Ranking/ladder "tornament" help

I co-run a small pinball place with around 10 tables available. We’ve been trying to figure out how to bring in some competitive play, but our crowd comes with some interesting challenges:

  • the time table needs to be flexible. We’re open once a week for 5 hrs, people drop in when it fits their schedule
  • it needs to run over multiple weeks. Anywhere from 1-10 people may show up any given week
  • game skill varies greatly between players. Making it hard to go with a high score format
  • it needs to be optional. Some of our visitors are not into competitive play at all, and we want to keep them feeling welcome

I’ve been thinking some sort of pingolf format might fit the bill, but would really appreciate any input you may have for a format that can excite novice players and still present somewhat of a challenge for more seasoned ones

Pingolf sounds best to me. Set a new pile of targets each week, doesn’t have to be 9 holes either. It’s a good format for the challenges you described.