Tournaments

The tournament engine for your best golf trip.

22 formats. Four shipping Cup templates. And a wizard to design the trip your crew has been running on spreadsheets for years. Bagpipe handles pairings, points, and payouts — you show up and play.

New to Bagpipe?Create an account to start your first tournament.Free to sign up. All tournament formats included. Never doing skins on a napkin again.
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Tournament formats

Each round of a multi-round tournament picks its own format independently. Handicap allowances follow USGA defaults; the leaderboard reads the configured allowance when computing Net.

Individual formats

Stroke Play

Individual

Each player records gross strokes per hole; the lowest 18-hole total wins. Net = gross minus course handicap. The World Handicap System caps any hole at net double bogey.

Allowance: 95% Course Handicap

Match Play (Singles)

Individual

1-on-1 hole by hole. Win the hole = +1. The match ends when one side leads by more holes than remain (e.g. 4&3). Net match play applies 100% of the handicap difference on the lowest-index holes.

Stableford

Individual

Points format: bogey=1, par=2, birdie=3, eagle=4, double-eagle=5; double-bogey or worse=0. Net Stableford applies handicap before scoring.

Allowance: 95% Course Handicap

Modified Stableford

Individual

Stableford with a custom table that rewards aggressive play. PGA Tour Barracuda uses: eagle +5, birdie +2, par 0, bogey −1, double-or-worse −3.

Allowance: 95% Course Handicap

Quota

Individual

Score points from your gross score — bogey 1, par 2, birdie 4, eagle 8 — against a quota of 36 minus your Course Handicap. Most points over quota wins. Birdies are worth twice a par, so it rewards going for it; a league-night favorite for mixed-ability fields.

Allowance: 100% Course Handicap (sets your quota)

Team formats

Best Ball / Four-Ball

2-person teams

Each player plays their own ball; the lower of the two team scores counts as the team hole score. Handicap applied BEFORE comparing (net per hole, not low gross). Common at member-guest events.

Allowance: 85% Course Handicap (each player)

Best Ball (4-Man, Best 2 of 4)

4-person teams

Everyone plays their own ball; the team hole score is the sum of the two lowest nets in the group. Two bad balls are free, which keeps a big field moving and a weak player in the game.

Allowance: 85% Course Handicap (each player)

Scramble

4-person default (2 and 3 supported)

All teammates tee off; the captain picks the best drive; everyone plays their next shot from there until holed. One team gross per hole. Texas Scramble adds a minimum-drives rule (each player’s drive used at least 3 times) — organize manually.

Allowance: 4 players: 25%A + 20%B + 15%C + 10%D (70% total)

2-Man Scramble

2-person teams

The same pick-the-best-shot game with half the roster. Both partners play every shot from the chosen ball, so pace stays quick and a single good drive carries the hole.

Allowance: 35% low + 15% high Course Handicap

Foursomes (Alternate Shot)

2-person teams

Partners alternate STROKES on a single ball. One partner tees off odd holes, the other even. Traditional, punishing, and gorgeous when it works.

Allowance: (low + high) × 50%

Greensomes (Modified Alternate)

2-person teams

Both partners tee off; pick the better drive; the partner whose drive was NOT chosen plays the second. Alternate strokes from there.

Allowance: 60% low + 40% high Course Handicap

Pinehurst (Chapman)

2-person teams

Both partners tee off, then SWAP balls for the second shot. After the two seconds, pick one ball; the OTHER partner plays the third, and they alternate to the hole.

Allowance: 60% low + 40% high

Round Robin

4 players

Partners rotate every 6 holes so every pairing plays together once. Holes 1–6: AB vs CD. 7–12: AC vs BD. 13–18: AD vs BC. Each 6-hole segment is its own match.

Allowance: 100% Course Handicap

Six-Six-Six

4 players

Same rotation as Round Robin — three 6-hole segments — but best-ball scoring within each segment rather than match play. Note this rotates PARTNERS, not formats; for a round that changes format every six holes, see below.

Allowance: 85% Course Handicap

Bloodsome (Reverse Scramble)

2-person teams

Worst-drive variant of Foursomes. Both partners tee off; the captain picks the WORSE drive; the team plays alternate shot from there. Punishing but memorable.

Allowance: 50% of combined Course Handicaps

Best Three of Four

4-person teams

Like Best 2 of 4 but kinder by one ball: drop only the highest net on each hole and add the other three. Forgiving enough for a mixed-ability foursome without letting anyone hide.

Allowance: 100% Course Handicap (each player)

High-Low (2 v 2)

2-person teams

Two points on the line every hole: the better net ball of each side plays the other for one, and the worse ball plays the other for one. Both partners stay in every hole, which is the point.

Allowance: 100% Course Handicap (each player)

Twelves (2 v 2)

2-person teams

Combined net score of both partners on every hole — but only the best 12 of 18 holes count toward the team total. Six holes get thrown away, so a disaster is survivable and a hot stretch is decisive.

