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Run an event

Member-guests, member-members, any club event

A member-guest is just an event. Here’s how you run one.

Flights you define, each with its own board, five 9-hole matches over two days, a leaderboard that moves on every hole, and a shootout if you want one. There is no member-guest mode to find. It is what any Swilkin event does, so the same setup runs your member-member and your club cup.

Set up your member-guest for free Member-guest formats, explained

✓ Free for golfers, not a trial.

A member-guest’s event page on a phone, live: Score your round, and its leaderboard opened on the Second Flight, the one the golfer plays in, with a chip for each of the other eight; Marcus Webb and Grace Sato lead it on 23 points through 8 holes of the round, Wade Oyelaran and Dean Bishop second on 21½

The weekend, in the order you run it

1

Take the entries

One sign-up link. A member enters the team and adds the guest by name, and the guest needs nothing.

2

Set up the flights

Name each flight, say who plays in it, and say whether it crowns a winner. Each flight is its own race on its own board.

3

Pick the game and the rounds

Points Match, best ball, stroke play, or Stableford, over as many rounds and days as you play.

4

Play it, then crown it

The boards move as the cards come in. One overall winner is optional: a shootout, a putt-off, or none at all.

Flights

Every flight is its own race.

You define the flights: by handicap, by tee, or however your field splits. Name each one, say who plays in it, and say whether it crowns a winner. A team races only the teams in its flight.

Ranking everyone together is a switch, and it stays off until you turn it on. Each golfer’s event page opens on their own flight, with a chip for every other one.

An event’s boards on a phone: Name each board, say who is on it, and whether it crowns a champion. The Championship Flight takes flight A, net at 100% over rounds 1 to 5, ranks teams, and its champion is its winner; the Second Flight starts below it

The game

Any game can be the event’s game.

Stroke play, Stableford, best ball, Match Play, or Points Match. The event plays the one you pick on every card, and the leaderboard ranks it.

Points Match is how a lot of clubs play their member-guest. A hole won is worth 1, a halve is ½ to each side, and winning the match is worth 1 more. Nine holes is ten points a match, so a team that wins 1 up takes it 6–4.

All three numbers are yours to change, and it plays net unless you say gross. You can also say that a team that wins every match wins its flight.

An event’s Points Match format on a phone: scored net at a 100% allowance, a hole won worth 1, a hole halved worth 0.5 to each side, the match worth 1, every hole played, and the choice that a team that wins every match wins its flight

The leaderboard

It moves on every hole. Then it’s final.

Every hole posted moves the points, through every round of the event, and a match’s point lands the moment the match is decided. Nobody waits for a group to finish to see where they stand.

While you score, the round’s board is its matches, flight by flight, each one as it stands.

When the last round is in, the board is final. A score fixed after that waits for the organizer to confirm it, so the result everyone saw stays put until you say otherwise.

Round 4’s matches while it is being played, on a phone, grouped by flight: in the Second Flight Marcus Webb and Grace Sato lead Amara Halvorsen and Ray Rahman 4½–3½ through the 17th, and every other match’s points as it stands

Rounds and days

Five matches, two days, one board.

An event holds as many rounds as you play, each on its own day and its own nine. Six teams to a flight means five 9-hole matches: three on the first day and two on the second, and the board adds them up as they go.

Each round has its own tee sheet, off one tee or a shotgun (an 18-hole round can also go off a split tee), and a round later the same day goes off after the one before it.

The tee sheet on a phone for round 2 of five, later the same day: off one tee from 1:43 PM, eight minutes apart, each group a match between two teams of a flight

Pairings

Every team plays every team in its flight.

One tap on the tee sheet draws a round robin, flight by flight: six teams play five rounds of three matches, and nobody meets the same team twice. Tap two teams to swap them.

The tee sheet on a phone after one tap on Round robin: every team plays every other in its flight once, five rounds of three matches a flight, round 1 off one tee from 8:00 AM

Ties

Ties go down your list.

Put the ways to break a tie in the order you want them: a playoff, countback from the 18th backward, countback over the last 9, 6, 3, and 1, head-to-head between the tied teams, or your own call, like a chip-off or a coin flip. The same list settles every board in the event, a tie for 1st or every tie.

The board just shows the place: 1, 2, T3.

