Friends, and sending a round to them

Quick answer. Open the menu at the top of your phone and press Friends. Under "Your friend link" press Turn on my friend link, then Share my link and send it to a golfer you know. They press Send friend request. You press Yes, add under Requests. Nobody is added until both of you have said yes. To send a finished round to your friends, press Send to friends on the round’s card.

Who can do this: any golfer who is signed in. Both golfers need a Back9Ops account.

Before you start

You need to be signed in. Signing in, and what to do if you cannot covers that. We walked this on a phone-sized screen with three made-up golfers. We did not walk anything in the phone app.

The steps

1. Open Friends. At the top of the screen press the menu button ("Open navigation"), then Friends. The page says: "Friends are people who said yes to each other. Nobody is added without your yes." It has three tabs: Friends, Suggestions and Requests. A new golfer sees "No friends yet" and "Look in Suggestions for people you have played with, or share your friend link below."
2. Turn on your link. Scroll to "Your friend link". Until you turn it on it says: "Your link is off. Turn it on to let a golfer you know ask to be your friend, even if you haven't played together yet." Press Turn on my friend link. The page says "Your link is on." and shows your link, with the words "Send this to a golfer you know. They see only your first name until you both say yes."
3. Send it. Press Share my link and send the link to your friend. We did not walk the share sheet your phone or computer opens after that.
4. Your friend opens it. The page is headed "Add" and your first name "as a friend". If they are not signed in it says to sign in to send a friend request, and that they will be friends once you both say yes. It has Sign in and Create a free account. Once they are signed in the page says they will be friends once you say yes too, and shows Send friend request. After they press it the page says "Request sent." On their own Friends page, under Requests, you appear under "Waiting for a yes" with the date they asked.
5. You answer. On your Friends page the Requests tab carries a number. Open it. Under "Asking to be your friend" you see their name and three buttons: Yes, add, Not now and Block. Press Yes, add. The page says you and the other golfer "are friends now." They appear on your Friends tab, and in their Inbox they get a note headed "New friend" that says you said yes and that you are friends on Back9Ops now.
6. Choose what friends see. Lower on the page, under "What your friends see", pick one: Nothing about my rounds, Where and when I played, or Where and when I played, and my score. The page says "Saved." A new golfer in our walk had Where and when I played picked.
7. Choose who can ask. Under "Who can ask to be your friend" pick Nobody, People I've played with, or People I've played with, and anyone I send my link to. The page says "Saved."
8. Send a finished round. When a casual round is finished, the card you see has Send to friends near the bottom. Play a casual round on your own shows that card. The page says "Sent to your friend." Your friend gets a note in their Inbox headed with your first name and last initial and the words "played a round". It says where you played, the day and your score for the holes. Under it are three buttons: Nice, Great shot and Strong. We pressed Nice on the friend’s side and the button showed a "1". We did not find out whether you are told.

What you should see

Your friend on your Friends tab, and you on theirs. A friend’s row can show a line about their last round and a Remove button. On one friend’s row we saw a line that began with their first name and "last round", then a course and a date.

If it goes wrong

• Your friend says the link does not work. Press Make a new link under your link. The page says "New link made. The old one no longer works." The old link then opens a page that says "This friend link doesn't work anymore" and "Ask your friend to send you their new link." Send them the new one.
• You chose Nobody and the link went away. Choosing Nobody under "Who can ask to be your friend" turned the link panel back to "Your link is off." Press Turn on my friend link to bring it back.
• You pressed Not now. The page says "Done." and that the other golfer "won't be told." When that golfer asked again, they saw "Request sent" and "Waiting for a yes", but we saw nothing new on the Requests tab of the golfer who had pressed Not now. We did not find a way for the two of you to start again from that screen.
• You want someone to stop. Press Block on their request. The button turns into Block for good; press it. The page says the person "is blocked. You won't see each other anywhere." and lists them under "Blocked" with Unblock. We saw that the blocked golfer’s own page gave no sign of a block: it still said "Waiting for a yes".
• You blocked the wrong person. Press Unblock. The page says they are unblocked.
• You want to take a friend off your list. Press Remove on their row. It becomes Remove and Keep. Press Remove. The page says the person "is no longer on your friends list."
• Send to friends says "You don't have any friends on Back9Ops yet." You have not added anyone yet. Follow steps 2 to 5.
• You pressed Send to friends twice. The page said "Sent to your friend." both times. The friend’s Inbox showed one note.
• Friends under 13. The page has words for this: "Friends are for players 13 and older". We did not walk this one.
• Friend requests on your phone. The page says to turn on Friend requests under My Profile and Moment Alerts. We did not walk that page or the phone app.
• The Suggestions tab. It lists golfers you played with, each with Add friend. We did not press Add friend there.

Director's tip

This one is our advice, not a rule of the app. Send your friend link to the golfers you play with every week in a group text, and ask them to send theirs back. It is faster than waiting for the Suggestions tab to fill up.

Related

• Play a casual round on your own
• Your inbox: messages from your club and your events
• Signing in, and what to do if you cannot

Still stuck?

Email support@back9ops.com and tell us what the Friends page said and what you pressed last. Never send your friend link in an email to us.