Facility Challenges

Facility Challenges let you run facility-run contests open for a window of time—an evening, a weekend, a month, or open-ended. Golfers enter, play one or more attempts, and results are ranked on a live leaderboard. When the window closes, the facility manager reviews and approves results, and RoundBoss calculates payouts.

How Challenges Work

The Basics

A Challenge consists of:

• Stages — One or more GSPro rounds, each on a single course with a hole list and locked settings (1–6 stages per challenge)
• Entries — Golfer registrations, including name, handicap, and flight assignment
• Attempts — Each golfer can attempt multiple times (1–unlimited, configurable). Each attempt walks through all stages in order
• Leaderboard — Live ranking of completed attempts, updated instantly. Respects flights (handicap bands, gender, age, custom), scoring method (gross/net), and visibility settings

Entry and Play Flow

1. Golfer joins — Joins from the challenge's public page or from their RoundBoss mobile app. Facility members sign in at the facility; non-members scan a QR code to sign up on their phone
2. Access — Challenges appear in their normal app — the facility-member app (/solo) for non-league golfers, or their league player app for league members
3. Checks in at bay — Taps RoundBoss Check In on GSPro's main menu, then Challenges on the kiosk home (between League and Play GSPro normally; no password) → picks the challenge → taps their name (up to 4 players can play together)
4. Course loads — GSPro loads the course and holes automatically with locked settings
5. Plays — Completes the stage(s); multi-course challenges load each course in turn (course load: 1–4 minutes per stage). After finishing a stage, the kiosk offers "Next: Stage N" for about 10 minutes
6. Results — Completed attempt appears on the leaderboard instantly; rank updates live

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Challenge Types

RoundBoss includes six challenge types. Challenges are one-off facility contests, not league stats — Skins and Streak have been removed as challenge types. Choose the one that fits your event.

Closest to the Pin (CTP)

Measure the tee shot's distance to the pin on designated holes (usually par 3s). Golfers with the closest shots win.

How it works: Each golfer plays one or more balls per hole. The tee shot's distance to the pin is measured. Aggregate lowest wins (closest single shot, sum of all distances, or average).

Key options:

• Balls per hole: 1–5 balls (best ball counts)
• Aggregate: Closest single shot | sum of distances (rewards consistency) | average distance
• Green required: Tee shot must land on green (off-green = 100 ft penalty for sum/average scoring)
• Hole-in-one bonus: Ace scores 0 and flags for a special HIO prize

Distances are stored in metres and displayed in your facility's preferred units (ft/in or metres).

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Hole Tour (Par-3 Challenge & Signature Holes Passport)

Play selected holes across one or more courses. Lowest score wins. The Par-3 Challenge preset enforces par-3 holes only. The Signature Holes Passport spreads stages across multiple visits, encouraging repeat play.

How it works: Golfers play the designated holes in order (or any order, if you allow it) and enter their scores hole-by-hole. Scores are ranked by gross, net (with handicap), stableford points, or vs. par.

Key options:

• Scoring: Gross | Net (with handicap allowance) | Stableford (points per hole) | vs. Par
• Max score per hole: None | Par+3 | Net double bogey (caps extreme scores on net play)
• Stage order: Fixed (must play in order) | Any (golfers choose)
• Across visits: Allow multi-visit passport play
• Par-3 only: Enforce par-3 holes (Par-3 Challenge preset)

Net scoring note: RoundBoss applies a handicap allowance to each golfer's score, spread across the played holes (hardest holes first). If a golfer has no handicap, you can force them to the gross flight or block net scoring per your league setting.

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Long Drive

Compete for the longest drive on a designated hole or on GSPro's Ultimate Long Drive range.

Venues:

• Ultimate Long Drive (ULD) — GSPro automatically downloads the free ULD course. You lock in the grid width (40–70 yd), number of shots (3–8), and timer (1–6 min). All shots must be taken. In-bounds is computed from the grid; fallback to fairway surface if needed.
• On-course — Golfer tees on a designated hole and plays for distance. Tee shot must land in the fairway (or fairway + first cut, or anywhere in bounds—your choice).

Key options:

• Metric: Total distance (default) | Carry distance (requires launch-monitor verification—see Speed King)
• Count: Best single drive | Best-of-N average (e.g., average of best 3)
• Landing zone: Fairway | Fairway or first cut | Any in bounds
• Straight drive mode: Closest to the centerline with a minimum distance threshold

Tiebreak: Second-best drive, then earliest completion.

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Hole-in-One

Attempt par-3 holes with a fixed number of balls per paid entry. Ace = one stroke, holed, not a gimme.

How it works: Set the number of balls each golfer gets (e.g., 5 balls). Golfers attempt to hole their tee shot. An ace is automatically detected and flagged for manager approval before payout.