Allowance: 100% Course Handicap (each player)

Two-Man Total

2-person teams

Also called Total Score of Partners. Both partners hole out and BOTH scores count on every hole — the team score is the sum. Nothing is thrown out, so one blow-up hole costs the team in full. The opposite temperament to Best Ball, where the worse ball simply disappears.

Allowance: 100% Course Handicap (each player)

Cha-Cha-Cha (1-2-3 Best Ball)

4-person teams

Everyone plays their own ball, and the number of scores that count rotates by hole: the best net on hole 1, the best two on hole 2, the best three on hole 3, then back to one. A league-night favorite — every player matters on the three-ball holes.

Allowance: 85% Course Handicap (each player)

Bramble / Shamble (2-man)

2-person teams

Scramble off the tee, then your own ball to the hole. Everyone gets a drive they can play from and still has to finish it themselves — the most forgiving format that is still real golf.

Allowance: 85% Course Handicap (each player)

Yellow Ball (Devil Ball / Lone Ranger)

4-person teams

One designated ball rotates through the team hole by hole. The team score is that player’s net plus the best net of the other three — so everybody carries the group once a hole, in turn.

Allowance: 90% Course Handicap (each player)

Buddies Trip Templates

Four cup templates. Pick one, drop in your roster, tee off.

Multi-day team-match trips are the reason golf gets scheduled a year in advance. Every round, format, and point weight is preset — the wizard takes 90 seconds instead of 90 minutes.

Ryder Cup Classic

The classic 5-session team match — three days, alternating formats, singles to close.

  1. R1 Day 1 — Foursomes 4 pts
  2. R2 Day 1 — Four-Ball 4 pts
  3. R3 Day 2 — Foursomes 4 pts
  4. R4 Day 2 — Four-Ball 4 pts
  5. R5 Day 3 — Singles 12 pts

5 sessions · 3 days · 28 points total

Applies Match Points scoring and adds a Team Rosters step to the wizard. Standings recompute round-by-round as scores land.

Scarecrow Cup

5 sessions across 2 courses. Every round scores different points — the weight of the day shifts as the trip unfolds.

  1. R1 Best Ball 6 pts
  2. R2 Best Three of Four 3 pts
  3. R3 High-Low 6 pts
  4. R4 Twelves 6 pts
  5. R5 Singles 12 pts

5 rounds · 2 courses · 33 points total

Preset session grid, Cup composition with team composer, and a live Cup Scoreboard. Practice-green tiebreaker off-app when it comes down to it.

Ballyneal Brigade

Weekend Ballyneal event. Team Best Ball Friday and Saturday, optional afternoon round, individual Championship Sunday.

  1. R1 Fri PM · 4-Man Best Ball 1 pts
  2. R2 Sat AM · 2-Man Best Ball 1 pts
  3. R3 Sat PM · Optional (Individual) 1 pts
  4. R4 Sun AM · Championship 1 pts

4 rounds · Team + Individual Championship aggregate

One board for the whole trip — net-only leaderboard, round-strip chips, and Thru-Sat carry-in for the Championship. Optional Sat PM opts skipped players out of the aggregate cleanly.

Bandon Dunes Cup

Tell it how many rounds you are playing and it lays out a trip — team golf early, a medal round, Singles Match Play to finish. Rearrange any of it.

  1. R1 Best Ball (Pacific Dunes) 4 pts
  2. R2 Bramble (Old Mac) 3 pts
  3. R3 Preserve Par-3 Shootout 3 pts
  4. R4 Foursomes (Bandon Trails) 5 pts
  5. R5 Singles Stroke Play (Bandon Dunes) 4 pts
  6. R6 Singles Match Play 12 pts

2–12 rounds · signature 6-round shape shown · 31 points total · Team Cup points, Gross + Net · every round editable

Pick the round count and the template lays out a trip: team golf up front, a medal round, and Singles Match Play as the Cup championship. Longer trips pick up the short-course rounds — a par-3 shootout, and Shorty's on the longest trips — but none of it is fixed. Want Shorty's on day three instead of day ten? Move it. Par 3 Closest-to-Pin is tracked on every par 3 across the whole trip. Supports 4–48 players.

Design Your Own

Build a Cup for the trip you actually run.

Not on the list? Build it. Any round count, any format combination, any point weighting — the wizard turns it into a preset you can reuse next year.

  • Any number of rounds, mix any formats round by round.
  • Set your own point value per session — flat, weighted, whatever.
  • Team composer, live Cup scoreboard, printable scorecard packs.
  • Save it, name it, share the invite link.
Create account · Start designing See what else is in the box

What it costs

Free for a field of up to 36. Bigger than that, one pass covers the event. Running events all season? The League plan covers every one.

Offer prices are the first payment with code Bagpipe50, applied for you at checkout. Plus applicable sales tax. Renews at the regular price. Have a different code? Use the link under the plan, and enter it at checkout.

Full pricing and how we compare →

Ready to run one?

Sign up, pick a format, invite your crew. The whole thing lives on your phone.

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