Your golf trip, Ryder Cup style

How a cup works

• Pick two captains and split the group into two teams of 1 to 20. They don’t have to be the same size.
• Play a few sessions, one format each. Most groups play three to five, and a cup can have up to 8. Each session can be on a different course.
• Every match is match play over 18 holes: the lower score wins the hole, and a match is over once one side is up by more holes than are left to play (3 & 2).
• A match won is a point, and a halved match is half a point each. The first team to more than half the points wins the cup, like 8½ of 16.

Live for everyone

• Each match keeps score on a phone in its group, and two phones can keep score in the same match.
• Everyone else opens the cup’s link, on the course or at home, with nothing to download.
• They see the cup’s score, what each team still needs, how it would stand if the matches on the course ended now, and every match, hole by hole with a tap.
• Tap which player you are and your match goes to the top.
• A match won is stamped in the winning team’s color, and the cup gets its own moment when it’s decided.
• No signal on the course? The scores wait on the phone and go out when it’s back.

The formats

• Alternate shot: partners take turns hitting one ball, one score per pair.
• Four-ball: everyone plays their own ball; the better score of each pair counts.
• Singles: one against one.

Handicaps

Play straight up, or with strokes the usual match play way. In singles the higher handicap gets the difference. In four-ball everyone plays off 90% of their course handicap, with strokes off the lowest of the four. In alternate shot each pair plays off half of its two course handicaps added together, and the higher pair gets the difference. Enter each player’s course handicap, or their Handicap Index and each session works out the strokes for its tees.

Pairings

Players are paired in the order the teams are listed, and a captain can put anyone in any spot. You set up each session when you get to it, so the pairings can wait for the last session’s results. Anyone without a spot sits out.

A pot, if you want one

Play for pride, or everyone puts in the same and the winning team splits it. A tie and nobody pays. The app works out who pays whom, and the pay buttons open each player’s own Venmo or Cash App. It never holds the money.

What you need

A phone in each group to keep score, and the cup’s link for everyone else. It’s free, with nothing to download and no accounts.

Side games for your foursome

• Nassau For 2 to 6 players, one on one, or two teams of two in a foursome.
• Skins For 2 to 6 players.
• Banker For 2 to 6 players.
• Wolf For a foursome.
• Vegas For a foursome, in two teams of two.
• Stroke play For 2 to 6 players.
• Stableford For 2 to 6 players.
• Dots For 2 to 6 players, on top of any game.
• Birdies For 2 to 6 players, on top of any game.
• Sixes For a foursome. Also called Round Robin or Hollywood.
• Bingo Bango Bongo For 2 to 6 players.
• Low ball / high ball For a foursome, in two teams of two.
• Nines For a threesome. Also called 5-3-1.
• Team skins For a foursome, in two teams of two.
• Team stroke play For a foursome, in two teams of two.