Everything organizers ask us.
How the scoring works, what players need, how the money is handled and what it costs — answered plainly.
42 questionsGetting startedFrom a name to a first tee time.5 questions
How much do I have to set up to get going?
A name is enough to start. Dates, course, the field and the format come after — and every one of them stays editable, right through the event.
Can I try it for free?
Yes. The Par plan runs one tournament at a time with up to 10 players and one organizer — every format, the live board and the money side included. There’s no card to start.
Can I reuse last year's tournament?
Copy it in a click. Every setting — flights, rounds, format, prizes — carries over to a fresh event; last year’s scores never do. You can also start from a template.
Can more than one of us run it?
Yes. Invite organizers and assistants to run the day alongside you, all working from the same live event, so the scoring desk and the first tee are never out of step. Somebody helping for just one event can join as a guest, and a guest doesn’t use a seat.
Seats: 1 on Par, 3 on Birdie, 10 on Eagle.
Can we look up our course?
Search for it and its card and rated tee sets arrive with it. Where the public data can’t be trusted we say so and leave the card blank, rather than hand you a par nobody has played.
A round can also be played at a different course from the rest of the event, and it’s scored off the card actually played.
PlayersWhat your members need — which is very little.9 questions
Do players need to download an app?
No. Players open a link — or type the round’s code — to see the board and enter scores, with nothing to install and no app store. It adds to the home screen if they want it, and their card keeps saving when the signal on the course doesn’t.
Is there an iPhone or Android app?
Not in the App Store or Google Play today. It installs straight from the browser: add it to your home screen and it opens in its own window, with no browser bar, on iPhone and Android alike.
Do players need an account?
No. Turn on round codes for a tournament and a player types an eight-character code to reach their card — no account, no password. The code leaves out letters that look alike, so nobody squints at an O and a 0 on the first tee.
What if there's no signal on the course?
The card saves as you go — there’s no Save button to forget. Your card keeps saving without signal (it works offline): holes are kept on the phone and sent as soon as the signal is back. If the card was changed in the meantime, you’re asked which to keep — it never silently overwrites.
Can players say their scores instead of typing?
Yes — say “four”, “par” or “bogey” on the hole, or read the whole card out in one go. Tap the mic, speak, and it stops listening when you finish. TourneyHQ keeps the scores, not what you said. It works where the phone’s browser supports speech recognition.
Can players enter their own scores?
Yes — hole by hole between shots, or the whole card at once to check against the paper one. Or keep the cards with your staff and enter them yourselves. Either way, standings update on every device as cards come in.
How do players find out their tee time?
Publish the tee sheet and each player’s time is sent to their phone, if they’ve turned notifications on. It’s on their Today screen too, with their group — no email nobody opens, no group chat to scroll.
Can family and friends follow along?
Share the public leaderboard link — on the clubhouse screen, in the group chat. There’s no login, it shows names and scores only, and nothing appears until you publish.
What does a player actually see?
- Today — their round, tee time, group, and the club’s pinned notices
- Board — their own line first, and the column says whether it’s strokes, points or match play
- My card — opens on the hole they’re playing
- Events — every tournament the club runs, entered in a tap
A Money tab appears when the event splits costs. All of it in the club’s own colors.
Formats & scoringEvery format keeps its own rules.8 questions
What formats can we run?
Sixteen. Fifteen are scored automatically, plus ‘Other’ for a club’s own format, scored by hand. All settle onto one leaderboard:
How are course handicaps calculated?
To the published World Handicap System method, from the tee’s own rating and slope then the format’s allowance: the published one where there is one, and a common club convention for a shamble, which has none. Never the raw index.
The allowance is taken of the course handicap before it is rounded, and the result rounded once, as the Rules of Handicapping say (6.2a). Taking it of the rounded figure gives about one player in five a stroke too many or too few.
Done for every player, every round. A tee with no rating says so rather than guessing.
Is this an official handicap?
No. TourneyHQ works out each player’s course and playing handicap for the round, from the index you give it. It doesn’t calculate, post or look up an official handicap index — that stays with your golf association, and TourneyHQ never overwrites it.
Does it work outside the US, and with visitors from other countries?
Yes. Every club works under the World Handicap System, and TourneyHQ speaks your club’s own handicap body — GHIN in the US, England Golf, Golf Ireland, Golf Canada or Golf Australia, or your national association anywhere else — from the country you give it, on every screen. A visitor from another country plays off their own home index, which is valid everywhere under WHS, and it is kept with their own body’s name. Indexes are entered by you for now: live links to these bodies are coming.
Can divisions play off different tees?
Yes. Set the tees once per division — the championship off the blues, the seniors off the whites — and the course handicap does the rest, all on one leaderboard. Or set one tee for everyone, and move a single player when you need to. The organizer decides the tees, not the entrant.
How are ties broken?
