SPOTLIGHT: ARE YOU GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR BRACKET EVENTS?
Bracket-style events are popular in many sports, and, of course, are a popular format forgolf tournaments. The excitement of advancing in a bracket (and the heartbreak of being eliminated) is why bracket events are played at virtually every club.
There are features and best practices in our software we can recommend that will help you not only set up and efficiently manage these type of events, but also elevate the quality of your event. In this Spotlight, let’s take a look at these features and best practices.
Seed and fill your bracket with results from a qualifying round:
Brackets always need to be seeded and filled in some manner. A common way of populating brackets is by using the scores from a qualifying round. For convenience and efficiency, our software automatically fills brackets using the qualifier results. Furthermore, both the qualifying results and bracket(s) can be included in one event, thus keeping everything in one portal.
For details on this topic, Click Here.
Spice it up with some side games:
Match play is the primary competition in bracket events (e.g., the Club Championship), but doesn’t have to be the only competition underway. With our software, you can add side games to your event without the hassle of manually scoring them independently of bracket management.
While Skins tournaments may be the most popular side game played in bracket events, other games can be added like birdies tournaments, stroke play tournaments, and user-scored tournaments (e.g., Closest to the Pin, Longest Drive, etc).
For details on playing side games in bracket events, Click Here.
Keep your members engaged with consolation brackets:
The “win or go home” mentality may be exciting, but not the best for a weekend of player camaraderie (or club revenue). The solution to this problem is consolation brackets. When a player or team loses a match, send them to the consolation bracket to keep the playing experience going. While they may not be competing for the big prize anymore, they will still be enjoying themselves on the golf course, in the bar and enjoying the company of all participants.
Creating and managing consolation brackets with our software is very easy. Once created, they will fill and update automatically as matches are won or lost.
For details on consolation brackets, Click Here.
Customize your printed brackets using Publisher templates:
There is always an option to print brackets by going to Event > Create/Edit Bracket Tournaments. This is our standard bracket printing option.
However, we often see requests to customize printable brackets (e.g., larger text, different colors, logos, etc). If you are interested in customization, we offer many Microsoft Publisher templates. Download the templates, merge the player data, and further customize your bracket scoreboards within Publisher.
For details on all bracket printing options, Click Here.
Make your brackets come alive with live scoring:
Like all golf events managed with our software, live scoring takes the excitement of your tournaments to a whole new level. Whether your members are watching the matches on the TV Leaderboard in the clubhouse or the event portal at home, they can get instant updates on the status of matches.
While score entry is typically done on the mobile app by the players, staff members or volunteers can also use the mobile app to enter scores to keep the brackets updated. In fact, we have a Scoring Station feature just for that.
Live scoring also works great for season-long brackets. Even though matches are played at the player’s convenience, handing them their printed scorecard (with their GGID) will allow them to enter scores in the mobile app. After the matches are complete, there is no need to report the results. They will already be updated on the portal.
For more information on using live scoring for bracket tournaments, Click Here.
Other Knowledge Base Resources:
Below are links to some other resources that will help you learn more about bracket tournaments.