Run a Ryder Cup style event

Quick answer. A Ryder Cup event is two teams playing a set of matches over sessions, such as a morning of foursomes and an afternoon of singles. Choose Ryder Cup on the New Event page, add your players, and press ⚙ Set Up Teams & Sessions on the event page. Work through the four tabs, 1 · Teams, 2 · Sessions, 3 · Pairings and 4 · Review. On the day, open 📊 Live Scoreboard, press Enter Scores beside a match, press Start Match, and record each hole. Every match won is one point for the team, and a halved match is half a point.

Who can do this: an Admin. This was walked as an Admin. We did not walk it as an Organizer or as a team captain.

Web only. This article covers the web pages. We did not check what the phone app shows for a Ryder Cup.

Before you start

You need a roster of players, an even field you can split into two teams, and a plan for the sessions. Matches can be Foursomes (two players per side), Four-Ball (two players per side) or Singles (one player per side). The page shows "2 players per side" or "1 player per side" for each. A small club can run all three in one day.

Decide who scores. Only an Admin of the event, or a team captain, can enter scores for a match. Everyone else can watch. This article was walked with the Admin scoring every match. We found no button on the web pages that makes a golfer a team captain, so plan to score as the Admin.

The steps

1. Pick the format. On the New Event page, under Scoring format, choose Ryder Cup. The card says "Two teams battle across Foursomes, Four-Ball, and Singles matches." The handicap question is not there. The page says "Ryder Cup handicaps are set on the next step. After you create the event, open Set Up Teams & Sessions and switch Net Scoring (USGA allowances) on or off — it's on by default." There are no rounds to add, because a Ryder Cup uses sessions. Finish the wizard. The event starts as a Draft, which golfers cannot see.
2. Add your players. On the event page, open Field and use Add from Roster, then + Add beside each golfer.
3. Open the setup page. On the event page, in the box "🏆 Ryder Cup Event", press ⚙ Set Up Teams & Sessions. The page is called 🏆 Ryder Cup Setup.
4. Teams. Type the two names under "What are your two teams called?" and press Save Names. Check NET SCORING (USGA RULES), which is ON unless you change it: "Scorers enter each side's gross — strokes are applied and the net winner is decided for each hole". Under POINTS TO WIN THE CUP, type your number and press Save. Under "UNASSIGNED PLAYERS — TAP TO ADD TO A TEAM", press + and a team's name beside each golfer. A × beside a name takes the golfer off a team. When everyone is placed the page says "✅ All event players have been assigned to teams." Press Next: Set Up Sessions →.
5. Sessions. A session is a round of matches. Under QUICK ADD, press + Foursomes, + Four-Ball or + Singles. Each session has Edit, an arrow to move it up or down, and Delete. Add them in the order you want to play them. Press Next: Assign Pairings →.
6. Pairings. The tab says "Click a session below to manage its pairings." Nothing else shows until you press a session's name. For each session, build the matches. Press + Add Match and choose the players, or press Auto-Pair by Handicap. Then press Generate and the number of matches. The session then says "✅ 2 matches generated", and each match shows Not started and Enter Scores. Do this for every session. Clear All Matches & Re-Pair starts that session over.
7. Review. The last tab lists what you have, with a tick against each: "✅ Teams set (4 Herons · 4 Egrets)", the sessions, and each session's matches. When all is ready it says "🎉 Everything looks great! Your Ryder Cup event is ready." Press View Live Scoreboard or Go to Event Dashboard.
8. Let golfers in. Back on the event page, press Open Registration. It sends an email to everyone already in the field who has an email address, as Open sign-ups and share the link explains. When it is game day, press Start Event. The page says "Event is live — players can see it now."
9. Start a match. On the scoreboard, press Enter Scores beside a match. The page names the match, such as "FOURSOMES · MATCH 1", and says "This match hasn't started yet." Press ▶ Start Match.
10. Record each hole. The page shows "Hole 1", the par and the stroke index. Type each team's gross score and press Record Hole. The page says "Enter each team's gross — we apply the handicap strokes and decide the hole." A line such as "Herons gets 1 stroke" shows who is getting a stroke on the hole. Under OR SET THE RESULT MANUALLY are three buttons, Herons Wins, Tied and Egrets Wins, for a hole you decide without a score. HOLE PROGRESS shows dots 1 to 18, and ← Prev Hole and Next Hole → move you between holes.
11. Finish the match. When a match is settled early, the page says "This match is decided — no more holes can change the result." Press Close This Match. When all eighteen holes are in, it says "All holes are in — confirm the final result to record it." Press Confirm Final Result. To end a match without playing it, press Concede match for one of the teams. The page asks "Concede this match on behalf of" that team and gives Yes, concede for and Cancel.
12. Share the scoreboard. On the scoreboard press 🔗 Share Scoreboard. Anyone with the link can read it. Nobody has to sign in.

