therefore, the Pat-Mike-Bob team won the extra one Team point. Team point can be split if the teams have the same Team performance as well.

In a review of the Team matchups in 2014 and 2015, about 13% of the matches had the Team point decided by one point or less. Another 10% of matches ended in a tie for Team point. That’s nearly a quarter of all matches are decided by that thin of a margin! So every time you decide to give someone a putt or not make them finish a hole to avoid that double par, you run a 25% chance of costing your team a point!!!

Some might say “IT Nerd, it’s only a point…it can’t matter that much.” Actually, it can! The 2014 title was decided by 4 points. If you play the stats out over the season and give all those putts and lose that point 25% of the time, you might be costing your team the title.

One quarter (25%) of the season is 4.5 weeks. Giving up that one point every 4 weeks is 4 points…the title was decided by 4 points! You give up the title with those “gimmies”!!

Take it from the IT Nerd: Make ’em finish them all!