Ryder Cup Tournaments
Create and run a two-team match play competition in the Ryder Cup style — captains, sessions across multiple days, strategic pairings, and a running points race to the Cup.
Overview
A Ryder Cup tournament is two teams playing head-to-head match play. Each session sets a group of matches, each match is worth 1 point, and the first team past half the available points wins the Cup.
Unlike stroke play, you are not counting a total score. You are winning holes.
Key Features:
- Two teams, 4 to 20 players per side (8 to 40 in total), in even sizes
- Four match formats: Foursomes, Scotch Foursomes, Fourball, Singles
- Captains and vice-captains, with captains running the pairings
- Two strategic pairing modes: Turn-Based Draft and Sealed Envelope
- Multiple sessions across multiple days
- A different course per session for multi-venue events
- GROSS or NET scoring, with USGA handicap allowances
- Hole-by-hole live scoring, match concession, comments and photos
Premium Feature: Creating a Ryder Cup tournament requires an active Premium subscription. Everyone you add can play and keep score without Premium — that includes the opposing captain.
How Scoring Works
Each match is worth one point:
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Win the match | 1 point to that team |
| Halve (tie) | 0.5 points to each team |
| Loss | 0 points |
Winning the Cup: the first team past half the available points. The app works this out from the number of matches you actually created, so it changes with your setup — 12 matches means 6.5 points to win, 36 matches means 18.5. The target is shown at the top of the tournament page, so you never have to calculate it.
A tie: if every match has been decided and the points are level, the tournament finishes as a tie and the Cup is shared. The real Ryder Cup says the holder retains; the app has no idea who held it last year, so if that is how your group plays it, use Complete Tournament in Tournament Settings and pick the holder.
Match status is shown the way match play is normally spoken: 2 UP, A/S (all square), 3 & 2, and Dormie when a team is up by exactly as many holes as remain.
How Many Matches You Get
The match count follows your team size, because every player is paired in every session:
- Team sessions (Foursomes, Scotch Foursomes, Fourball) —
players per team ÷ 2matches - Singles sessions — one match per player, so
players per teammatches
So a 12-a-side Classic tournament creates 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 12 = 36 matches. An 8-a-side creates 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 8 = 24.
Custom Format lets you play fewer. Build your own schedule and each session has a Matches box showing its cap — "Matches (max 2)" — worked out from your team size and that session's format. Setting fewer is normal and is how the real Ryder Cup runs: 12 a side could field six fourball matches, but the actual event plays four, with the rest sitting out that session.
You cannot set more than the cap, because those matches would have nobody left to fill them. If you build a schedule and then change the team size, the counts drop to fit the smaller roster automatically.
If you want a session where some players sit out — as the professionals do — set that session's match count by hand using the Custom Format template.
The Match Formats
Foursomes (Alternate Shot) — two players per team share one ball, alternating shots. One player tees off the odd holes, the other the even. Rewards a settled pairing.
Scotch Foursomes (Greensomes) — both partners tee off, the team keeps the better drive, and the player whose drive was not used plays the second shot. Alternate shot from there.
Fourball (Best Ball) — all four players play their own ball, and each team counts its lower score on the hole. The most aggressive of the formats.
Singles (Match Play) — one against one. Every player plays, which is why singles sessions have the most points on offer and usually decide the Cup.
Every session and match shows its format with the common name beside it — "Foursomes (Alternate Shot)", "Fourball (Best Ball)", "Singles (Match Play)" — and the Start Match screen spells out the one-line rule, so nobody on the tee has to ask whether they hit every shot or every other one.
Pairing Modes
Captains decide who plays whom. There are two modes, chosen per session.
Turn-Based Draft
Captains alternate picks, each responding to what the other just did. The team picking first alternates from match to match, so neither captain always has the last word.
The draft is live: both captains see each pick as it lands, and the screen tells you whose turn it is. When the final pick is locked in, the session is paired and you are returned to the tournament.
Best for: competitive events where captains want to react to the opposing pairing.
Sealed Envelope
Both captains fill in their whole session privately. Nothing is revealed until both have submitted, then everything is shown at once.
Best for: singles day, and any time you want the drama of a simultaneous reveal.
Setting Up a Tournament
- Games → Ryder Cup → Start a Ryder Cup.
- Tournament Details — name, start date, team size (4v4 up to 20v20), and visibility.
- Format & Sessions — pick a template:
- Classic Ryder Cup — 3 days, 5 sessions (Foursomes and Fourball on days 1 and 2, Singles on day 3)
- Weekend Ryder Cup — 2 days, 3 sessions (two Fourball sessions, then Singles)
- Single Day Match Play — 1 session of Singles
- Custom Format — build your own sessions, formats and match counts
- Handicaps & Courses — choose GROSS or NET, and pick the course. Tick "Tournament spans multiple courses" to give each session its own course and tee.
- Team 1 and Team 2 Rosters — add players and name a captain for each side. A vice-captain is optional.
- Review & Create.
Set your rosters carefully before you create. Players are added during setup, and there is currently no way to add, remove or swap a player once the tournament exists. If someone drops out, the tournament has to be recreated. Almost everything else can be changed afterwards — see the next section.
Changing Settings After Creation
Open the tournament and tap the gear beside the title, or the Tournament Settings card at the bottom of the page. Only the creator and co-organizers see it.
