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Once you have started you Team Matches Season Setup, you will be directed to the Initial Setup tab (as shown below). This first step contain high level setting, which the layout and structure of your Team Match Season will be generated.

In this article, we will discuss the available options in the Initial Setup tab of the setup wizard.

Initial Setup Tab Options

The following are the details available:

Name: Enter the overall name of the team cup matches.
Category: Assign your Team Match to a category, allowing you to better organize the team matches. Note: Category cannot be changed after creating the Team Match.
1. Category: Assigns events within the Team Match to a Category in the Customer Center.
  1. Choose Existing Category: Assigns the events part of the Team Match to an existing category. Use the drop-down to select the existing category.
  2. Create New Category: Assigns the events part of the Team Match to a new Category. Use the "Name" field to define the name of the new category.
Season: Assigns the Team Match to a specific season and all associated events to that same season. If the proper season does not exist, edit the setup and create the season first. For more details on creating seasons, Click Here. Once seasons are applied to a Team Match, they can be filtered by season on the Team Matches Dashboard (Customer Center > Season Management > Team Matches). Note: Season cannot be changed after creating the Team Match.
Terminology (Round Robin formats only): Associations tend to use different terminology for the different structural levels of competition.
1. Simple Team Matches: For those using the Simple Team Matches version, there is only one level called "Section" by default. You can rename that level to whatever you'd like (e.g., division, cup, etc.).
2. Advanced Team Matches: For users of the Advanced Team Match version, there are sections within regions. You can change the terminology here to whatever you'd like. For instance, many associations use the terminology of "divisions" comprised of multiple "cups." (Note: For this help article, we are going to use "Regions" and "Sections.")
Initial Structure (Round Robin formats only):
1. Region #: For users in the Advanced Team Matches version, enter the number of regions.
2. Section # (per Region): For users of the Simple Matches version, enter the number of sections. For users in the Advanced Team Matches version, enter the number of sections within each region.
3. Team # per Section: Enter the number of teams to be in each section. The teams in each section play every other team in a round robin style schedule of some form.
Bracket Size (Available only for Bracket formats): If setting up Team Matches in bracket format, select the size of the bracket.
Players:
1. Number of players representing team in each match: How many players from a team play in each match? In some cases, not all team members compete in each match. Teams may have a size of 12, but only 8 participate in each match.
2. Order: The order in which players are shown for selection when editing the tee sheet. Select the player ordering method within each match.
  1. The captain can either:
    Team Captain Choice: Manually select the player order for each match.
    Handicap Index: Order automatically by Handicap Index
    Course Hanicap: Order automatically by Course Handicap (using the tees set for the round).
Schedule: Define how many times the team play and other schedule details:
1. Every team plays every other team:
  1. Round Robin Setup: How many times does a team play every team in their section? Is it a single round robin schedule or do they all play each other twice (once as a host and once as a visiting team). If they schedule to meet only once and both teams host, then half the matches can be played at one team's course and the other half at the other team's course, using the "Host Club" setting discussed later.
  2. Bracket Setup: How many times does a team play the other team in a round? Do they play once, or do they meet twice (once as a host and once as a visiting team). If they schedule to meet only once and both teams host, then half the matches can be played at one team's course and the other half at the other team's course, using the "Host Club" setting discussed later.
2. Denote home (H) and away (A) teams in schedules and scoring: When selecting this option, every team will have an "H" or "A" next to their name on the schedule and leaderboard indicating if they are the home team or away team in the match.
3. Display match result details on the Schedule > Details pop up page: This allows you to choose whether or not to display the results column in the leaderboard. With this option enabled, the customer and all other users can view the results column on the portal under the Schedule page (as shown below). If the option is disabled from the setup page, the leaderboard does not display the results.
4. Add host venue/facility and match tee time/starting time: This enables Team Match managers to set and display a tee time / starting time, and venue/facility for each round played within a Team Match. The tee time/starting time can be set with a time picker at 30 minutes intervals or inserted manually on the Edit Schedule page (discussed later in this article). The venue/facility can be inserted manually as free text. Once these are set, they will be displayed on the Team Match Schedule tab on both the Manager site and the Portal.
Host Club: Is a match between teams hosted by (Note: This option is only available if you set "Every team plays every other team" to Once.):
1. One Club: If the clubs are scheduled to meet only once and only one team hosts, all matches between the two clubs are held at the host team's course.
2. Both Clubs: If the clubs are scheduled to meet only once and both teams host, then half the matches are played at one team's course and the other half of the matches are played on the other team's course.
Calendar: Select the match dates for every match. In some cases, teams are not required to play on the scheduled date. Instead, they have a deadline date to play. If that is the case, treat these match days as deadline days.
1. Round Robin Format: When setting up the Round Robin format, the number of matches to be played is determined by either the number of teams in each section and the number of times each team plays a match against every other team. When setting up the Round Robin format, additional dates can be added by clicking the "+" button. This is particularly useful when creating sections with multiple teams.
2. Bracket Format: When setting up the Bracket format, the number of matches is determined by the size of the bracket.