What you should see

Here is a practice cup at Heron Bend Golf Club, a fictional club, with eight golfers, four on the Herons and four on the Egrets, and two sessions, Morning Foursomes with two matches and Singles with four.

Before any match, the scoreboard said "Tied 0 — 0" and "First to 3.5 wins the cup". Each session was marked NOT STARTED, and each match said "Not started". Once a match began, the session showed IN PROGRESS, and a match could say "Herons 1 up · 17 to play" or "All square · thru 4". A finished match said COMPLETE and showed a result such as "A 10 & 8", "AS" for a tie, or "A 18 Up".

In the first foursomes match we typed each team's gross on the first hole and pressed Herons Wins for the next nine, until the Herons were ten up with eight to play. The match page said "This match is decided — no more holes can change the result." with Close This Match, and the scoreboard then counted it. In the second we pressed Tied for all eighteen holes and then Confirm Final Result, and it counted as half a point for each team. We conceded three of the singles matches. With five matches finished and one still in progress, the scoreboard said "Herons leads 3.5 — 1.5 · First to 3.5 wins the cup". It did not name a winner. We did not play a full match with typed scores on every hole.

We looked at the scoreboard three ways. The Admin saw Enter Scores beside a match that was in progress. A golfer on the field saw View beside the same match. Anyone signed out saw the whole scoreboard and a Sign In link.

If it goes wrong

• A golfer says "Scoreboard not available yet. The commissioner needs to finish setting up the event." The event is still a Draft. Golfers cannot see a Draft. In our walk the scoreboard was there for a golfer as soon as we pressed Open Registration.
• The Pairings tab is empty. Press the name of a session in the list at the top of the tab.
• The button says "Generate 1 Matches". It is a plural slip. It builds one match.
• The page says "Each match needs 2 player(s) per side. Please fill all slots." Foursomes and Four-Ball need two players on each side, and Singles needs one. Fill every box, or press Auto-Pair by Handicap.
• The unassigned list is not empty. Someone is not on a team. Press + and a team's name beside them.
• A golfer opens a match and sees "👀 View only — only the event's admins or a team captain can score this match." That is meant. Score it yourself as the Admin. We found no control on the web pages for naming a team captain.
• The result shows "A" or "B" and not a team's name. A match result reads "A 10 & 8" or "B 15 Up". A is the first team on the setup page and B is the second. After a concession, the number is the holes still to play. A concession from the first hole read "A 18 Up" or "B 15 Up".
• The scoreboard keeps saying "leads" at 3.5 points. It does. It said "Herons leads 3.5 — 1.5 · First to 3.5 wins the cup" and never said the cup was won. You announce the winner.
• I closed a match and the scoreboard still shows Enter Scores. For an Admin the button stays, even on a match that is closed.
• The event page shows a Pairings line and a Round card. They were made for stroke play and do not follow a Ryder Cup. The 4 · Review tab on the setup page is the real checklist.
• I pressed Close Event and the warning does not sound right. It is the stroke play warning. It says "Closing this event makes the results FINAL: scores lock, and a card that was never finished is ranked below every card that was." and, for us, "No scores have been entered for this event at all." That is not true of a Ryder Cup. Closing did not lock the matches. After we closed the event, a match that was in progress still took a hole. Finish and confirm every match before you press Close Event. View Results after closing takes you to the Ryder Cup scoreboard.
• I recorded the wrong score on a hole. We did not walk correcting a hole already recorded. Use ← Prev Hole to go back to it, and check the scoreboard afterward.
• An Organizer cannot open the setup page. We did not walk it as an Organizer. If you hit a wall, email us and say so.

Director's tip

Build the pairings the evening before, once both team captains have told you who plays with whom, so the scoreboard is ready when the golfers arrive. Give the Enter Scores job to one person at one table with a laptop, and have each match report to that table after every hole or at the turn. Then press 🔗 Share Scoreboard and send the link to the whole field.

Related

• Picking the right format for your outing
• Set up your event
• Your event's home base
• Open sign-ups and share the link
• Match play

Still stuck?

Email support@back9ops.com and tell us the event's name, which tab or match you are on, and what the page says.