Golf League Software

[loc]

Hello

 

I run a golf league of 20 guys. 4 teams of five. We play each player once and you can obtain two,points per week, a stoke point based in hcp and a match point.

 

I enter this into computer manually on an excel spreadsheet with some auto sorting and macros.

 

I want to move to an online software program.

 

Please provide what works for your leagues or such.

 

Thanks in advance.

[puttnforthe8]

Hello

 

I run a golf league of 20 guys. 4 teams of five. We play each player once and you can obtain two,points per week, a stoke point based in hcp and a match point.

 

I enter this into computer manually on an excel spreadsheet with some auto sorting and macros.

 

I want to move to an online software program.

 

Please provide what works for your leagues or such.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

https://golfgameskeeper.com/

 

Hands down. The developers can set you up with a trial. Tell them Joe recommended.

 

It does so much more than any other software out there. It has an app to go along with the web page. So guys can score on the app(their phone), at the end of the round close the round on the app after verifying, and that's it. You scores, skins, gross/net, scramble, 2 man, etc is done.

 

Members can set up impromptu rounds.

 

It has a betting feature to figure out bets at the end of the round...for those who do that sort of thing..ahem.

 

Live scoring that can be watched over the net.

 

A HC can be managed(full service) if needed.

 

I have had the chance to be part of a league that has 50-80 players every week and we used it for the last year...it has been awesome.

 

Oh! It even tracks pace of play and tells you if you are behind or ahead. I believe on the back end you can extract the data to see who is the culprit for slow rounds..if you need.

[BlackRock]

I'm in a league of 36 guys (2 flights) that plays 9 holes for 20 weeks on Wednesday evenings. In the past the guys that ran it used relatively cheap web-based software and printed out the scorecards. I can't remember the name but I think it was about $100. They manually entered everyone's scores weekly and updated the results onto a website. Very time consuming, but relatively cheap.

 

I took over our league last year. I was not willing to spend several hours per week running the league so I tried Golf Genius (https://www.golfgenius.com). It was salty at $18 per person compared to $3 per person for the past dozen years (it was $648 for the season). Some guys bitched, but most didn't care. I went with Golf Genius since they were the only company last year to offer scoring through an app on your smartphone. I gave anyone who bitched about the price the option of running the league themselves using the old software to save everyone else money. Obviously, nobody was willing to 40 to 80 hours needed to run the league.

 

Setup

 

Setup was extremely complicated. A company rep actually sets the league up for you while you are on the phone. This took several hours over several days. As a side not, I am extremely computer and software literate, so I was a little taken back with all the menus and options during setup. This was not like Turbotax where you start up the software and it goes step-by-step doing all the dirty work. I think it is this complicated because they seem to have an option for most tournament and league scenarios. I would like to point out that my rep, Joe, was phenomenal. He answered all questions and set everything up as we needed.

 

As a side note, we played 10 weeks and then reflighted the league and set a new pairing schedule based on handicaps (since we had quite a few new league members this year without handicaps). I contacted Joe at the halfway point and the transition to the 2nd half of the season was underway in a few hours.

 

Pros

 

As for running the league, I can tell you I spent all of 5 minutes per week double-checking peoples scores when they inadvertently didn't give the app enough time to upload their score before they turned their phone off (I made them fill out a blank scorecard and submit it for each round to double-check the scores). I stopped this after 10 weeks because everyone understood to enter their scores, wait 20 to 30 seconds, then turn their phone off. This year, I will not collect scorecards. It will be up to them to check their own scores.

 

The app worked great. We even used it for our end of the year, 2-man scramble, for no additional fees. Joe set that up as well. We have some old timers in our league that tee off the senior tees. The software allowed that and adjusted their handicap as necessary. Nobody had a problem with the app not working on their phone and their was little confusion on how to use the app after the first few weeks.

 

Cons

 

I wish it was a little easier to set up as I would have liked to do it without a rep or minimal input.

 

Price. The software was developed up for high-end country clubs, not necessarily a Wednesday night beer league on a municipal course. Although it was $18 per golfer last year, the price went up to $21 per golfer this season. That's almost $800 to run our league. At that price point, we could probably pay a league member or one of the kids in the pro shop $500 to run our league the old way and save money.

 

Competitors

 

I contacted https://golfgameskeeper.com/ in December and spoke to the owner about using the software this summer. He said they are unable to run a match play league as they are not set up for that yet. Their price was even more at $24 per golfer for $864 for the season.

 

There are no other competitors that I could find. The key for our league, is for an individual or group to enter their own scores either after each hole (which most of our league members did), or at the end of the round when we are in the clubhouse having a beer.

 

Conclusion

 

The hardest part about running our league was setup in the beginning. I spent about 3 hours checking and changing things on the software throughout the season, but that was mostly due to my unfamiliarity with the software, and reflighting our league after week 10. I imagine this summer I have have an hour or less into the software for the entire season.

 

I would recommend Golf Genius, just be prepared to spent 4 to 8 hours over several days for the initial setup.

 

EDIT: Golf Genius is 1 of 2 companies that offer input of scores through an app on your phone. If you are OK with printing out scorecards (or having the members fill out blank scorecards) and then you manually inputting the scores into the web-based software, there are many to choose from, including several that are free.