A Golf Sync XP is one event with one or more tournaments. Each tournament is one day of play, with its own join code, its own field and its own leaderboard.

You run it from two places. The Event console is the whole event: its tournaments and their join codes, the people, the standings across tournaments, the money and the recap, with Event settings behind the gear. Each tournament has its own Tournament console: registration, roster import, pairings and teams, format, hole pars, the day itself, the leaderboard, sponsors, contests and the print pack.

The Event console opens on Home, which lists your tournaments, each with the way into its Tournament console and its Player view, the page your players see. Beside it are Tournaments, People, Standings and Communicate. A Tournament console groups its tabs by when you need them, and on the tournament's day the day's tabs come first.

Request one from Golf Sync XP in the Golf Sync app.

Golf Sync confirms the number of tournaments and invoices you, and your event switches on once that's paid. Golf Sync builds the event and its tournaments from your request, with you as the event's owner.

Building it sends you no email. Your request then shows Ready, with a button into the Event console and a list, What we set up from your request, of what was carried over and what's left for you to set. From then on, the Golf Sync XP card on your dashboard opens your events.

The Organizer kit on the Event console's Home is the handover: a short PDF guide with each tournament's join code and QR code, and two templates (a roster and a sponsor sheet) to send out. Download it, or email it to your organizers from the same card. It's never sent by itself.

Running it with other people? Make them delegates: see Who can do what.

Work through each tournament's Tournament console. Its Setup checklist tab lists what's still missing.

Date, start and format

The date and the first tee time are on the Basics tab. The course, the scoring system, handicaps, the team format and the team size are on the Format tab.

Choose the format before play starts. Once the first scorecard exists, the scoring system can't change, and neither can a switch between one shared team card (a scramble or alternate shot) and each player keeping their own card. After that, the only way is to delete the tournament and make it again, which gives it a new join code.

Hole pars

Each tournament keeps its own pars and stroke index, copied when it's created from your last tournament on the same course, else from the course's scorecard, else par 4 on every hole.

Check them against the real scorecard on the Hole pars tab, especially for Stableford, and fill in the stroke index on every hole or on none. The Event console's Course scorecards don't change a tournament that already has its pars.

Handicaps and the boards

Handicaps drive net scoring and Handicap balanced pairings. Put them in your roster's handicap column, or set them on the Event console's Members list. A team's handicap (a scramble's weights, a best ball's allowance) is set on the Score rules & entry tab. Which leaderboards the tournament shows, and whether each ranks on gross or net, is on the Boards tab.

Your public page and branding

An XP is private by default: players get in with a join code. For a public page with sign-ups and card payments, sponsor sign-up or donations, turn on Public page in the Event console, under Tournaments and then Codes & public page. Turning it on publishes nothing by itself: you then give a tournament its address there.

The event's logo and its Event branding (colours and tagline), both in Event settings, carry to every tournament; a tournament's own Branding tab changes just that one. The public page shows how many have signed up only when the tournament has a Field size, on its Field & entry tab.

Entry fees and card payments

The owner sets the prices, on the Registration tab under Registration settings. To take cards, the owner connects Stripe once for the whole event, from any tournament's Store tab.

Payment links go only when you press the button: to one player, or to everyone who still owes.

That's Send payment link on a player's row, or Email them all a payment link above the list. When you collect fees yourself, Mark paid and Waive record it on each row. The owner refunds a player from their row too.

A full field keeps a waitlist, on the Registration tab. Nobody is seated from it by itself: you seat each person when a spot opens.

Sponsors

Set your sponsor levels and prices on the Sponsor tiers tab, then add sponsors on the Sponsors tab, one at a time or by pasting rows from the sponsor template. Give a sponsor a hole and they get a tee sign with their name, and their logo once you upload it. A sponsor who pays you directly is marked paid on their row; the owner can email one a card payment link instead. A level that includes players emails the sponsor a claim link for those spots, where they name who plays.

The morning after the tournament, each sponsor with an email address gets their recap, unless the address is on the do-not-email list or Golf Sync's postal address isn't set.

Set things up in this order: bring in the roster, build the teams, then hand out the codes. A player who joins before the teams exist has no team to play for yet.

Roster import

Paste or upload the list you already have on the Roster import tab. Names alone are enough, and you see what will be saved before anything is.

