Aggregate Playoff
An aggregate playoff consists of a series of extra holes, usually three or four, with the player with the lowest cumulative score being declared the winner. If there is still a tie after completion of these holes, then further sudden death holes are usually played. This is widely considered to be the fairest way of deciding a winner, as one bad shot does not eliminate all chances of winning, and is used in two of the four men's major championships. One flaw of this system is that it takes longer to complete, meaning that a tournament may risk not being over before sunset.
The Open Championship was the first major tournament to use the aggregate playoff system when a 4-hole playoff was introduced in 1985. However it was not invoked until Mark Calcavecchia, Greg Norman and Wayne Grady tied at Royal Troon in 1989. Calcavecchia came out on top to win his only major title. Since 2000, the PGA Championship has made use of a 3-hole playoff, having previously used sudden death. The U.S. Senior Open is also decided by means of a 3-hole playoff, as is the U.S. Women's Open, having previously used an 18-hole playoff until 2007. Three-hole playoffs are also expected to be used in the 2016 Summer Olympics if there is a tie in medal positions.
Read more about this topic: Playoff (golf)
Famous quotes containing the word aggregate:
“We think of religion as the symbolic expression of our highest moral ideals; we think of magic as a crude aggregate of superstitions. Religious belief seems to become mere superstitious credulity if we admit any relationship with magic. On the other hand our anthropological and ethnographical material makes it extremely difficult to separate the two fields.”
—Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945)