At TeeRival, our days are spent trying to make running groups as easy as possible. Our goal as a company and the goal of this series of articles is to convince you that running a group is not only easy, it is very rewarding.
Golf groups allow you and your friends and fellow club members to enjoy playing together in matches that are consistently available and run in a fun way.
Before TeeRival, running a group was a big job! You had to do almost everything manually, or your pro shop is/was heavily involved.
Now, you can avoid all these hassles and with our software, we have focused on eliminating the pain points like:
=> No more trying to hunt down who can play this Thursday.
=> No more text message chains or email chains.
=> No more using spreadsheets to make pairings, only to have cancellations ruin your match.
=> No more calling out scores trying to figure out who won skins game.
=> No more confinement to simple games that are too hard to score by hand.
And the list could go on and on.
However, if your club does not have any groups that play already, the idea of starting a group may sound daunting. But it is not, and this series is going to show you just how easy it is to start a group and run it.
Before we go step by step on how to setup and operate your new group, let's go over some of the basics of Golf Groups and provide a bit of an overview of what groups do and how they work.
Structure: Golf groups consist of a group of players. Usually all members of the same club, or players that play at the same course. The group has a leader which we call a “Commissioner” and sometimes a group will have 2-3 commissioners in order to give each leader a break and allow other commissioners to run the group.
The commissioners run the group by setting up the matches. Usually at least once a week, some groups are multiple times a week and some are everyday. You can decide how often your group will play.
Commissioners also decide who is allowed into the group, what the rules of the group are, what the wagering policy is for the group, and just about anything else. Players love this, because they get to simply show up and play golf.
The commissioners run the group by setting up the matches. Usually at least once a week, some groups are multiple times a week and some are everyday. You can decide how often your group will play.
Commissioners also decide who is allowed into the group, what the rules of the group are, what the wagering policy is for the group, and just about anything else. Players love this, because they get to simply show up and play golf.
The commissioners run the group by setting up the matches. Usually at least once a week, some groups are multiple times a week and some are everyday. You can decide how often your group will play.
Commissioners also decide who is allowed into the group, what the rules of the group are, what the wagering policy is for the group, and just about anything else. Players love this, because they get to simply show up and play golf.
Size: Golf groups range in size from as few as 8 players to over 200 members. They can be single sex or coed based on what the commissioner decides.
Frequency of Matches: Most groups play one day a week. Some play more. You can setup any frequency you want and any time you want. In TeeRival, you can even choose the “Random” schedule and pick days with no set frequency.
Players usually like the matches on the same day because part of the attractiveness of your group is that they have a set game on the same day each week. The selling point of your group is that players get to show up and play without much planning.
Handicaps: As a commissioner, you can setup the handicap range for your group. This is extremely important, as your group will not thrive if the handicap range is too large or too small.
If your handicap range is too large (Say anyone with a USGA Handicap Index® from +4 to 35.0) players will start to shy away from the matches because they could risk not being competitive and having to playing with players that have very different skill levels.
If your handicap range is too small (Say anyone with a USGA Handicap Index® from 6.0 to 9.0) you will struggle to get your group size where you want it and may not have enough players play from week to week.
At TeeRival, we recommend a range that is no less than 8, and no more than 15 strokes different. In our experience the most popular range is 4.0 to 16.0.
Wagering: Not all groups need to have wagering. That is a broad misconception. Many of the groups managed in our software do not have wagers, and are very successful and large groups.
However, most groups have some kind of wagering. The buy in fee ranges from $5 per match to $150 per match.
The way group wagers work is they start with an entry fee. Lets use an example of $20 per player as the entry fee.
That fee can be split among the primary game, (like 1 Gross 1 Net that is played as teams) and the secondary games like a Skins game. When setting up the match, the commissioner decides how much of the $20 goes toward the purse of the primary game, and how much goes to the Skins game purse.
Then, when the match is over, TeeRival shows the commissioner how much each team should receive for winning, for second place, etc. For the Skins game, the app shows how much each skin is worth and all of it is paid out of the purse that was collected from each player. We will do some detailed examples later is this course.
Right now, if you setup a group with wagering, you collect cash at the time of play or after the round. Later we will build electronic payment options so groups can get away from cash.
Team Size: Team sizes vary and can change match to match. For example, in the first week you might have team sizes of 4 players and play 1 Gross 1 Net. But the next week you may have team sizes of 3 players and play 2 best balls.
The best practice is to keep mixing it up, but listen to your players and remember what games they loved vs what they did not enjoy as much. This is all about playing the games that everyone likes.
The most common team size is 4 players or 2 players as that allows for 4somes. Team size of 3 Players limits your tee times to 3 players and is not a normal tee time size week in week out.
But as you will learn, team size can help make sure you have perfectly even teams each week so sometimes its best to play teams of 3, or teams of 5, or even teams of 1 (which we call singles).
Mixer vs League: The groups we promote in the app are not really leagues. They can be, but that's not the most common use case.
A league is usually setup where the teams are always the same players. The matches are scheduled on a consistent basis and the software tracking those matches keeps a leaderboard for the match and also for the season long standings.
Mixers are less formal. Mixers do not have to be played on a consistent basis as the members of the group might play week 1 and week 3, but skip week 2. They are meant for players to be able to pop in for a match and then pop out when they have a schedule conflict or are playing somewhere else, etc.
The only consistency of a mixer is that the commissioner is making the match available to the group members on a regular basis. Who plays week to week or match to match is always changing.
This is why players like mixers so much. The format gives them the flexibility they want, but at the same time there is always a consistent game on that day that they can play in if they want. And they will. You will be very surprised how quickly your group members will catch on and love it.
Game Formats: We currently have 12 games that are available in TeeRival. But the plan is to have 30+ soon. We started with the most popular formats so most of what you and your group want to play are ready to go.
The 2 most popular team games are Best Ball & Skins. You can choose how many balls each team will use on each hole in Best Ball, and Skins is a fun format to reward players who have an outstanding hole.
The best advice we could give you about game formats is try them all out and see what your group loves and what they dont. Learn why they like a certain format and how you can use the game options (each game in TeeRival has options you can change to make it very customized) to enhance the group’s experience.
Most importantly, even though there is wagering involved sometimes, make sure the primary goal is to have fun. If groups become too serious or all about the money, they quickly lose players.