Seasons and bag tags

A season is how a run of events adds up to a standings table, and, if you want one, a pot. You set one up about once a year, so this guide is the whole story in one place: what a season is, how to start one, how points work, how the money works, how bag tags work, and what closing pays out. Every dollar figure in the examples is made up.

What a season is

Your events run fine without a season. A season is the layer on top that adds them up: a standings table, and optionally a pot that fills over the season and pays out at the end.

You choose how a season ends:

• A number of events. It is over when that many events have been played, whenever that lands. The season screen shows a progress bar counting them.
• Set dates. Whatever events fall between the start date and the end date are in it.
• Open-ended. It runs until you close it, with no progress bar.

Starting one

On the Season screen, choose Start a new season (Set up a season if you have never had one). The setup asks its questions one at a time, and every answered question collapses to a line you can tap to change.

1. Start from a previous season? Only asked once you have a previous season. Choosing one copies its divisions, prices and scoring; the dates start blank. Choose Start from scratch to answer everything fresh.
2. What is it, and how long? The season's name, whether it is Running now or Starts later, and how it ends: A number of events, Set dates or Open-ended.
3. Any events already on the calendar? Attach events you have already created, so they count toward the season from the start.
4. Does this season have a pot? The money question, covered below.
5. How do standings work? Pick the standings option, covered next.
6. Before you create it. A last look at your answers before you create the season, then Create season. You can change these later under Season settings, until the season is closed.

After the season exists, Season settings on the season screen reopens the settings.

The link at the top of the setup screen, How do seasons and tags work?, opens a short version of this guide without leaving your half-filled setup.

Points and standings

You pick one standings option per season. Choose the one that matches how your league already decides who is ahead.

• Standings only, no points. Nothing is scored. Players are ranked by events played.
• Placement points. At each event a player earns points for every player in their division they beat or tie. You set the Points per player beaten or tied, either for every division or per division, and can add Attendance points for everyone who plays.
• Bag-tag ladder. A player's standing is the numbered tag they hold, and the lowest number wins. The next section covers it.
• Points entered by hand. You type each player's points event by event, and the season total is the sum.
• Total Score. A player's score is the total of their best few rounds, and the fewest strokes wins. Count best rounds is how many rounds count.

Every option except standings only also has Minimum rounds to cash: the number of rounds a player must play to take season money. Leave it blank for no minimum; on Total Score, blank means the best-rounds count. On placement points and points entered by hand it counts rounds in the division that pays out; on a bag-tag ladder it counts rounds in any division; on Total Score it must be at least the best-rounds count.

To see how a season stands, look at Standings on the season screen. Full standings shows the whole table, and once the season is closed the heading reads Final standings.

Pot, pass and event fee

The money question is Does this season have a pot?

If you answer No — standings only, the season is free to play. It still adds up your events into standings; the only thing switched off is money: no pass, no event fee and no pot to pay out.

If you answer Yes — collect a pot, pick at least one way for money to come in:

• One-time season pass. A player pays once and is in for the season. You price it per division, or tick All divisions the same price. A division with a price needs the pass to win a payout. A blank price means the division is free.
• Baked-in event fee. A fee comes out of each sign-in and goes into the season pot. The event's payout pool shrinks by that amount and the price the player pays does not change.
• On-top event fee. A fee is added on top of each sign-in and goes straight into the pot. The player pays more, and the payout pool is untouched.

You can use the pass, one event fee, or both. Baked-in and on-top are alternatives: a season uses one or the other. In short: baked-in costs players nothing extra at sign-in; on-top makes sign-in cost more.

Each division has its own pot, and a division's pot pays that division's players. If your league does not keep books, a season carries no money at all: there is no pot and no pass, and you add players to the season directly.

Example: a season with a $20 season pass for Open and $10 for Advanced. Someone in Open who buys the pass puts $20 into Open's pot. Advanced's pot is untouched.

