Scoring Formats

The formats the trip leaderboards score today, the handicap allowance each one defaults to, and how ties and missed rounds are handled.

Individual formats

Stroke Play

Total strokes; lowest wins.

Gross vs net is the tournament’s handicap method, not its scoring type. The default allowance is 95%.

Leaderboards show score to par, holes completed (“thru”) and a round-by-round breakdown for multi-round events.

Stableford

Points per hole relative to par; highest total wins. Standard points:

A pickup (X on the scorecard) scores 0. Default allowance is 95%.

Modified Stableford is available only as a custom points table: set stableford_points in the tournament’s settings through the API (there is no dashboard field yet), mapping score-to-par to points. The portal and leaderboards use that table for every hole.

Match Play

Hole-by-hole, head to head. Status is shown as UP / DOWN / AS and a match ends when a player is up by more holes than remain (“3 and 2”). Default allowance is 100%, played off the lowest handicap in the match.

Not scored yet

Quota and eclectic (ringers) can be named as formats but have no trip leaderboard. Pick stroke play or Stableford for now.

Team formats

Best Ball (Four-Ball)

Everyone plays their own ball; the balls that count on each hole are added together for the side. By default that is the single best ball.

Balls that count per hole. The tournament’s settings (and a Ryder Cup session’s editor) offer a Balls that count per hole rule: best ball, best 2, best 3, all balls, 1 on odd holes / 2 on even, a 1-2-3 rotation (one ball on hole 1, two on hole 2, three on hole 3, repeat), by par (one on par 3s, two on par 4s, three on par 5s), or Custom, which sets the number for each of the 18 holes. The side’s score on a hole is the sum of its lowest net (or gross) balls, as many as the rule says; in Stableford the highest-point balls count. A hole is scored once every ball that counts on it is on a card. The rule applies wherever the side’s score is built: match results and the status bar in a Ryder Cup session or two-team event, and the Team standings table at the top of the tournament leaderboard for a standalone best-ball event with any number of teams (individual standings stay below it). The rule is named next to the game wherever the competition is listed: the Competitions page and its session rows, the round page’s Format card and Tournaments list, the tournament header and Sessions list, the Ryder Cup session headers on the dashboard and portal leaderboards, the standings cards, and the top row of the portal’s live match status bar.

Tied holes in match play. Under the Rules of Golf a four-ball hole where the sides’ best balls tie is halved, and that is the default. The best-ball settings (and a Ryder Cup session’s editor, when the session is match play) also offer Second ball breaks a tied hole, a house rule: when the counted balls tie, the sides’ other balls decide the hole. The hole is still halved when those tie too, or when a side has only one ball on the card for that hole. The second balls are compared on the same basis as the first, so a net game compares net second balls. When the rule is on it is named next to the game (“Best ball · 2nd ball breaks ties”) and the Settings tab shows it under Tied hole (match play); the match results, the portal status bar and the hole colours on the scoring screen all follow it.

Scramble

One team score per hole. The team handicap is a weighted share of the players’ course handicaps, lowest handicap first:

Shamble

Best drive, then everyone plays their own ball; the balls that count on each hole (best ball by default) are added together for the side. Default allowance is 70%. The same Balls that count per hole rule as best ball applies, including best 2, odd/even, 1-2-3 and custom per-hole counts, and the tournament leaderboard shows team standings above the individual ones.

Alternate Shot (Foursomes)

Partners play one ball, alternating shots. Default allowance is 50% of the combined handicaps.

Ryder Cup and team match play

A Ryder Cup is a multi-round, multi-format team event: two teams race to a points target across the trip. The cup itself holds the teams and the points rules; the golf happens in sessions, one game over one round. A session can be any format — four-ball, foursomes, singles, scramble, shamble, stableford, stroke play — and each carries its own handicap allowance (four-ball 90%, foursomes 50%, singles 100%, filled in from the format and editable).