Key options:

• Attempts per entry: Number of balls (e.g., 5 balls per paid entry)
• Consolation leaderboard: An optional Closest to the pin (consolation) board for golfers who don't make an ace. It ranks them by their closest ball to the pin, nearest first. Two golfers at exactly the same distance share the place. A golfer with no measured distance (e.g. missed the green) is listed with no place.
• Consolation prize: In Prizes, tick Closest-to-the-pin consolation prize and enter an amount, a description (e.g. "Free bucket of balls"), or both. The closest golfer who did not ace wins it, and tied golfers split it. It appears in the payouts next to the ace prize. A golfer who aced is paid the ace prize, never the consolation as well. On a paid-entry challenge, unpaid entries are skipped. RoundBoss only calculates it — your facility pays it.

The consolation board shows under the ace board on your Leaderboard tab, on the public and TV board, and on golfers' challenge pages.

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Target Challenge (Accuracy)

Darts-style points for proximity to the pin. Golfers earn points based on how close they land to the pin.

How it works: Points awarded per distance band (default: ≤3 ft = 10 points, ≤10 ft = 5 points, ≤20 ft = 3 points, ≤40 ft = 1 point, on green = +1 bonus). Highest points win.

Key options:

• Balls per hole: 1–5 balls (best ball counts)
• Points by band: Customize the distance bands and point values
• Fairway Finder mode: Award points for hitting fairway or green (no pin needed)

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Speed King (Launch Monitor)

Compete for the highest ball speed, measured from raw launch-monitor data only (not GSPro's reported speed).

Key options:

• Metric: Best single speed | Best-of-N average
• Divisions: Strongly recommended—open, senior, women, junior

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Want to reward improvement instead of just the best score? Turn on the Most improved attempts-counting option (below) on a Hole Tour, Long Drive, CTP or Target challenge — it ranks golfers by how much their best attempt beats their first.

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Configuring Challenges

Challenge Builder

When you create a new challenge, you'll configure:

1. Challenge type — Pick one of the six types (or use a preset)
2. Stages — Add 1–6 courses with hole lists and locked GSPro settings. You pick courses from what your bays actually have installed — each bay running the bridge reports its courses automatically, with their real hole count, pars, stroke index and tee sets. Selecting a tee shows every hole's yardage for it, so you can see at a glance whether a hole-in-one stage is makeable (short tee sets are often 60–140 yards on a par 3)
3. Modifiers — Configure attempts, handicap method, flights, entry fees, prizes, visibility, and more
4. Review gates — RoundBoss checks that courses are installed, payouts math is valid, and settings are consistent
5. Publish — Go live (stages and rules are now immutable; name, description, and end date can still be edited)

Key Configuration Options

Attempts

• Max: 1, N (e.g., 3), or unlimited
• Counting method: Best | Last | Average | First | Most improved
• Most improved — ranks golfers by how much their best attempt beats their first attempt. Needs at least two attempts to rank (a single attempt is shown but unranked). Available on Hole Tour, Long Drive, CTP and Target — not Hole-in-One or Speed King.
• Hole-in-One: Always counts every valid attempt

Scoring

• Gross — Total score, no handicap adjustment
• Net — Score minus handicap allowance (Hole Tour only)
• Both — Two leaderboards, gross and net
• Stableford — Points per hole (Hole Tour only)

Flights / Divisions

• By handicap band — E.g., A: 0–9.9, B: 10–19.9, C: 20+
• By gender, age group, or custom labels
• Each flight has its own leaderboard and payouts

Entry

• Free or paid — You tick "paid" on each entry; golfers don't enter payment (your facility collects it)
• Entry fee — Amount (RoundBoss uses this for payout math; it does not collect the fee)
• Contact details — When a golfer joins, your facility receives their name, phone and email. The join screen tells them so. In a facility-vs-facility challenge, each facility sees contact details only for its own entrants.

Prizes

• Fixed prizes — E.g., 1st: $100, 2nd: $50, 3rd: $25
• Pot split % — E.g., 60% to 1st, 30% to 2nd, 10% to 3rd (of entry_fee × paid entries, plus optional facility-added money)
• Minimum entries — Pot does not pay out if below this (e.g., min 5 entries)
• Per flight — Each flight has its own payout pool

Eligibility

• Anyone — Walk-in golfers welcome
• Invite list — Specific golfers or email addresses
• Max entries — Cap the number of entries

Window

• Start and end dates — Or open-ended (no end date)
• Daily play window — Optional (e.g., 4pm–10pm each day)
• Closed challenge rejects new attempts after end time

Settings Lock

Lock key GSPro settings to ensure fair play:

• Tees — Tee type (white, blue, red, etc.)
• Pins — Pin position (locked)
• Wind — Wind direction and speed (locked)
• Gimmies / Auto-putt — ON or OFF
• Mulligans — 0 or more
• Play mode — FORCE REALISTIC (default)
• Elevation — Course elevation (locked)

Anti-Cheat

• Reject mouse shots — ON by default for paid challenges; OFF for free
• Require valid settings — Saved with the challenge; automatic blocking on a mismatch is coming in a later update (settings are already locked on the bay by the RoundBoss plugin)

