Tournaments

The tournament engine for your best golf trip.

Eleven 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.
Create accountSign in

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.

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)

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)

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

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

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.

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.

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

Round-count-driven — you pick 2–12 rounds, the template pre-populates the schedule. Team rounds early, medal round penult, Singles Match Play always closes.

  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 · Preserve par-3 competition · Shorty's joins at 10+ rounds

The Tournament Director picks the round count first, then applies the Bandon template. Trips of 4+ rounds finish with Singles Stroke Play (medal round) into Singles Match Play (Cup championship). Trips of 6+ include The Preserve par-3 shootout; trips of 10+ add Shorty's. Par 3 Closest-to-Pin 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

Ready to run one?

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

Create account Explore side games