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Ryder Cup Tournaments

Create and run a two-team match play competition in the Ryder Cup style — captains, sessions across multiple days, strategic pairings, and a running points race to the Cup.

Overview

A Ryder Cup tournament is two teams playing head-to-head match play. Each session sets a group of matches, each match is worth 1 point, and the first team past half the available points wins the Cup.

Unlike stroke play, you are not counting a total score. You are winning holes.

Key Features:

  • Two teams, 4 to 20 players per side (8 to 40 in total), in even sizes
  • Four match formats: Foursomes, Scotch Foursomes, Fourball, Singles
  • Captains and vice-captains, with captains running the pairings
  • Two strategic pairing modes: Turn-Based Draft and Sealed Envelope
  • Multiple sessions across multiple days
  • A different course per session for multi-venue events
  • GROSS or NET scoring, with USGA handicap allowances
  • Hole-by-hole live scoring, match concession, comments and photos

Premium Feature: Creating a Ryder Cup tournament requires an active Premium subscription. Everyone you add can play and keep score without Premium — that includes the opposing captain.

How Scoring Works

Each match is worth one point:

ResultPoints
Win the match1 point to that team
Halve (tie)0.5 points to each team
Loss0 points

Winning the Cup: the first team past half the available points. The app works this out from the number of matches you actually created, so it changes with your setup — 12 matches means 6.5 points to win, 36 matches means 18.5. The target is shown at the top of the tournament page, so you never have to calculate it.

Match status is shown the way match play is normally spoken: 2 UP, A/S (all square), 3 & 2, and Dormie when a team is up by exactly as many holes as remain.

How Many Matches You Get

The match count follows your team size, because every player is paired in every session:

  • Team sessions (Foursomes, Scotch Foursomes, Fourball) — players per team ÷ 2 matches
  • Singles sessions — one match per player, so players per team matches

So a 12-a-side Classic tournament creates 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 12 = 36 matches. An 8-a-side creates 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 8 = 24.

If you want a session where some players sit out — as the professionals do — set that session's match count by hand using the Custom Format template.

The Match Formats

Foursomes (Alternate Shot) — two players per team share one ball, alternating shots. One player tees off the odd holes, the other the even. Rewards a settled pairing.

Scotch Foursomes (Greensomes) — both partners tee off, the team keeps the better drive, and the player whose drive was not used plays the second shot. Alternate shot from there.

Fourball (Best Ball) — all four players play their own ball, and each team counts its lower score on the hole. The most aggressive of the formats.

Singles — one against one. Every player plays, which is why singles sessions have the most points on offer and usually decide the Cup.

Pairing Modes

Captains decide who plays whom. There are two modes, chosen per session.

Turn-Based Draft

Captains alternate picks, each responding to what the other just did. The team picking first alternates from match to match, so neither captain always has the last word.

The draft is live: both captains see each pick as it lands, and the screen tells you whose turn it is. When the final pick is locked in, the session is paired and you are returned to the tournament.

Best for: competitive events where captains want to react to the opposing pairing.

Sealed Envelope

Both captains fill in their whole session privately. Nothing is revealed until both have submitted, then everything is shown at once.

Best for: singles day, and any time you want the drama of a simultaneous reveal.

Setting Up a Tournament

  1. Games → Ryder Cup → Start a Ryder Cup.
  2. Tournament Details — name, start date, team size (4v4 up to 20v20), and visibility.
  3. Format & Sessions — pick a template:
    • Classic Ryder Cup — 3 days, 5 sessions (Foursomes and Fourball on days 1 and 2, Singles on day 3)
    • Weekend Ryder Cup — 2 days, 3 sessions (two Fourball sessions, then Singles)
    • Single Day Match Play — 1 session of Singles
    • Custom Format — build your own sessions, formats and match counts
  4. Handicaps & Courses — choose GROSS or NET, and pick the course. Tick "Tournament spans multiple courses" to give each session its own course and tee.
  5. Team 1 and Team 2 Rosters — add players and name a captain for each side. A vice-captain is optional.
  6. Review & Create.

Set your rosters carefully before you create. Players are added during setup, and there is currently no way to add, remove or swap a player once the tournament exists. If someone drops out, the tournament has to be recreated.

NET Scoring and Strokes

Choose NET and each player's handicap index is read from their profile and frozen at creation, so a handicap that moves later will not change a tournament already under way.

Strokes are allocated by hole difficulty using the USGA allowances for match play:

FormatAllowance
Singles100%
Fourball90%
Foursomes / Scotch Foursomes50% of the combined difference

On the scoring screen, holes where a side receives a stroke are marked with a dot beside that team's score, and the current hole shows the stroke as a badge. NET and GROSS results are both recorded; the tournament's own setting decides which one counts.

Running the Tournament

The tournament page tells you what to do next. A card at the top names the single next step — set the pairings for Day 1, take your pick in a running draft, or start the matches — and takes you straight there.

Days run in order. A day opens once the previous day's matches are finished, matching the real Ryder Cup rhythm where captains pair the next day in the evening. Later days are dimmed with the reason, but they are still reachable if you want to set everything up in advance.

Scoring a match: open the match, set each team's score for the hole, and submit. Either side's players can keep score, as can the captains. The match status updates live for everyone watching, and the momentum chart fills in as holes are won.

Conceding: a match can be conceded from the scoring screen, which settles it immediately and awards the point.

Troubleshooting

"Missing or insufficient permissions" when locking in picks Fixed in v5.64.2. If you still see it, make sure the app has been updated.

Every hole shows as a par 4, or a NET match shows no strokes The match was started before v5.64.3, when course data was not being attached to matches. Matches started since then carry the correct pars and stroke allocations. A match already under way keeps the data it started with.

A session says its pairing mode is no longer available "Open Selection" and "Organizer Only" were offered briefly but never worked. Any session still set to one of them now falls back to the turn-based draft — use that to set the pairings.

A player is missing from the draft Only players on that team's roster appear, and only those not already paired in the session. Rosters cannot be changed after creation.

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