On countback — the last 9, 6, 3 and 1 holes — and shown as a tie until something separates them. A card that isn’t complete never loses on countback.
Can we run a multi-round event with a cut?
Yes. A stroke-play cut — “top 16 and ties”, say — is made as its round is marked finished, and scores can carry forward into the next round. A tie at the cut line goes the way the committee chose — everyone tied through, a play-off, or a countback — and players who miss it keep their scores, listed beneath the field. Try to carry a round into one scored differently, strokes into points, and it warns you and won’t combine them.
Can we run match play and brackets?
One bracket, two flights, or a main draw with a plate, seeded from live standings with byes handled. A round robin can feed a main and a consolation knockout.
ResultsNumbers a committee can stand behind.2 questions
What happens if a score is disputed?
Cards move through entered, certified and approved. A disputed card is set aside and named — never quietly counted — and a disputed result can’t settle the money or finish the tournament until it’s resolved.
Can we print, or export the results?
Print the tee sheet and scorecards laid out as they are on paper — club mark, par and stroke index where you expect them. Export results as a spreadsheet file that’s made safe to open: a name beginning with “=” stays a name, not a formula.
LeaguesA season, not twelve separate evenings.4 questions
Can we run a weekly league?
Yes. Choose how each week’s field is decided:
- everyone plays every week
- in unless they opt out — the standing league
- out unless they opt in — the drop-in league
- captains send the list and the club enters it
Players answer on their phones and the tee sheet is drawn from who’s in — then it’s yours to adjust.
What if somebody misses a week?
They show as having played fewer rounds — never as having scored nothing.
In an interclub league, what if a play-off meeting ends level?
It’s settled by a play-off hole. The organizer records who won it, and the next round’s draw waits until they do — nobody is sent through on a guess.
Do you support interclub leagues?
Yes — clubs as flights, weekly pairs, meetings and a table. Clubs level on points share the place; your own tie-break chain sets the order they’re listed in and the play-off seeding, never the alphabet.
MoneyWorked out to the cent. Never touched.4 questions
Does TourneyHQ handle our money?
It works every amount out and keeps the record — skins, pots, entry fees, shared costs — and never holds, moves or takes a cut of any of it. There’s no pay button; it reduces everything to the fewest handovers, and you mark each one settled when it’s done.
Can it split the costs of a trip?
Yes — evenly, by shares, by exact amounts or by percentage, and each cost carries its own people: everyone shares the rooms, only the three at the bar share the bar. Somebody who paid a bill they weren’t part of is credited what they laid out and owes none of it. Golf winnings and trip costs net into one balance.
We're a golf club — do we have to split costs?
No. By default a club’s entry fees and prizes are handled by the club, the way they are now, and the app keeps the results. Skins and side games still work. A club — or a single tournament — can switch cost-splitting on whenever it wants it.
What currencies does it support?
Any currency, set once for the club, with every amount worked to that currency’s smallest unit.
Your clubYour look, your members' privacy.3 questions
Can we use our own colors and logo?
Choose from eleven colors, thirteen ready-made pairings, or your own — and they carry across the organizer screens, the player app and the public board. Each is checked for how it reads outdoors before you choose it. On the Eagle plan your own logo sits on it too, with TourneyHQ stepped back to a small “powered by” line.
Is our members' information kept private?
Contact details never appear on the public leaderboard — it carries names and scores only, and nothing is visible at all until you choose to publish. Your roster stays yours.
Can I delete my account?
Yes — from Your account, once you’re signed in. Your sign-in and all your access go at once. What a club holds about you — entries, scores, roster details, money records and messages — stays with that club, which can remove it. A club’s owner can delete the whole club from its settings.
Plans & pricingPriced on your field, never per player.7 questions
How much does it cost?
Pay yearly and two months are free — $490 a year or $1,750 a year. A player never pays.
How does TourneyHQ compare with other golf software?
See the side-by-side on the home page: the club platforms Golf Genius and BlueGolf TM, and the league and group apps Squabbit, Golf GameBook and LeagueGolfer. Every figure there is from each company’s own website, dated.
Do I need a credit card?
No card to start. Nothing is charged through the app — moving to a paid plan is arranged with us directly.
Is there a setup fee?
No. There’s nothing to pay to get started, and the prices are published right here rather than quoted on request.
What happens to a finished tournament on the Free plan?
A completed tournament on this plan stays open to view, read-only, for 15 days, and is then deleted — entries, cards, results and money. One nobody completes is deleted 14 days after its first round is played. Download what you want to keep from Reports first, or upgrade and we'll keep it for you.
What about text alerts, reading a photographed card, or AI commentary?
All three are built and not switched on for anybody yet. They cost us per message and per call, so they will come with Eagle first, once they’re worth billing for.
We run several clubs, or a corporate golf program.
Tell us how you work — contact@tourneyhq.club — and we’ll scope it with you.
Still have a question?
Send it to us and we’ll answer it.