Selling a pass and enrolling players

The Season screen has Sell a season pass until the season is closed, including before it has started. It is not shown if your league does not keep books. Choose who is buying, which division, the fee, and how they pay. The fee is pre-filled with your division's price; what you type is what they paid. A player who joins late pays whatever you type. A division with no price needs an amount typed before you can sell.

Selling a pass puts the buyer on the season roster. If the season is a bag-tag ladder, they are given the bottom tag of their ladder straight away, so you have a number to hand across the table.

If nobody is paying, use View/Edit Season Roster and then Add somebody to the season. That adds a season participant with no money attached. On a bag-tag ladder they also get the bottom tag of their ladder.

Three different things are easy to mix up:

• A season participant is on the season roster.
• Paid means they have a season buy-in on the books. A refunded buy-in is no longer paid.
• Standings list everyone who played a season event, including people who were never added to the roster. Someone you remove from the roster leaves the standings. On a bag-tag ladder the standings are the tags people hold, so only season participants appear.

When a division has a price, a player has to be on the roster and paid to win a payout from it. You can still pay a player who does not meet that, after a confirm. Outside a bag-tag ladder, players who play a season event are added to the roster automatically once the event is completed, with no money attached, unless you removed them earlier. A bag-tag ladder is the exception: you add players yourself, and an empty roster is an empty ladder.

Removing someone from the roster after they paid does not move money by itself. Only the up-front season buy-in can be refunded; fees taken from individual sign-ins cannot.

Bag tags

A bag-tag ladder is one of the standings options. Each player's standing is the numbered tag they hold, and the lowest number is on top. Only season participants are in it.

There are two kinds of tag in the app, and they are not the same thing. A membership tier is something a player buys; it lives under Settings → Membership. A season ladder tag is a numbered tag that changes hands by finishing order inside one season, and lives on the season screen. Everything below is about season ladder tags.

When you pick a bag-tag ladder in setup you make these choices:

• Tag issuance. By first event's finish order, or Manager assigns starting numbers. With the second, Assign starting tags appears on the season screen.
• Auto turn-in after. The number of missed events before a player's tag goes back in the pool. Leave it blank to turn this off.
• Ladder split. One ladder for everyone, One ladder per division, or One ladder per division group, where you name groups and tick the divisions that share a ladder. This, and the tag numbers below, cannot be changed once tags are in play.
• Tag numbers. Shown when there is more than one ladder. One set, shared across ladders means one set of numbers; A separate set per ladder means each ladder has its own number 1. This is a separate choice from the ladder split.

A player's ladder follows the division on their season roster, not the division they played at a given event.

When an event is completed, the tags held by the players who played are handed back out in finish order: the best score takes the lowest of those numbers. Players who did not play keep their tags.

Manage tags on the season screen lets you record what happened off the course: swap two players' tags, turn a player's tag in, or assign a free number.

Each season has its own ladder.

Closing the season

Choose Close the season on the season screen. The close screen has two modes: Check the money and Hand it out.

1. Every season event has to be finished. Until then the button reads Waiting on the number of events still open.
2. You decide who is paid from each division's pot, and you record each payout. The app records what you decide; it does not work the split out for you. Use Hand it out to pay each player.
3. Paying more than the pot holds asks first. You are told how much will be drawn from Club Funds and choose Draw from Club Funds to go ahead.
4. What is left in each division's pot sweeps into Club Funds when you close. Nothing carries into next season; each season starts its pots from zero.
5. The ace pot and Club Funds belong to the league, not the season. Closing does not touch the ace pot, and Club Funds only receives the sweep.

The close asks you to confirm first, and tells you that positive leftovers sweep into Club Funds and that the close locks the season. If you have typed payouts but not handed them out, it also tells you they will not be paid and that money sweeps to Club Funds instead.

A closed season is locked. Unlock the season is the way back in to make a correction. Closing again afterwards recomputes standings and nets the difference, and shows a re-close preview first.

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