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One of the most important steps when creating a bracket tournament is filling and seeding the bracket to determine first round matches. After creating a bracket tournament setup (Event/League > Bracket Tournaments), you will be asked to fill and seed the bracket(s).
In this article, we will discuss the various ways to do this.
(Note: To view more information on bracket tournaments, Click Here.)
Once the bracket tournament setup is complete, go to Event/League > Bracket Tournaments > Edit First Round Matches.
If you have multiple bracket tournaments in the event, you can navigate from one to the other by clicking the available dropdown menu (as shown below).
As you fill and seed a bracket tournament, the tee sheet for the 1st round will automatically fill (Rounds > Edit Pairings). If you have to make any changes to the bracket (e.g., move players/teams, etc), the tee sheet will also change automatically for you.
Note: Bracket Tournaments automatically fill in the Pairings (Round > Edit Pairings). Therefore, the only adjustment that should be made from the Edit Pairings pages is setting the tee time or shotgun, and course details. No additional adjustments should (e.g., move pairings, swapping players, add or remove players, etc.). Those changes should all be made by going to Event/League > Bracket Tournaments > Edit First Round Matches.
There are five tabs available to help you fill and seed your players/teams. We will discuss all four tabs below:
Not on any Brackets:
This option allows you to manually fill your players/teams into the bracket. The empty slots for all the matches are listed on the left. The available players/teams are listed on the right. To fill the bracket, follow these instructions:
Click on the available player/team on the right
Click on the empty slot (seed) on the left where you'd like to place the player/team.
Click "Done" to save the changes.
You can also swap players/teams already seeded on the left. Click on both the players/teams and they will swap. To help you better view the available players, you can also sort them by certain parameters using the "Sort by" dropdown.
The sequence below shows the process of manually filling a bracket.
On Other Brackets:
If you have multiple bracket tournaments in the event, and some players/teams have already been placed on another bracket, you can go to this tab to include them in this bracket. By doing this, players/teams can play in multiple bracket tournaments within an event.
Just like the "Not on any Brackets" tab (discussed above), simply click on the player/team on the right then the empty slot on the left.
Bye/TBD:
There are sometimes cases where a bracket has an empty slot that may or may not be filled later. By default, an empty slot is assigned to be a bye (and permanently empty). This is often the case for uneven brackets where some players/teams have byes in the first round. Players/teams getting a bye will automatically advance in the bracket.
In cases where an empty slot is needed, but is intended to be filled at some point in the future, you can assign the slot as a TBD. The player/team playing against the TBD will not automatically advance to the next round. The TBD essentially acts as a place holder for a future player/team until the player/team is added to the bracket.
When selecting this option, you can assign all currently empty slots in the bracket as a bye or TBD (as shown below).
You can also assign specific empty slots as Byes or TBDs by following these instructions:
Select "Bye" or "TBD" on the right
Select the empty slot(s) on the left.
Click "Done"
The sequence below shows the process of assigning two empty slots as TBDs.
Auto-Fill:
Rather than manually filling your bracket (using the options above), you can automatically fill and seed players/teams instead using any of the following methods:
Random: Take the available players/teams and randomly place them in the bracket. Once assigned randomly, you can further make changes by clicking on the players/teams on the left. In the sequence above, we are filling the bracket randomly then making one change afterwards (swapping Rosenberg and Katz).
Handicap Index: Fill the bracket by index. For instance, if you are setting up an 8-person bracket, the player with the lowest Handicap Index (1 seed) will play a match against the player with the highest Handicap Index (8 seed). If setting up a team bracket, then total team Handicap Index will be used. If there are any teams/players with the same Handicap Index, they will be further seeded alphabetically.
Custom Field: If you have custom field created that lists the seed numbers, you can use that custom field to instantly seed and fill the bracket. This is typically done via spreadsheet.
Above is the portion of an event roster about to be uploaded to a bracket event. Once uploaded, a "Seed" custom field will be created and can be used to fill and seed the bracket when the time comes. If you already have the players on the event roster, you can always download the roster via spreadsheet (Golfers > Download Roster to Spreadsheet), add a "seed" column, enter the seeds, and upload the spreadsheet back.
Previous Results: If a qualifying round was used in the event to determine seeding, select the tournament within the round that was used and the bracket will be seeded and filled by the results of that qualifying tournament. For details on qualifying rounds in bracket tournaments, Click Here.
Consolation Bracket: The losing teams/players for a round can be used to create a consolation bracket. Once setup, the consolation bracket will automatically fill as the results come in. Click Here for details.
Reorder Bracket:
This option gives you most of the same options as the "Auto-Fill" tab, however its purpose is to re-organize the players/teams already filled into the bracket. New players/teams will not be added to the bracket. One added feature on this tab is the ability to "Lock" players/teams. When locking a player/team, they will stay in that position in the bracket as you re-organize and reorder the bracket using any of the available methods.
Take a look above. We are going to re-order the players in this bracket by results from a qualifying round. However, Kyle Wertman was the defending champion of this tournament and he retains the 1 seed without having to qualify. Therefore, we are placing him as a 1 seed, locking him there, and re-ordering the bracket by qualifying results. The player with the lowest score in the qualifying round will be the 2 seed.