Right, I think I'm good to go. After liaison with SamD, who volunteered to be the independent bid receiver, the bids for marquee name can now be made.

I will PM this thread to everyone, as I plan to extend it to include Spencer4 & Britinus as well. As a result, the format is as follows:

Below will be published the Top 24 from the OWGR. Each player must bid by PM to SamD for 2 marquee names, using a budget of $10m. Bids begin at 0.5m and must go up in 0.5m increments. The budget is purely for the marquee names - so use it or lose it!

Once you have bid, please post on here that you done so, and as each person subsequently bids, please copy & paste the list before adding your own name so that we can easily see who is left to bid.

The initial deadline is notionally Thursday 930pm. However, I hope we can get it done well before then. If that poses a major problem it can also be pushed back, but please flag if you need a delay. Equally, if we all get done before then we can move on sooner.

The PM bid process will go on until all 24 names are taken.

Following that, we will have the turn-by-turn draft as per the draft order presented below. We will be bidding for a further SIX golfers to make up a team of 8. (I have reduced this from 10-man teams to speed it up). Each person will simply post the name of the golfer they want in turn. This will obviously take a while depending on when people get access so we will play it by ear.

The aim is to be good to go for next week's events. If we can't, we can't and we will lose one week of play. The comp will end at the WGC-Cadillac.





I think that's it for now!

Can you only bid for 2 Golfers or can you bid for any/all.

If it's the first option surely everyone will bid 9.5 and 0.5 - will the bidding then re-start for unclaimed players

With the second option, you could set prices for all the players and if you don't have enough money after your first signing you are ineligible to buy that player.

I probably have more questions, but that'll do for starters.

You can only bid for 2 players.

For example, I might decide I want both the Molinaris. I can then split my 10m in any proportion. If most people bid 9.5/0.5, a lot of people will miss out - while the canny player who bids in the middle may get his two first choices.

Here's the first thing I forgot:
in this marquee draft, if two or more players bid the same for a golfer, the winner of the bid will be the higher-ranked player form the draft list. Which in this case means Polarbear ranks the highest and I am the lowest.

For this trial I don't want to get into pricing players for the draft.

Sent mine in. Thanks for letting me play, I'll try not to win by too many .

Mine are in. Managed not to post them on this thread by mistake which was pleasing

Horton

done, don't know what's holding everyone up

Thanks, and have sent my two names to SamD
Britinus

Ahem, chaps:

Spencer4
Horton
AKNel1
Britinus
Pappje

PM'ed my two selections to Sam too

Spencer4
Horton
AKNel1
Britinus
Pappje
Man United's #1 Fan

Just pm'd Sam with my 2 bids

My 2 bids chucked into the hat as well....

Spencer4
Horton
AKNel1
Britinus
Pappje
Man United's #1 Fan
Polarbear
foreverengland

Cheers,
Chris.

Can confirm bids received from eight managers to date. When remaining four (toffeelover, Trickster1, Kdub, SHAFTY1) are in, all 12 sets will be forwarded to el-pap for divvying up.

Do say if there's any query. For what it's worth, shan't have access to PC from around 11am to 6pm GMT on Wed and Thurs.

I'm in

Spencer4
Horton
AKNel1
Britinus
Pappje
Man United's #1 Fan
Polarbear
foreverengland
Toffeelover

I'm in.

Spencer4
Horton
AKNel1
Britinus
Pappje
Man United's #1 Fan
Polarbear
foreverengland
Toffeelover
Trickster1

Spencer4
Horton
AKNel1
Britinus
Pappje
Man United's #1 Fan
Polarbear
foreverengland
Toffeelover
Trickster1
Shafty Im in

Too easy...

All 12 first round bids are in but one person needs to try again as he's overstretched the initial budget.

PM has been sent to him. Shall report progress this evening.

Someone can't add up to 10 Education standards these days...

Tut, tut Spencer

Nice try, toffee!

Anyway: all 12 bids are in now. Have created simple Excel sheet to show who gets whom. Can publish auction results here or else send data directly to el-pap, depending on his preference.

Having run and/or participated in these kinds of auctions, I know some will be desperate for early info. So, as a teaser, it looks like:
- five managers have been successful in getting two golfers each
- four others have gained one each
- three of you have no one yet
- 14 of the top 24 golfers have therefore been snapped up
- no one bid for three players ranked in the top dozen

Will triple-check PMs against spreadsheet while awaiting el-pap's return.

I think whoever it was should be docked $1m

I'm happy for the results to be published here, so I can see who I have left to pick from for my 2 players - I'm convinced I got neither.

Els, Donald, Stricker my bets for zero bids. And no, I haven't seen the results yet!

You're definitely 66% wrong already

Thanks, el-pap. Here goes:

First draft and * = successful bids


In summary:
- five managers have been canny enough to get two golfers each
- four others have gained one each
- three of you have no one yet
- 14 of the top 24 golfers have therefore been snapped up
- Kuchar is the most popular (five bids)
- no one went for no1 Westwood or two in the top dozen: Furyk, McIlroy.

2 more bids sent

Trickster may take some beating with the Mickelson/Woods dream ticket

.........when they play

Just put in my second bid.

Mickelson is playing every week for the next 6 weeks.

Status after first round of marquee bids, showing
- who's got whom
- balance of funds for those who need to bid again for one/two of the top 24 golfers.


So five managers can take a break while these seven sweat over a second round of marquee bids:
1 = polarbear
3 = Kdub
4 = foreverengland
5 = Shafty
6 = HortonM'mouse
8 = AKNel1
10 = Britinus

The ten players still available:
Westwood
Furyk
McIlroy
Johnson D
Karlsson
Molinari E
Mahan
Allenby
Schwartzel
Scott

Touché!