What you can change, and when it locks:
| Setting | Locks when |
|---|---|
| Name, description, dates, visibility, team names, session names and days | Never (until cancelled) |
| GROSS / NET and the handicap allowances | The first match starts |
| The course (or each session's course on a multi-course event) | The first match starts (per session on multi-course) |
| Captains | Pairing begins in any session |
| Vice-captains | The tournament is completed |
| A session's format, match count and pairing mode | Pairing begins in that session |
| A session's starting hole | A match exists in that session |
| Team size | Always locked |
Scoring and course changes reach every match that has not started yet, and never a match already under way — the same rule as handicap corrections. Changing a session's match count also updates the number of points needed to win.
Co-organizers are managed here too. They can do everything on this page and run pairings; only the creator can delete the tournament.
Delete, cancel or archive is at the bottom of Settings. A tournament in setup is deleted outright; one under way is cancelled and kept for reference; a completed one is archived.
NET Scoring and Strokes
Choose NET and each player's handicap index is read from their profile and frozen at creation, so a handicap that moves later will not change a tournament already under way.
Strokes are allocated by hole difficulty using the USGA allowances for match play:
| Format | Allowance |
|---|---|
| Singles | 100% |
| Fourball | 90% |
| Foursomes / Scotch Foursomes | 50% of the combined difference |
On the scoring screen, holes where a side receives a stroke are marked with a dot beside that team's score, and the current hole shows the stroke as a badge. NET and GROSS results are both recorded; the tournament's own setting decides which one counts.
Fixing someone's handicap
Because handicaps are frozen when the tournament is created, a player who updates their profile afterwards will not change your tournament — and someone whose profile was out of date, or who never set a handicap at all, would otherwise be stuck with it.
Open Team Rosters on the tournament page and tap the pencil beside a player. The handicap you set applies only to this tournament and does not touch their profile. The editor shows what their profile says, so you can see exactly what you are changing.
Two things to watch for:
- A player with no handicap plays off scratch. They receive no strokes, which in a NET match is a serious disadvantage. The roster marks them in amber as
0.0 (not set)and a line above the teams tells you how many are affected. Set a handicap before the matches go out. - Set handicaps before you start a match. Strokes are worked out when a match starts, so a change afterwards will not reach a match already under way. For a multi-day event, a correction still applies to every match you have not started yet.
Only the organizer can change handicaps — captains cannot.
Running the Tournament
The tournament page tells you what to do next. A card at the top names the single next step — set the pairings for Day 1, take your pick in a running draft, or start the matches — and takes you straight there.
Days run in order. A day opens once the previous day's matches are finished, matching the real Ryder Cup rhythm where captains pair the next day in the evening. Later days are dimmed with the reason, but they are still reachable if you want to set everything up in advance.
Starting on a different hole. If the pro shop sends you off the 10th, open the session and use Change beside "Starts on hole 1". Every match in that session then tees off there, plays through 18, wraps around to the 1st and finishes on the hole before it — a full eighteen, not a nine.
The scoring screen opens on that hole, the arrows and the "score the previous hole first" rule follow the order you are actually playing, and the momentum chart reads left to right in that same order. The scorecard still lists holes 1 to 18 as a paper card does.
Each session has its own starting hole, so a morning round off the 1st and an afternoon off the 10th is fine. The setting locks once you start the first match in that session — otherwise one match could go off the 10th and another off the 14th.
Scoring a match: open the match, set each team's score for the hole, and submit. Either side's players can keep score, as can the captains. The match status updates live for everyone watching, and the momentum chart fills in as holes are won.
Conceding: a match can be conceded from the scoring screen, which settles it immediately and awards the point. A concession counts toward the Cup like any other win, so it can clinch it.
Finishing the Cup. The tournament completes on its own the moment a team passes the points target, or when every match has been decided. If it cannot — a rained-off final day, a session you never played, or a tie you want to settle as the holder retaining — open Tournament Settings → Complete Tournament and pick the winner or "Shared". The score at that moment becomes the final result.
Troubleshooting
"Missing or insufficient permissions" when locking in picks Fixed in v5.64.2. If you still see it, make sure the app has been updated.
Every hole shows as a par 4, or a NET match shows no strokes The match was started before v5.64.3, when course data was not being attached to matches. Matches started since then carry the correct pars and stroke allocations. A match already under way keeps the data it started with.
A session says its pairing mode is no longer available "Open Selection" and "Organizer Only" were offered briefly but never worked. Any session still set to one of them now falls back to the turn-based draft — use that to set the pairings.
A player is missing from the draft Only players on that team's roster appear, and only those not already paired in the session. Rosters cannot be changed after creation.
The wrong person is captain Open Tournament Settings → Teams and pick a different captain. This works until pairing begins in any session; after that the draft is tied to the captain who started it.
Every match is finished but the tournament still says Live Before v5.66.0 a tournament did not complete on a tie, or when the clinching match was conceded. Open Tournament Settings → Complete Tournament and record the result.
Related Documentation
- Tournaments Overview — all tournament formats
- Individual Tournaments — Stroke Play and Stableford
- Best Ball Tournaments — individual scoring, team selection
- Chapman Tournaments — two-player switched drives