Tournament: Select and configure the tournament formats used in each match below. Turn the toggle switch ON or OFF to set up Singles, Four-Ball, or Foursomes matches. Note: The Foursomes matches cannot be played in the same round as the Singles or Four-Ball, and will disable those format if enabled. Enter the following:
1. Competition: Who is playing against whom?
2. Balls: What balls are to be counted towards the scores?
3. Handicap: How are Playing Handicaps to be computed for this tournament?
4. Matches: Define the matches to be played.
5. Points per Match: Also enter the point structure for each match. In the example below, 18-hole singles matches and Four-Ball matches are played concurrently. Two points are awarded for every won singles match. Two points is awarded to every Four-Ball Match. Each pairing group is playing for a total of 4 points.
Win / Loss (Round Robin Only): The Follow option will be available:
1. Do all of the points earned by a team in a match go to the overall section standings, which determines the standings order? Or, is the standings order determined by each teams win/loss record? If the latter, enable "Overall Season Points".
2. Include overall results by combining sections: If you have multiple sections, and you'd like to create an overall standings (combining the teams from all of your sections), select "Include overall results by combining sections). The overall standings will then be available on the Team Matches page as well as the portal.
Section Tie Breaking (Round Robin Only): When all the matches for a section are complete, there may be cases where teams are tied in the overall section standings. Select the primary tie breaking method, secondary method (needed if there is still a tie after applying the primary method), and third method (needed if there is still a tie after applying the secondary method). You can break ties using the following methods:
1. Direct match result: If there is a tie between teams, the tie breaker is determined by the result of the match between the teams. If there are more than 2 tied teams, we will compare the overall match points earned by all tied teams to determine the winner. This includes match points earned against all teams, even teams that are not part of the tied group of teams.
2. Number of team matches won: This option would only be used if the overall section standings is ordered by total points earned in all matches. If there is a tie, break it by examining the total number of matches won by both teams.
3. Total holes won in direct matches: Looking at the direct matches between the tied teams, the team with the most holes won in that match wins the tie breaker.
4. Total holes won in all matches: The team with the most holes won throughout all of their matches wins the tie breaker.
5. Total points in singles and Four-Ball matches: This option would only be used if the overall section standings are ordered by each team's win/loss record. If two teams have the same team win/loss point total, break the tie by looking at the total points earned in all matches.
6. Retain ties: Do not break ties.
Handicap Setting:
1. Click to set automatic Handicap Index updates (GHIN and WHS Customers Only): If you would like to enable Automatic Updates of the Handicap Indexes, check this option. If enabled, you will be provided with the following options:
  1. Click to automatically update Handicap Indexes in the Event Roster: Allows you to schedule automatic updates. For more details on this option, Click Here. If you check this option, you will be provided with the following additional options:
    Automatically update Handicap Index in the Event Roster "X" day(s) before:
    Each Round
    First Round
    Automatically update Handicap Index in the Event Roster, every week on: "a specific day of the week."
  2. Then, choose which Handicap Index to use:
    Current Handicap Index
    WHS Low Handicap Index
    Lowest Handicap Index
GHIN Eligibility Criteria: Some associations have specific eligibility criteria that must be met for players to compete in matches.
1. Max. Index (Only players with a Handicap Index lower than "X" are eligible): Some associations restrict players from competing if their Handicap Index is higher than allowed.
2. Minimum Score Posts (Only players that have posted at least "X" scores between "Date Range" are eligible): Some associations restrict players from competing if they have not been posting enough scores to GHIN.
3. GHIN Membership (Only players that were on the GHIN roster as of "a specific date" are eligible): Players must be on the GHIN roster as of a certain date to be eligible to compete.
Permissions: The following permission options are available:
1. Allow team captains to access manager site: You can give team captains access to a limited manager site to manage their matches. Click Here for more details.
2. Results are entered by: After the match is complete, the team captains must enter the match results. You can allow team captains from both the home and away teams to enter the results, or you can require that only the home team is responsible. Note: This option is only displayed if team captains cannot access the managers site.
3. Allow adding new players to team roster when setting tee sheet: You can allow team captains to add additional players to their team while they are setting the tee sheet for a match.
  1. If you have the Golf Link integration enabled you can allow the following:
    Allow only players with a valid GOLF Link Number: Team captains will only be able to add players with valid GOLF Link Numbers.
    Allow both Golf Link import and manual entry: Team captains can manually add golfers or import from GOLF Link.
4. Team captains are required to mark teams as final before entering scores: When selecting this option, captains will not be able to enter scores/results for a match until both captains have confirmed that their teams are final for that match.
Advanced: The following advanced options are available:
1. Prevent from deleting tournament-specific pages on the portal: This allows customer managers to lock (prevent from deletion) team match tournament-specific pages in the portal of each event generated for each section. The pages that are locked include:
  1. Standings
  2. Edit Pairings
  3. Enter Results
2. Score Entering Mode: Determine how you want captains to enter scores/results:
  1. Both Match Results and Hole-by-Hole Scores
  2. Match Results
  3. Hole-by-Hole Scores
3. Maximum Handicap Index: You can apply a maximum male and/or female Handicap Index for all team matches. The set maximum can be overridden on a round-by-round basis by going to the Round Profile for a specific event.
After finishing your initial setup, click "Save."
1. Round Robin Format: If this is a Round Robin Team Matches format, you will then be taken to the "Structure" tab section of the wizard.
2. Bracket Format: If this is a Bracket Team Matches format, you will be taken to the "Teams (Bracket Format)" tab section of the wizard.