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Every trip is unique - some are serious competitions, some are more casual competitions, and some are really all about camaraderie with golf as almost incidental.
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In this article, we will discuss the popular tournament formats for golf trips and how to set them up.

Ryder Cups are perhaps the most popular type of competition played on golf trips. While other competitions (e.g., skins, individual net Stroke Play) may be played as well, the focus of the trip is usually the Ryder Cup.

Ryder Cup competitions are played using various formats where points are earned to determine an overall winner at the end of the trip.

Click Here for instructions on setting up a Ryder Cup competition for your trip.

One of the very powerful features of Golf Genius is that team-based tournaments can be scored with teams in different foursomes. Consider a 16 person trip with eight teams of two players each (each team being the two players who are sharing a condo or room). Create the foursomes without regard to teams, and create a tournament of the best ball of team vs. other teams. The members of the two-person team do not need to be in the same foursome. This allows the captain to create pairings that maximize “everyone plays with everyone else” and at the same time have a number of team-based tournaments.

Setup Instructions:

Below is an example of a single round best ball tournament using the "Condo" team list that was created. It is important to select that pairings "may or may not be physically organized by team". In the "Competition" dropdown, select "Team (all) v. Field".

This can include some or all rounds, but cannot include rounds where golfers are not playing their own ball. Low gross tournaments are a bit unfair if golfers do not have roughly the same handicap, so most trips use low net, and this is usually the highest prize money tournament.

Setup Instructions:

See example setup below:
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In stableford format, players do not get penalized for “blow-ups” on holes; usually, the worst a player can do is 0 points for a double bogey. It’s also possible to keep only the best x of y rounds (we’ll count your best 3 of 4 rounds). This way, if someone has to miss a round, they can still compete in this sort of tournament (the same ability to keep only x of y rounds is also possible with stroke play).

Setup Instructions:

See example setup below:

Golf Genius supports a wide range of options on skins tournaments. Most of us think of skins as player vs. field, but skins can be team, player, pair, or foursome based, counting any number of possible balls, like the best ball of team skins tournament. Skins can be “with carry” or without. In skins with carry, if there were no skins on the first 5 holes, and someone won a skin on 6, that player gets 6 skins - the first five holes “carried over” to the 6th hole. Skins can also require “validation” which means to keep a skin on hole x, you must “validate it” on the next hole by achieving a stated score, such as par. Almost all group golf trips have skins tournaments, and the prize is typically pro-rata to skins won. If the pot is $100 and there is just one skin, then the player with the skin wins $100. If there are 10 skins won, then each skin is worth $10. Remember - since the captain is allocating the prize money, it works best if each tournament has a fixed amount being awarded.
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Setup Instructions:

For more details on setting up skins tournaments, Click Here.

See example setup below:

Setup Instructions:

See example setup below of a best ball of the foursome:

Pair vs. field competitions are a very popular, usually better ball of pair vs. the field. Whenever a purse is set in Golf Genius, the purse is split among the players in the playing entity. In a pair vs. field tournament, if first place wins $100, then each of the pair is awarded $50. Now imagine this tournament played over several rounds. Each player has a different partner in each round, and each player is aggregating prizes over the rounds.

Setup Instructions:

See example setup below:

6/6/6 or 9/9 are great pair v. field formats where only a few rounds are being played. In a 9/9 format, different formats are set for the front 9 and back 9, and the results are added for an 18 hole score. In 6/6/6, different formats are played on the first 6 holes, the middle 6, and the final 6; for example, the front 6 is a better ball of pairs, the middle six is both balls, and the final six is alternate shot stroke play.

Setup Instructions:

For more details on setting up this type of tournament, Click Here.

See example setup below:

Match play is always popular, and most match play is set up in Nassau format; this is actually three matches - one on the front 9, one on the back 9, and one on all 18. Match play can be pair vs. pair (better ball or both balls), singles, or alternate shot.

Setup Instructions:

Click Here for more details on this tournament format.

See example setup below:

Scrambles are common in more casually oriented trips, or in an afternoon round where some players are opting out. Scrambles can be foursome vs. field or pair vs. field.

Setup Instructions:

See example setup below:

Best Ball Match Play (also known as Four-Ball Match Play) is a competition played within each foursome where players in positions 1 and 2 play a best ball match against players in positions 3 and 4 in the same foursome.

Setup Instructions:

Note: For instructions on setting up this format for a Ryder Cup competition, Click Here.

See example setup below:

When playing singles Match Play, there are two matches in each foursome. The player in position 1 competes against the player in position 3 in the foursome. The player in position 2 competes against the player in position 4 in the foursome.

Setup Instructions:

Note: For instructions on setting up this format for a Ryder Cup competition, Click Here.

See example setup below:

Different format over multiple rounds - what if you want to aggregate scores over multiple rounds, but play different formats? For example, play the best ball of partners in one round, both balls of partners in a second round, and alternate shot (stroke play) in a third-round (this is a common member-member format carried over to golf trips). If a pair scored 76 on the first round best ball, 160 on the second round both balls, and 70 on the third round alternate shot, the aggregate score is 76 + 160 + 70 = 306.

For instructions on setting up a multi-round linked tournament, Click Here.

In this format, every player or pair is in a match against every other player or pair. For 16 players there are 120 different matches being scored. Set a purse of $1 to win a match, and $.50 to tie, and each player can win from $0 to $120, but the total purse is $120.

Setup Instructions:

See example setup below:

With this format, you can specify how many balls are counted on par 3, par 4, and par 5 holes. The typical case is 3 balls on par 3’s, 2 balls on par 4’s, and one ball on par 5’s, but some tournaments are set up in the opposite order to put the most pressure on par 5 holes.

Setup Instructions:

See example setup below:

A popular side game for golf trips, keep track of the total birdies (or deuces) for every player on the entire trip.

Setup Instructions:

See example setup below:

In simple skins, we simply add up the skins won in each round. In aggregate skins, we take the best score in each selected round, and then score the skins tournament using the best score for each player on each hole - very much like a ringer format, but for skins.

For instance, if Player A eagled hole #2 on the first round, it could be cancelled out if another player eagled hole #2 on a subsequent round (even if it's on another course).

Setup Instructions:

See example setup below:

Ringers can be fun in more casual competitions where there are a number of rounds on the same course. Ringers is a multi-round format where we take the best score on each hole to get the player’s best 18 hole score. This is very popular on women’s trips and in women’s leagues.

Setup Instructions:

See example setup below: