How is a multi-round golf competition scored?

Each round is scored on its own rules and the totals are added: net strokes, gross strokes or Stableford points depending on the format. Lowest total wins in stroke play, highest in Stableford.

What happens if the committee changes the allowance between rounds?

The round already opened keeps the rules it opened with. The new allowance applies only to rounds that open afterwards. On Parful every round freezes its rules the moment it opens.

How are ties broken in a two-round competition?

By countback on the final round only: back nine, then the last six, three and one holes of the last day. Earlier rounds are not used.

What does a round deadline do?

It reminds the admin. An overdue round is flagged, but scoring is not blocked and nobody is walked over automatically. The admin decides what happens.

Can round 1 be locked while round 2 is still open?

Yes. Each round has its own pending, open and locked status. Locking a round rejects new scores for that round only.

Competition structures

Parful runs this

Multi-round competitions

Also called Multi-round aggregate, Two-round competition, 36-hole competition, 54-hole competition, Aggregate competition.

A multi-round competition is decided on the total of two or more rounds. Each round is scored on its own frozen rules, the totals are added on the format's axis (net strokes, gross strokes or Stableford points), and a tie on the total is settled by countback on the final round only.

Rounds: 2 or more, each on its own outing
Total: Sum of every round on the format's axis
Rules per round: Frozen when the round opens; later edits never touch it
Ties: Countback on the final round only
Round lifecycle: Pending, open, locked
Deadlines: Reminders for the admin, never a gate on scoring

How a multi-round competition works

A club championship over two Saturdays, a 54-hole seniors open, a four-round eclectic that is not an eclectic: any competition where the result is the sum of several rounds is a multi-round competition. Each round is a full card on its own outing. The competition total is the aggregate of those cards on whatever axis the format uses: net strokes for a net championship, gross strokes for a scratch championship, points for a Stableford.

Every round is a real competition round with its own lifecycle. It starts pending, the admin opens it before play, and it can be locked afterwards so no more scores land on it. Locking round 1 does not stop round 2 being scored.

Every round freezes its own rules

The moment a round opens, Parful takes a snapshot of the rules that affect scoring: the handicap allowance, the tiebreak and countback variant, the scoring method, the points table for a Stableford, any per-hole cap, and the team size and handicap formula for a pairs event. That snapshot belongs to the round. If the committee changes the allowance from 95% to 100% before the second round, round 2 opens with 100% and round 1 stays at 95%. Nothing rewrites a frozen round.

This is what makes the total honest. A round is scored on the rules the players were told when they teed off. A rule change is allowed, it just cannot reach backwards.

Frozen when a round opens: allowance, scope, tiebreak, countback variant, scoring method, Stableford points table, per-hole rule, carryovers, team size and team handicap rule.
Never frozen: names, labels, deadlines and other display metadata, which the admin can edit at any time.

Ties and deadlines

A tie on the aggregate is broken by countback on the final round, which is the USGA® recommendation: back nine, last six, last three, last hole of the last day. An earlier round never enters the countback. The tiebreak and countback variant that apply are the ones frozen into the latest round, so the leaderboard during the competition and the podium at the end read the same rule.

Each round can carry a deadline. Deadlines are for the admin: an overdue round is flagged for attention, and nothing about scoring, entries or advancement is blocked by the date. The admin decides whether to extend, lock the round as it stands or chase the missing cards.

How Parful runs it

The admin creates the competition with the number of rounds and schedules each round on an outing from the calendar. Opening a round freezes its rules and lets the group scorecards on that outing feed it. The competition leaderboard shows each round and the running total, ranked on the format's axis with the frozen tiebreak applied.

A round can be locked on its own once its cards are in. The final podium is computed from the same standings the leaderboard shows, so the winner of a two-round championship is the player at the top of the aggregate after countback on round 2, and never anything else.

Worked example

A worked example: a two-round net championship

Three players over two rounds. Round 1 opened with a 95% allowance. The committee changed the allowance to 100% before round 2, so round 2 froze at 100% and round 1 kept 95%. Course Handicap™: Ana 12, Ben 20, Cal 16. Playing handicaps are rounded to the nearest whole stroke.

Player	R1 gross	R1 strokes (95%)	R1 net	R2 gross	R2 strokes (100%)	R2 net	Total net	Position
Ana	84	11	73	82	12	70	143	1
Cal	88	15	73	87	16	71	144	2
Ben	92	19	73	91	20	71	144	3

Round 1: 12 x 0.95 = 11.4 rounds to 11; 20 x 0.95 = 19; 16 x 0.95 = 15.2 rounds to 15. Round 2 uses the full Course Handicap. Cal and Ben tie on 144 and are separated by countback on round 2 only: Cal's back nine was 44 gross, Ben's 45.

The allowance change did not rewrite round 1. Had it done so Ben would have gained a stroke he was never told about.
Round 1 scores never enter the countback. Ben and Cal both had 73 in round 1, which is irrelevant to the tie.

Common variants