Managing sessions. From Competitions, expand the cup to see its sessions. Add session picks a round and a game; the pencil on a session changes its game, scoring, round, allowance or points at any time, including after other rounds have been played, and can remove it. The cup’s Sessions and Rounds tabs offer the same controls. On a round’s page, Add to Tournament → your cup — new session adds that round to the cup and asks which game it plays. The round page’s Format card shows the game the round plays and its Change link opens the same editor, as does the pencil on each competition in the round’s Tournaments list (a standalone tournament opens its full settings panel; a cup session opens the session editor). The × on a cup session in that list removes the whole session from the cup after a confirmation, since a session is one game over one round; on a standalone tournament it only unlinks the round. A round linked to the cup without a session is flagged No game set on both the Competitions page and the round page, and does not count until you Choose game.

Nine-hole sessions. To play a front-nine scramble and a back-nine singles session on the same day, you need two 9-hole rounds (front 9 and back 9), each with its own session. If the day is already on the schedule as one 18-hole round, open that round and choose Split into Front & Back 9 from its menu instead of rebuilding it: the round becomes the front nine, a back-nine round is added right after it with the same groups, tee times and competition links, and any scores already entered land on the correct nine. Nine-hole rounds use the tee’s nine-hole rating and slope.

Points to win and points to retain. The leaderboard shows the target next to the score. The points at stake are counted from the sessions themselves: one point (or the session’s points-for-win) per match on the round linked to each session, using the actual pairings once they exist and, before pairings are set, the number of matches the roster produces (12 players make 3 four-ball matches and 6 singles). Link another round, add a session, or change the roster and the target follows. With the default tie rule, both teams need a majority of the points at stake (6.5 of 12, say) and a tie is a tie. With the retain rule, the leaderboard also shows the retain number and which team holds the Cup: the holder keeps it with half the points (6 of 12) because a tie retains, while the challenger still needs the majority. The holder is found for you when the Cup belongs to a tournament series: the most recent earlier trip with a recorded winner names the defending team (a level recorded score counts as a retain), and the Cup’s settings say which result it came from. Pick a team in the Defending Team setting to override it, or switch back to Last winner in the series. The Cup’s settings show the same numbers, with a Set a custom target switch for a house rule that needs a different points-to-win; a custom target above the points at stake is flagged since nobody could reach it. Teams with a custom emoji show it next to their name on every leaderboard.

Points: a won match scores 1 point and a halved match 0.5 for each side by default; both values are configurable per tournament (points_for_win, points_for_halve). The number of points needed depends on how many matches you schedule.

Stableford sessions: when a session’s scoring type is Stableford, each match is decided on Stableford points rather than holes won.

The dashboard and portal show session-by-session standings, every match’s status, and the running team totals.

Special formats

Point Game

Captains choose which net scores count after each hole; a team must use exactly its target number of scores (40 for a foursome by default). Teams are ranked by team net to par. Details: Point Game.

Skins

Lowest score on a hole wins the skin; ties carry over. Created per round from the portal (Rounds → Games), gross or net, with a value per skin or a prize pool. See Skins & Nassau.

Nassau

Front 9, back 9 and overall match-play bets with automatic presses. Created per round from the portal. See Skins & Nassau.

Handicaps, ties and missed rounds

Allowances at a glance

The allowance is filled in when you pick a format and can be changed per tournament (and per Ryder Cup session).

Nine-hole rounds

A round set to the front or back nine uses the tee’s nine-hole rating and slope when the course has them, so the course handicap is a nine-hole handicap rather than half of nothing.

Plus handicaps

Enter a plus handicap as +2.1. Plus players give strokes and are included when finding the low handicap in a match.

Tie-breaks

Each tournament has a tie_break setting:

Missed rounds

In a multi-round tournament, a player who did not play a whole round is ranked below everyone who played every round, whatever their to-par total. Players are not dropped from the board.

Choosing a format

Related

• Setting Up Competitions
• Point Game
• Skins & Nassau
• Scoring & Leaderboards