The Saturday fourball that became twelve

One card, every game

One person per group scores in the phone browser from a QR code, PIN or link. No app, and no account for the scorer, which matters when a guest is doing the honors. Gross, net and Stableford resolve from the same card, and the live leaderboard moves hole by hole.

Side games are the reason most groups exist, and they belong to the players. Any signed-in member starts one from the outing page: skins, a Nassau, Wolf, Vegas, Snake, Bingo Bango Bongo and thirty more, counted gross, net or Stableford, open to the group or by invitation. Stakes are optional, in dollars or in units for groups that settle in drinks, and a wager starts only once every affected player has accepted the terms, with a maximum-loss cap. Results come from the official card and freeze at close-out with the settlement listed; the cash still changes hands the way it always has.

• check_circleGames that read individual strokes need individual cards: on a scramble, foursomes or greensomes day Parful refuses skins, Wolf and the Nassau
• check_circleSome games need an extra fact on the card, such as putts for Snake or a bunker mark for sandies

Set the group up in an evening

Create the group as a club, add the players and give each one a handicap index. Nobody needs an official one: the group agrees the numbers, changes them when it wants to, and every change is in the player’s history, so the person who claims to be a twelve has a number the rest can point at. Playing handicaps come from the course’s tees and slope, from a database of more than 30,000 courses with a builder for the muni it does not know. A handicap service sync exists for linked clubs where supported.

Send the rest the link to your club page, where they ask to join and you approve them, and set the club site to Link-only so it does not appear in search. Then create Saturday as an outing: the course, the date, the tee time. Every outing scores gross, net and Stableford; a scramble, foursomes or four-ball team day is a competition assigned to it. The next Saturday starts by duplicating this one.

• check_circleRegistration is optional at this size, but it is there to stop the Friday-night text chain, with a waitlist when the tee sheet is full
• check_circleNo committee, no roles to fill and no membership year; anyone can be made a manager to share the setup

The standing for the year

Close-out resolves the day, usually from the bar: prizes if you set any, the standing, statistics and the results page in one step, with who owes whom kept on the recap so the skins pot is a matter of record rather than memory.

Set up one standing and every closed round feeds it: an order of merit by finishing position, a Stableford league that sums the Saturdays, an eclectic across the courses, or your own points table, counting every round or only each player’s best so the person who missed six weeks is still in it. Every player has a page with their results, handicap index and season standing, and the public standings page is the one the group chat links to; there is no chat in the product itself.

A year for a group of eight

Eight friends, one course most weeks, a few away days, skins every Saturday and a standing for the year. Free at this size, and every step is one the product runs today.

One evening in March

Create the group, add eight players with the handicaps they claim, set the site to Link-only, share the club page link in the chat and create the first Saturday. One order-of-merit standing counting the best twenty rounds, so rainouts do not decide it.

Every Saturday

Duplicate last week’s outing, two fourballs, one scorer each by QR code, skins across all eight with a wager everyone accepted in the car park, and the leaderboard on the phones by the turn.

Close out at the bar

The standing moves, and the recap shows who won the skins and what they are owed.

Two team days in summer

A scramble competition on the outing, pairs racing on the leaderboard, no skins that day because the card belongs to the team.

October, the annual weekend

Three outings on three courses inside the same club, a different format each day and a second standing that covers only the trip.

End of year

The standing names the champion, and next year starts by duplicating a Saturday.

Worth knowing

• check_circleUp to 16 active members is free, with no card and no time limit, and it is the full product. A group that grows past 16 starts a 30-day full-access trial, then pays $9.99 a month.
• check_circleSide games need signed-in members. Scoring the card does not, so a guest can keep the card while the members run the games.
• check_circleA team cup weekend (two teams, sessions, a cup board) is there for the year the group wants two sides.
• check_circleA single golf day with people who will not play together again is Parful Tournaments.