Roster import reads name, email, team, mulligans, handicap and phone; anything else is ignored.

Importing sends nobody anything. Someone who isn't on the roster is added on the Registration tab: Add player not in app, or Seat a group for a group that walks up together.

Teams, pairings and the tee sheet

Everything about groups is on the Pairings & Teams tab. On a team format, build the teams there, or let a team column in the roster build them. On a format where each player plays their own ball, Open the pairings editor and Generate the groups, Handicap balanced or Random draw.

The Tee sheet at the top of the same tab is how the field goes off: a shotgun or tee times, the first tee time, and every group's start. On a shotgun with more groups than holes, two groups start on the same hole, one after the other.

A Ryder Cup's two sides are set once for the whole event, on a tournament's Pairings & Teams tab. With uneven sides, one player of the bigger side is in no match each day and plays for the individual standings only.

The same players on the next tournament

On the next tournament's Registration tab, open Registration settings and use Copy players from another tournament. It copies the players only, not their teams, groups, check-in or payments, and each player still joins each tournament with its own code.

Hand out the codes yourself

Golf Sync doesn't send join codes by itself. Hand them out, print them, or press Send join links on the Overview tab to email the players who have an address on file and haven't claimed a spot. Anyone else types the code at golfsync.io/play.

Every code is in the Event console under Tournaments and then Codes & public page, and each tournament's is on its Registration tab, with Every tournament's join code folded below it. Players type it at golfsync.io/play and pick their name.

Codes are 6 digits, and you don't need an account to join with one.

An event with two or more tournaments also has one event code. It opens a page listing every tournament, and you pick yours there. Each tournament keeps its own code too, and either one works.

A code works until you stop it. To stop new players joining, use Close joining on the Day-of tab (Reopen joining undoes it), or New code if a code got out. Finalizing the tournament closes it too. A tournament with no code yet offers Create join code in the same place.

For your players, the player guide covers joining and scoring.

Print what you need

From the Print Pack tab, a few days before:

• Registration Table Sign: the join code, for the check-in table.
• Get the App: the join code and the app's download codes, for anywhere players wait.
• Starting Holes & Teams and Cart Signs: need your teams or groups first.
• Hole Sponsor Signs: need each sponsor's hole on the Sponsors tab.
• Contest Signs: need the contests on the Contests tab.

Who each message reaches

The Day-of tab runs the morning, with scoring, the board and Finalize at its top.

Check players in

The Day-of tab counts who has checked in, with a quick search. Open the check-in desk for the full list at the table.

Open scoring

Players can join before, but nobody can post a score until you press Open scoring for everyone on the Day-of tab. If the button isn't there yet, the card says what's in the way, with a link to fix it.

In a scramble or alternate shot your team keeps one card, in the Golf Sync app: the browser can't keep it. Anyone on the team may enter it, so agree on the first tee who will. Everyone else just plays.

If the morning changes

Weather delay on the Day-of tab moves every group with a tee time by the same number of minutes. Starting holes don't change.

The leaderboard

The leaderboard hold works on stroke play only. It stops the public board at a number of holes each group has played, while you still see the live board. Release it when play ends.

Hold the board is at the top of the Day-of tab. For the clubhouse TV, the TV board tab gives you a short address (golfsync.io/tv/ and your code) to type into the TV's own browser, with no sign-in.

Contests

Closest to the pin, long drive and the rest are set up and recorded on the Contests tab.

Contests are measured with a tape. The app records each mark and ranks them; it never measures.

Watching the field

The Day-of tab keeps an eye on the course for you. Field lists every player, whether they've joined and checked in, and how far their card has got. Pace of play compares each group's posted holes with its tee time. Under Paper scorecards you can send a player a link to photograph their card, with no app and no sign-in, and check the numbers beside the photo before anything is saved.

Fixing a score

It depends on who keeps the card:

• Each player keeps their own card (stroke play, Stableford, best ball): on the Leaderboard tab, the player's row has Edit Score (their card, filled in, to change a hole) and Full card (to type in a whole card they handed you).
• One card per team (a scramble or alternate shot): on the Leaderboard tab, the team has Fix score.
• A player who never started a card: Enter card on their row of the Registration tab.

