Need help thinking of some tournament format for your next event? With Golf Genius, there are several tournament formats that can be accommodated. Planning and executing a tournament can be a little hectic, but it's important to remember that the format of play needs to cater to your players.
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Factor in the atmosphere you are trying to promote, from fun to formal, and the players' relative skill level. It's never a bad idea to choose a format that your players will be familiar with. The success of every event is determined by your player's enjoyment and success on the course.

In this article, we will discuss the popular tournament formats for:
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Note 1: Some single-round tournament formats can also be played as a multi-round event.

Note 2: Further, this list is not all-inclusive. Click Here for additional formats that can be found in the Knowledge Base. You can also create your own formats using our Advanced Ball feature.

Mixed Teams:

One of the compelling features of Golf Genius is that team-based tournaments can be scored with teams in different foursomes. Consider a 32 person event with sixteen teams of two players each. You can create 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 a manager 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 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".

Single Round Skins:
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Golf Genius supports a wide range of 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, you must “validate it” on the following hole by achieving a stated score, such as par.

Setup Instructions:

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

See the example setup below:

Best Ball(s) of Foursome:

Setup Instructions:

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

Pair v. Field Stroke Play or Stableford:

Pair vs. field competitions are a very popular, usually better ball of pair vs. the field. When a purse is set when using a "Pair" format, that purse is split among the players in the pair. 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 the example setup below:

6/6/6 or 9/9 Pair v. Field:

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 the example setup below:

Nassau Match Play:

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 the example setup below:

Scramble:

Scrambles are common in more casual events, where skill levels might vary greatly. Scrambles can be foursome vs. field or pair vs. field.

Setup Instructions:

See the example setup below:

Best Ball Match Play:

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 the example setup below:

Singles Match Play:

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 the example setup below:

Match of Cards (Player v. All Players):

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 the purse of $1 to win a match and $.50 to tie. Each player can win from $0 to $120, but the total purse is $120.

Setup Instructions:

See the example setup below:

Best Ball(s) by Par:

You can specify how many balls are counted on par 3, par 4, and par 5 holes with this format. 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 the example setup below:

Number of Ball(s) selected by Hole:

With this format, you can specify how many balls are counted on each particular hole. A popular example is a "ONES" format, where you play a player vs. field event, but only count ball on holes that start with "O," "N," "E," and "S" (as shown below). Another popular form of this tournament is if you want to have a "Random Nine" tournament, where you pick nine random holes out of the 18 to make a tournament.

Setup Instructions:
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See the example setup below:

Ryder Cup:

Ryder Cups are perhaps one of the most popular types of competition played. While other competitions (e.g., skins, individual net Stroke Play) may be played as well, the focus is usually the Ryder Cup. Ryder Cup competitions are played using various formats where points are earned to determine an overall winner.

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

Aggregate Individual Stroke Play:

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

Setup Instructions:

See the example setup below:

Aggregate Individual Stableford:

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 the example setup below:

Multi-Round Linked Tournaments:

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). 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.

Aggregate Birdies and Deuces:
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A popular side game for a golf event, keep track of the total birdies (or deuces) for every player on the event.

Setup Instructions:

See the example setup below:

Aggregate (Multi-Round) Skins:

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 canceled out if another player eagled hole #2 on a subsequent round (even if it's on another course).

Setup Instructions:

See the example setup below:

Ringers/Eclectic:

Ringers can be fun in more casual competitions where there are a number of rounds on the same course. Ringers are a multi-round format where we take the best score on each hole to get the