Set the round: tee times or shotgun

Quick answer. On the Pairings page, press Round Setup. It is five short screens: Start Type, Preferences, Hole Map, Flights and Review & Publish. The first one matters most. It asks how the round starts. The rest are optional. At the end, Save & publish pairings sets the times or starting holes from your answers. If you have not made any groups yet, it draws them from the field for you.

Who can do this: an Admin or an Organizer.

Before you start

Put the golfers in the field first, because the wizard counts them to work out how many groups you will have. Build the field the night before shows how.

Decide how the day will start. If every group goes off from hole 1 one after another, that is Tee Times. If everyone starts at the same moment from different holes, that is a Shotgun.

The steps

1. On the Pairings page, press Round Setup. The page is Round Setup Wizard, and it says "You can go back and change anything before publishing."
2. Start Type. The page asks "How will this round start?" Choose one:
   • Tee Times: "Groups go one after another from hole 1."
   • Shotgun: "All groups start at the same time — one group per hole."
   • Modified Shotgun: "All groups start at once — some holes get two groups when there are more groups than holes."
3. Still on the first screen, set the Start Time, the Players Per Group (2, 3 or 4), and Holes this round: Full course (18 holes), 9 holes — Front (1–9) or 9 holes — Back (10–18). Estimated Groups shows how many groups that makes. Press Continue →.
4. Preferences is optional. Preferred starting holes are used first when assigning groups. Holes to avoid are skipped if possible, such as a par 3 that gets crowded. Leave both blank to let Back9Ops choose. Press Continue →.
5. Hole Map shows one card per hole. For a shotgun, press Auto-assign groups to holes to fill it in, then press Save. For a tee-time round the page says "Tee-time rounds don't need a hole map" and you can just press Continue →.
6. Flights is optional. It splits golfers into groups by skill, such as Flight A and Flight B, so beginners and experienced players compete separately. The page says most leagues skip this. Leave Use flights for this round off unless you want it.
7. Review & Publish. Press Save & publish pairings. You land back on the Pairings page. If there were no groups yet, the golfers are drawn into groups for you. If you already had groups, the same golfers stay together and each group gets its time or starting hole from your answers. If you are not ready, press Done without publishing instead.

What you should see

After you publish, the Pairings page shows your groups with their tee times and starting holes. For a shotgun, each group sits on a different hole.

If it goes wrong

• You changed times by hand and then published. Publishing sets the times (or starting holes) again on the groups you already have, so a time or hole you typed on the Pairings page is replaced. Run the wizard first, then make your hand changes on Pairings.
• The groups are wrong. Publishing does not move golfers between groups that already exist. To draw them again, go to Pairings and press Generate Groups, or Start Over. Make the groups, by hand or auto-pair covers that and changing a group by hand.
• You want to switch between a shotgun and tee times. Go back through Round Setup, choose the other Start Type and publish again. The same golfers stay in their groups, and the times or starting holes change.
• The course is held for you all morning. On the first screen, the box This outing holds the golf course keeps the tee sheet closed until your field finishes. Leave it off if the course should sell tee times behind you.

Director's tip

Check Estimated Groups on the first screen before you choose a shotgun. A plain Shotgun puts one group on each hole. If you will have more groups than holes, choose Modified Shotgun, which puts two groups on some holes.

Related

• Make the groups, by hand or auto-pair
• Build the field the night before
• How scoring works on game day
• Your event's home base

Still stuck?

Email support@back9ops.com and tell us the event's name, which start type you chose, and what the Review & Publish screen showed.