A correction to a player's card is kept, with who made it and why, under Score Override History on the Leaderboard tab. Once the tournament is finalized, press Reopen for corrections first, fix it, and finalize again.

Withdrawals and no-shows

Withdraw… on the player's row of the Registration tab says what happens to their team, their tee time and any payment before you confirm, and can refund them. The status menu on the row covers No-show and DQ. From the tournament's date on, only the event's owner can change a player's status.

When a player asks you for help

• Can't find their name: add them on the Registration tab, then they pick it.
• Their code is refused: joining may be closed, or the tournament finalized. Check the Day-of tab.
• Joined on one phone and now has another: “On a Golf Sync XP, joining with a code doesn't make you a Golf Sync account: the phone or browser you joined on is signed in as your spot. To get back in on another phone, enter the code again and tap your name.”
• Wants the tournament in their own Golf Sync account: “To keep a tournament in your own Golf Sync account, sign in before you join with the code, or ask your organizer to link your spot to your account.” The owner can link the spot for them: Link account on its row of the Registration tab, then the address the player signs in with. A spot someone has already claimed needs Release spot first. Linking sends the player nothing. The player guide says the same.

Finalize the tournament on the Day-of tab when play is over. It locks scoring for everyone, closes the join code, and lists by name any card without every hole posted, which stays open. Reopen for corrections undoes it.

The button is Finalize tournament. Nothing finalizes by itself, and the Day-of tab reminds you when a tournament is still open after its last day.

Prize money

The Prize payouts tab works out who wins what from your prize pool. Golf Sync doesn't pay the winners: you do.

Standings and the cut

The standings across your tournaments are in the Event console, under Standings and then Ventures, where you choose gross or net and set any cut. Once the tournament before the cut is finalized, apply the cut from its Day-of tab, which shows who makes it first. A player who missed it comes back only with Reinstate on their row of the Registration tab.

The event recap

The event recap is ready once every tournament in the event is finalized.

It's one PDF with every tournament, the final standings and your sponsors. The owner finds it in the Event console under Tournaments and then Money & recap, or on the Event recap tab of any Tournament console: Download the recap, or send it to every player with an email address. It goes only when you press send. The event's cash position (collected, owed, refunded and comped) is beside it.

By itself

The day after a tournament, Golf Sync emails each registered player who has an email address that their round is saved.

The morning after the tournament, each sponsor with an email address gets their recap, unless the address is on the do-not-email list or Golf Sync's postal address isn't set.

Only if Golf Sync switches it on

If a tournament is still open two days after its last day, Golf Sync can email and push one reminder to the event's owner and anyone Golf Sync gave organizer access, but only once Golf Sync has switched that reminder on. It is off unless we tell you otherwise.

Only when you press the button

Join links, payment links, messages from the Email tab, the event recap and the organizer kit.

Never

Golf Sync never sends a Golf Sync XP's players a reminder the day before.

For you, the organizer

Notify me in this browser, on the Event console's Home for the owner, tells you when someone registers or a payment lands. You can turn it off again under Browser notifications on your account page. The owner's dashboard also lists any tournament still open after its last day.

The owner can do everything. Some things are the owner's alone: prices, payment links, refunds, connecting Stripe, the cash position, the event recap, emailing every member, setting roles, linking a spot to a player's account, and changing a player's status from the tournament's date on.

Delegates run the event with you, in both consoles: the registration desk, the roster, pairings and teams, the day itself and score fixes. They need a Golf Sync account. To add one, open the Event console's Members list, find them under Add members, then set their role to DELEGATE. Setting the role sends them nothing: tell them yourself, or send them the organizer kit.

A Tournament console opens only for the owner, delegates and Golf Sync staff, so make anyone who runs the desk or fixes scores a delegate. Golf Sync staff can open both consoles to help you, and see two extra tabs marked Staff.

On the phone: The phone's Tournament console is built for the day: checking players in, opening scoring, pushes, pairings and teams, hole pars and score fixes. Setup, branding, sponsor tiers, roster import, email and the print pack are on the web.

Every Tournament console has a Help button at the top. The Organizer kit on the Event console's Home has this guide's short version as a PDF, made for your event with its join codes. How each format scores is in Scoring formats and handicaps.