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For most golf trips, the captain wants to design the pairings so that everyone plays with everyone else about the same number of times. By this we mean in the same foursome, which is often the only quality time two golfers spend together during a trip.
For a typical trip of 16 golfers playing five rounds, a player will be with three other players in his foursome five times. This adds up to 15 "spots" to play with other people. Since there are exactly 15 other players in the group, the ideal goal is for every player to play with every other player exactly once.
This challenge becomes more complex when you add a Ryder Cup format, where the 16 golfers are divided into two teams of eight. If three of your five rounds are in this format, you need to have two players from each team in every foursome. It's difficult to create a schedule that meets this requirement while still ensuring every golfer plays with every other golfer exactly once over the five rounds.
Fortunately, our pairing scheduler is designed to solve this problem. You tell the program how each round is to be set up in terms of teams (or AB or ABCD), and it can test millions of possibilities in a few seconds to find the best possible schedule. With the scheduler, you can also add rules for who is missing from rounds, or who needs to be paired together (e.g., "Mike and Bob always play in the same foursome in the first round"). The scheduler then "optimizes" the pairings across all rounds instead of looking at one round at a time.
Using our pairing scheduler is the ideal method for creating a balanced schedule that ensures a fair and fun experience for everyone by optimizing the pairings over all rounds at once. Alternatively, you have the option to create pairings manually, which is sometimes done for pre-determined pairings or during a "draw party."
Below are instructions to create pairings using the scheduler or manually.
Creating Pairings using the Scheduler:
To use the scheduler to create pairings, follow these instructions:
Go to Trip > Multi-Round Pairings.
Select the rounds where pairings should be created using the scheduler.
Select the pairing method for every round (See below for information about pairing methods).
Go to the "Rules" tab to add any rules (e.g., player missing from round, keep players together, etc) that should be applied to specific rounds.
Click "Create Pairings".
The sequence below shows the process of creating pairings using the scheduler.
Pairing Methods:
Doesn't Matter: Schedule and balance pairings as best as possible.
AB: Look at all the player Handicap Indexes and assign each as an A player or B player. So each foursome will have two A players and two B players ordered by ABAB.
ABCD: Look at all the player Handicap Indexes and assign each as an A,B,C, or D player. Each foursome will be ordered by ABCD.
Flight: If you've create flights of players (You can do this by going to Golfers > Teams/Flights), the scheduler will make sure each player will only play with players within his/her flight.
Team (partners): Two Teammates play together in each foursome. This is ideal for Four Ball, singles matches, doubles matches.
Team (foursome): Teammates play together as foursomes. This is ideal for best ball of foursome, 4-person scrambles.
Team (spread): Spread teammates apart from each other as best as possible. If there are two person teams, this will avoid teammates from being paired with each other.
To review the results of the scheduler, go to Golfers > Player Times Together Analysis.
Click Here for details on using this scheduler.
Creating Pairings Manually:
To create pairings manually instead, follow these instructions:
Go to Rounds > Round 1 > Create New Pairings > Manual Pairings.
Select the players in the first foursome.
Click “Create Pairing”.
Repeat the previous steps for all remaining foursomes in the round.
Click "Next".
Click "Continue".
Round 1 pairings will then be created, and you can repeat these steps for all remaining rounds.
Note: If you are playing a format with pairings organized by 2-person teams, the 2-person teams will be implied by your pairings. Players 1&2 are a team and players 3&4 are a team. The player order will be determined by the order in which you select the players (in step 2 above).
For more information on creating pairings manually, Click Here.