Running a tournament
The full playbook — schedule the event, configure scoring, run the day, settle up. Works on web or mobile; web-only carve-outs called out inline.
1. Pre-tournament setup
Ideally done at least a few days before tee time so members can register and you can fix any data gaps.
Create the tournament
Manage page → Tournaments tab → New. Fill in name, date, time, course, format (Stroke Play / Match Play / Scramble / Best Ball), scoring system, dues, max players, registration deadline. The scoring system field drives the leaderboard math — pick STROKE for "lowest total wins," STABLEFORD or MODIFIED_STABLEFORD for points-per-hole, CHICAGO for a quota system. You can change any of these later via Edit; don't sweat picking the wrong thing now.
Set hole pars (and stroke index)
From the tournament page → Hole Pars tab. New tournaments seed with 18 par-4s by default — fine for a generic course, but for a Stableford league you almost always want to adjust. Tap any hole to cycle through par 3 → 4 → 5. The "Standard 72" preset gives you par-3s on holes 4/8/13/17 and par-5s on 5/9/14/18, totaling 72 — most courses don't match exactly so adjust by hand. Stableford and Modified Stableford produce zero points per hole if pars aren't set, so this is the make-or-break setup step for points-based leagues. While you're here, set each hole's stroke index (1 = hardest … 18 = easiest) — that's what makes net handicap strokes land on the right holes (see "Net handicap allocation" below).
Configure flights (if applicable)
Flights are optional but if your league uses them, set them up at the league level (Flights tab on the manage page) and then assign each member to a flight on the Members tab. Tournaments will refuse to generate pairings until every registered player is in a flight. Flights are a league-wide setup — you don't reconfigure per tournament.
Confirm member handicaps
From the Members tab on the manage page, every player needs a league handicap before they can be entered in a tournament. The system blocks pairings generation if anyone is unconfigured and surfaces a list of @usernames so you can fix them all in one trip. Range is 0.0–54.0, one decimal. Edit handicaps any time — every change is recorded in an audit log.
Set the registration deadline
Optional but recommended. The deadline doesn't auto-close registrations on its own — it's a soft signal members see on the tournament card so they know not to dawdle. You can lock the door earlier by editing the tournament and setting maxPlayers to the current registration count once you're full.
Team events — build your teams
Running a Scramble, Best Ball, or Alternate Shot? After you pick a team format, a Teams tab appears on the manage page. Pick the format (Scramble, Best Ball, Alternate Shot) and team size, then build teams: create them by name, drag registrants in from the per-row "Add to team" dropdown, or Copy from pairings to seed teams from groups you already generated. For each team you can set a captain and a scorer (the scorer enters the shared card; defaults to the captain). A team with no captain set isn't locked out — any signed-in teammate can post the card. See the scoring-formats guide for how each format scores.
2. The week of
Members are registering. You're locking in pairings, payouts, and any pre-event communication.
Watch registrations come in
The Tournaments tab on the manage page shows the live registered count for every event. Tap any tournament for the full registrants list — username, display name, status (Registered / No-show / Withdrew / DQ). You can change any registrant's status via the pill on their row.
Send a registration nudge
If turnout is light a few days before, send a push reminder from the tournament Overview tab → Send push reminder. Title up to 80 characters, body up to 200. Pushes go to every registered member. For a longer message — schedule changes, format clarifications — use the league's Broadcast tab on the manage page (sends real email).
Generate pairings
Tournament page → Pairings tab → Generate. Pick a strategy:
- Random — luck of the draw. Group sizes 2, 3, or 4.
- Handicap balanced — each group's aggregate handicap is roughly equal. Use this for fair team play (best-ball, scramble, Nassau).
Edit group schedules
For staggered tee times or shotgun starts, tap the pencil icon on any group to set its tee time and starting hole. Tee time is HH:mm 24-hour (e.g. 08:30). Starting hole is 1–18 — only relevant for shotgun, leave blank for staggered. The pairings sheet shows tee time and starting hole below the group number once set.
Configure payouts (optional)
Payouts tab on the tournament page. The system computes the pool from
dues × registered count and distributes by your top-N split. The top-3 split (1st / 2nd / 3rd as percentages of the pool) covers most weekend leagues. Web supports arbitrary positions and side pots (skins, low net, closest-to-pin); mobile only edits the top 3, but preserves any side pots you set up on web. Important: percentages must sum to exactly 100% — partial saves are rejected so the math doesn't silently shrink. Money is informational only; you collect outside the app.3. Tournament day
Live scoring, leaderboard updates, and the day-of corrections every organizer does.
Send a tee-time reminder
Morning of, send a push from the Overview tab so registrants get a wake-up call ("Tees off at 8:30 — see you at the bag drop"). The push goes to every registrant's phone whether they have the app open or not.
Players self-enter their scores
Each player opens the tournament on their phone, taps Scorecard, and enters strokes hole by hole. The leaderboard updates in real time — refreshes every 10 seconds while anyone has the leaderboard tab open. Players can also see live rankings from the Leaderboard tab on the same screen.
Team-card scoring (Scramble / Alternate Shot)
For Scramble and Alternate Shot, the team plays one shared card — only the team's scorer (or captain, or any teammate if no captain is set) enters strokes, once per hole, for the whole team. The team leaderboard ranks by score relative to par, with more holes played breaking ties. Best Ball is different: every player keeps their own card as usual and the system takes the best net per hole automatically.
Enter scores for a team yourself
Some teams hand in a paper card instead of using the app. From the manage page's Teams tab, tap Enter scores on any team. Two ways in: Final total — type the team's final gross and how many holes they played (defaults to 18) and save in one shot; or Hole by hole — an 18-box grid that saves each hole as you go. Either way the team shows on the leaderboard with the right gross, holes-thru, and vs-par. Re-entering a corrected total just replaces the card.
Override a wrong score
Inevitable — someone enters a 5 on their birdie because they tapped the wrong hole. From Registrants tab on the tournament page, tap "Override a player's hole score." Search the player by username or display name, then enter the hole number, the corrected stroke count, and a reason for the audit log. The reason is required — every override is logged so disputes can be reconstructed later.
Mark a player DQ or WD
Two surfaces. The registrants pill (Registrants tab) controls attendance — Registered / No-show / Withdrew / DQ. Use this for "they never showed up" or "they got pulled." The scorecard status (set via override) controls how their score affects the leaderboard. A withdrawn player's scorecard becomes WD-tagged and falls to the bottom of the leaderboard with no rank.
Finalize scorecards
Players finalize their own cards from the Scorecard tab once they've entered at least 9 holes. Once finalized, they can't edit further — but you can still override on their behalf. As an organizer you don't have to do anything to "close" a tournament; finalized cards are the natural end-state.
4. Wrap-up
Settling payouts and archiving the event.
Confirm the leaderboard
Walk through the final leaderboard one more time before paying out. Anyone whose finalize status looks wrong (showing IN_PROGRESS when they finished, or a wrong total) — fix via score override or status change. The Payouts tab now shows winner usernames next to each payout line based on the final ranks.
Pay out
Money collection and payment happen outside the app. The Payouts summary gives you a clean breakdown — Position 1 = $X to @username, Position 2 = $Y to @username, etc. — that you can read off when handing out checks or sending Venmo.
Audit log if there's a dispute
If anyone questions a result, the score audit log (web tournament page) shows every override on every player — who made the change, what changed, the reason given, and the timestamp. The audit log is admin-side; players can't see it. Mobile doesn't expose the viewer yet (web-only) but the data is captured regardless.
Archive vs. delete
Tournaments stay on the league's history forever by default — they're part of season standings, member rounds-played counts, and historical leaderboards. Don't delete a finished tournament unless you want it gone for everyone: deletion is permanent and cascades to pairings, scorecards, and registrations. If you scheduled a duplicate by mistake, delete it before it has registrations — the warning dialog will tell you the count.
Stableford specifically
For points-based leagues. The setup details and what's gross-vs-net.
What ships today
Three points-based scoring systems are live: Stableford (USGA table — eagle 5, birdie 4, par 3, bogey 2, double 1, worse 0; highest wins), Modified Stableford (PGA Tour table — eagle 8, birdie 5, par 2, bogey 0, double -1, worse -3; can go negative), and Chicago Quota (each player has a target points number derived from their handicap; score vs. target ranks the field). All three compute against the per-hole pars you set on the Hole Pars tab.
Net handicap allocation — what's live
Points-based scoring computes net per hole using each player's league handicap. When the course has a stroke index set (SI 1 = hardest hole … SI 18 = easiest), allocation is USGA-correct: a 12-handicap gets a stroke on the 12 hardest holes by stroke index, a 22-handicap gets two strokes on the 4 hardest and one on the rest. Set stroke index on the Hole Pars tab. If no stroke index is configured, the system falls back to the simplified first-N-holes rule (strokes land on holes 1, 2, 3… in order) — fine for a casual league, but set the real stroke index when you can so strokes match the actual hardest holes. Players with no league handicap score gross (treated as scratch). The leaderboard surfaces a small "Net points — strokes allocated by league handicap" disclosure so the math is transparent.
Setting up a Stableford tournament — the short version
(1) Create the tournament with scoringSystem=STABLEFORD. (2) On the Hole Pars tab, set realistic par-3s and par-5s — the default 18-par-4 seed is a placeholder, not a real course. (3) Confirm every registered player has a league handicap (the system will block pairings until they do — but it doesn't block registrations). (4) Generate pairings. (5) On tournament day, players enter strokes; the leaderboard shows points totals.
Common pitfalls
- Forgetting to set hole pars on a Stableford tournament. Every hole scores zero points. The default 18-par-4 seed at least keeps the math sane, but a real course almost never matches.
- Skipping member handicaps. The system blocks pairings until all registered players have one — but registrations themselves aren't blocked, so you can have 24 people signed up with no handicaps until 7am tournament morning. Fix early.
- Deleting a tournament instead of editing it. The delete dialog warns about cascading data loss. If you just want to move the date, use Edit, not Delete.
- Negative dues. Server rejects them, so you'll see an error if you typo a minus sign — but you might not realize that's why the save failed.
- Pasting paragraphs into push reminder body. 200-character cap; longer is rejected. For longer messages use the league Broadcast (real email).
- Generating pairings before everyone's registered. Latecomers won't appear in your existing groups. Either regenerate (which preserves locked rows) or accept that latecomers will be unpaired.
- Team event with players not on a team. In a Scramble or Best Ball, a player has to be on a team to score. Build every team on the Teams tab before the round — an unassigned player can't post a card. If a team handed in a paper card, use Enter scores on the Teams tab instead of waiting for them to use the app.