Best ball and Chapman

Quick answer. In Best Ball every golfer plays their own ball and enters their own score. On each hole the team counts its better score. In Chapman the pair plays as one and enters one score per hole. Best ball starts out on gross, with no handicaps, and you can switch the team standings to net. Chapman is gross only.

Who can do this: an Admin builds the teams and sets Team standings. An Organizer can run the day from Enter Scores once the teams exist.

Before you start

Make the event with Best Ball or Chapman as the format, pick the tees, and have the players in the field. On the format list, Best Ball says "Each player enters individual scores. Team uses the best player score per hole." Chapman says "Teams of 2. Both tee off, swap balls for the second shot, then pick one and alternate to the hole." Set up your event in four steps covers that. Build the teams the same way as for a scramble. The steps are in How a scramble scores.

The steps

1. Build the teams. On the event page, press Manage Teams, or the Teams step in the strip across the top. Pick Pair them for me — even handicaps or Pair them for me — random draw, then press Use these 2 teams, where the number is however many teams the draw made. Or pick I'll pick the teams myself and tap two names for each team. On a Chapman event the page says "Teams of 2 — set by this event's format."
2. Best ball: choose gross or net. Press Edit in the Event Details box to open Event settings. Find Team standings, which says "How the Best Ball team result is decided." Under Gross or net choose Gross — no handicaps or Net — handicaps applied. The net choice explains itself on screen: "Each player takes their own handicap strokes, then the team counts the best NET ball on every hole — so a higher-handicap partner can win a hole outright." It also says it "Uses the Handicap Allowance below" and that "85% is the usual choice for Best Ball." Set Handicap to match. Press Save Changes.
3. Best ball: score it. On Enter Scores there is a row for every golfer, not every team. Each golfer's own score goes in their own row. The board works out the team's better score on every hole.
4. Chapman: score it. On Enter Scores there is one row for each pair. The page says "Chapman (alternate shot): enter one team score per hole. Each team needs exactly 2 active players."
5. Read the board. Press View Leaderboard. A best ball board that is on Gross says "Team standings use gross scores. Handicaps aren't applied to team totals for this format." The columns are the place, the TEAM, THRU, GROSS and the plus or minus against par. Under each best ball team is a Counted: line that names the golfer whose score counted. A Chapman board says the same "gross scores" thing and has the same columns, without the Counted: line. Open the format box on the board for the one-line rule. Best ball's reads "Teams count the lowest gross score from their players on each hole." Chapman's reads "Teams post one alternating-shot team gross score per hole."
6. Best ball on Net. A best ball board on Net has a Gross | Net switch and adds the NET column. The Counted: line names the golfer whose net score counted. The HCP column shows a dash, because the handicap strokes belong to each golfer, not to the team.

What you should see

On our practice best ball event, Prentiss/Hendricks led on Gross with a 70, which is 2 under, and Delgado/Tillman were second with a 72. Switch the team standings to Net and it turns around. Delgado/Tillman lead at 60, which is 12 under, and Prentiss/Hendricks are second at 65, 7 under. The Counted: line under Delgado/Tillman names Rick Delgado, so Rick's net scores are what carried the team.

On our practice Chapman event, Prentiss/Tillman led with a 75 and Delgado/Hendricks were second with a 76. The scores and the order do not change with the Handicap setting, because Chapman standings are always gross. At Scratch the "gross scores" line above the board is simply not shown.

If it goes wrong

• The best ball board has no NET column. The team standings are on Gross. Open Event settings, set Team standings to Net — handicaps applied, and press Save Changes.
• Net is chosen but the board stays on gross. The Handicap setting is Scratch. The page warns "Net needs a handicap allowance. Handicap Allowance below is set to Scratch, which gives every player zero strokes, so the team standings would stay gross." Choose Full (100%) or a percentage such as 85% and press Save Changes.
• You expected a net Chapman board. There is none. A Chapman board is gross only, and its banner says handicaps aren't applied to team totals. Team Setup may still show a Team handicap on a Chapman team. The board does not use it.
• Enter Scores says a Chapman team needs exactly 2 active players. A team is short a golfer or has a third. Go back to Team Setup and fix the team.
• Team Setup says "A team is the players who share one score" on a best ball event. In best ball each golfer still enters their own score. The page uses the same words for every team format.
• Team Setup says access denied. Your role is Organizer. Ask the Admin of your club to build the teams.

Director's tip

Decide gross or net before the first tee, and say which one you picked. In best ball the choice changes who wins, and it is easier to announce it than to explain it afterwards.

Related

• How a scramble scores
• Stroke play: gross and net
• How scoring works on game day
• Make the groups, by hand or auto-pair

Still stuck?

Email support@back9ops.com and tell us the event's name, whether it is best ball or Chapman, and what the board and the Team standings setting say.