An event’s tie-breaks on a phone, under Also rank everyone together, switched off: a tie for 1st goes to head-to-head, then countback from the last hole backward, then your own call, with countback 9·6·3·1 and a playoff ready to add

The shootout

An overall winner is optional.

A shootout plays the last holes of a round, and you pick who is in: each flight’s winner, teams you name, or both. On each hole the worst scores go out, and a tie across the line plays on.

The board says the hole, how many are left, and how many go. A putt-off or a chip-off played off the app goes in as its own board, and you record who won.

A shootout in play on a phone, on the last round’s back nine: Hole 17, eight teams left, four go out; the eight still in at the top and the one already out placed below them

Champions

A board crowns a winner only if you say so.

Each board’s champion is its winner, one you pick, or none. A flight can crown its own winner, or play only for a place in the shootout.

Every award stays on the golfer’s record, guests included.

A finished member-guest on a phone, its shootout board final over holes 15 to 18: Aisha Russo and Rusty Cross on top with the trophy at five under, then Rosa Brennan and Vic Kerr, and Ruth Fitzgerald and Luis Zhang, tied second at three under, each team with its flight

The same setup runs the rest of your calendar

The member-member

Same flights, same points, same two days. Members on both sides of every match.

The club cup

Two teams, a slate of matches, a point a match. A cup is an event whose game is Match Play.

The club championship

Stroke play in the flights you name, every board off the same cards.

The board in the grill room

A full-screen TV board that cycles through every flight. Families follow the same board in a browser, no login.

Cards for every group

Print a card per group with each golfer’s shots marked and a code that lets one person score for the group.

What it costs

Running an event is free. No card, no per-event fee.

Straight answers

What golfers ask before they try it

Can it run a real tournament?

Yes: sign-ups with a waitlist, field management, flights (re-flighted after a round if you want), cuts, tee times or a shotgun (emailed to the field), side bets between players, even across groups, live leaderboards, a big-screen TV board, and a public event page your players can find. While it plays you see which groups are posting, and an Official on your club's staff can lock or reopen a round. Next year's edition can start with the series' roster already seated. Built for the events Golf Genius prices out.

Can we do flights?

Yes. An event is the boards you define: flights by handicap, by tee, or however your field splits, and each flight races only itself. A board that ranks everyone together is there only if you add one, and a board crowns a winner only if you say so. One card counts on every board it belongs to. Tap any row on a board to open that golfer's card, strokes marked.

How do ties get broken?

A casual round settles a tie for first hole by hole, backward from the last hole both golfers played. Running an event you pick the ways and their order at setup: a playoff you record, countback hole by hole or by the last 9, 6, 3, and 1, head-to-head where the tied played each other, or your own call (a chip-off, a coin flip, closest to the pin), and whether they break only a tie for 1st or every tie. The board shows only the place: 1, 2, T3; a tie nothing breaks is shared.

Can players sign themselves up for my event?

Yes. Open sign-ups with a shareable link, opening and closing on the schedule you set, a field cap with an automatic waitlist, handicap limits if you want them, and team sign-ups for pairs events. No anonymous entries: whoever registers is signed in, and the teammates they enter by name become claimable golfers, not blanks. Add your own questions (tees, shirt size, anything), each required or optional and answered per player, and export the roster to a spreadsheet. A waitlisted golfer is told their place in line; whenever a seat opens, the longest-waiting alternate moves into the field and is told. An alternate isn't carded until then.

Can it show a leaderboard on the clubhouse TV?

Every event has a full-bleed TV board: open it on any browser, cast it, and it updates live as groups post. Light by default, or themed to your event's look: Magnolia, Patriot, Midnight, and more. It pages through the field on its own, and left alone it cycles through every board (each flight, the order of merit, the cup) and adding ?board= to the link pins one. A club can also run one channel that rotates every board it has live, starting in the next 24 hours or finished in the last 48, and shows the reigning champion, the order of merit and the next event when nothing's on. A draft or private event never appears there.

How much does it cost?

Free for golfers: scoring, bets, stats, rivalries, all of it. Running an event is free too: sign-ups, boards, leagues, all of it. No card, no per-event fee, and no trial that ends. Nobody in your foursome pays to get charged a skin.

More questions and answers →

Set it up before the invitations go out.

Make the event, open sign-ups, and the field builds itself. Free to run.

Set up your member-guest for free