Benchmark ("Beat the Pro")

• Enable — Optional posted score/distance
• Prize — Separate prize for beating the benchmark
• Benchmark entries are listed but not placed on the main leaderboard

Visibility

• Leaderboard — Live (updated in real-time) | Sealed (hidden until challenge closes)
• Names — Full names | Initials only

Notifications

• Passed alert — When a golfer is pushed down the leaderboard, they get a push notification (e.g., "You've been passed in Challenge — now #3"). Set a top-N threshold (e.g., top 3 only). Capped at one notification per entry every 30 minutes. No alerts while the leaderboard is sealed or after the challenge closes

Canadian Contest Rules

• Skill-testing question — Optional question for winners before approval
• Free-entry route — Offer a free-entry path (not legal advice; check local rules)

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Manager Review & Approval

Monitoring

As attempts come in, watch the leaderboard and check for flagged attempts:

• Mouse shot — Detected cheating signal; review and decide to void or accept
• Pin pending — Closest-to-Pin can't resolve the exact pin yet (wait for another golfer to play that hole, or enter by hand)
• Needs review — Any hole-in-one; you must confirm before payout

Review Screen

After the window closes, the Review screen shows:

• All ranked attempts with their flights and scores
• Each stage played (shots and flags)
• List of flagged attempts
• Void/restore action log

Approving Results

1. Review flagged attempts — Void or confirm each one
2. Void or restore — Remove or re-add attempts; add a reason for audit log
3. Approve (finalize) — Leaderboard frozen, payouts calculated, displayed per place/flight
4. Confirm Canadian rules — If enabled, manager answers the skill question on behalf of winners

Marking Payouts Paid

After finalization:

1. Open the Payouts tab
2. For each payout row (place, amount), check Paid out
3. Tick the date/time automatically recorded

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Facility vs Facility (Network Challenges)

A facility can create a challenge and invite others to join with an invite code. Network challenges expand the player pool and add inter-facility competition.

How It Works

1. Create and publish — Challenge creator (host) builds and publishes
2. Invite others — Generate an invite code; other facilities join with it
3. Stages frozen — Once the first facility joins, stage definitions and rules are locked (name/description can still change)
4. All courses required — Every participating facility must have every stage course installed (bridge reports installed courses)

Leaderboards

• Overall individual — All golfers across all facilities
• Per facility — Golfers from each facility
• Facility table — Facilities ranked by top-5 average score (or total of top-N, or average of all, configurable)

Payouts

• Per facility — Each facility pays its own entrants; payouts calculated separately
• Facility table prize — Optional host prize for the winning facility (bragging rights + cash)

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Troubleshooting & FAQ

"Course not installed on this bay"

Before publishing, ensure the challenge course is installed on at least one bay at your facility (or on a participating facility for network challenges). Check your bridge dashboard for installed courses. If missing, download the course before publishing.

"No attempts left"

The golfer has used all allowed attempts. Increase the attempt limit in configuration, or void an earlier attempt to give them another chance.

"Stage order error"

If you set stage order to fixed, golfers must play them in that order. If a golfer tries to skip ahead or replay an earlier stage, it's rejected. Golfers can play stages across visits if you allow it (across_visits setting).

"Stage not started" or GSPro shows "Error loading course"

If GSPro can't load a stage's course, the bay notices before the first shot, stops that start and re-opens the name list with the reason. On stage 1 no attempt is used, so the golfer taps Start Stage to try again. On stage 2 or later the attempt has ended and will not score; it counts as one of the golfer's attempts if an earlier stage recorded shots. If it happens twice, check the course on that bay.

Ending a stuck attempt at the bay (staff)

While a stage is running, the kiosk's Challenges screen shows End attempt (staff). It works for any kind of stage and keeps the bay in RoundBoss, ready for the next Start Stage. Staff type the facility's kiosk password (the same one as League Access, shown in the Sim Bay Bridges card) into that form every time; the 4-hour kiosk unlock does not count. It ends the golfer's whole attempt, not just the current stage: the attempt will not score, and it counts as one of their attempts if any shots were recorded. Shots still waiting to upload are sent first; if they can't be sent, nothing is ended and the kiosk says so. Use it instead of Play GSPro normally, which takes the bay out of RoundBoss.

"Pin pending" on Closest to the Pin

RoundBoss can't determine the pin position yet because no golfer has completed that hole with gimmies/auto-putt enabled (which records an exact pin). Wait for another golfer to play the hole, then RoundBoss re-scores automatically. Or you can manually enter the winner and distance.

"Why does my hole-in-one need review?"

All aces require your approval before payout. You review the StageRun shots to confirm the ace: HoleShot = 1 (ace), holed, and not a gimme. Once you confirm, the payout unlocks.

"Settings don't match"

Bridge detected a mismatch between the challenge config and what GSPro actually played (e.g., PlayMode, mulligans, gimmies, or holes differ). You can void the attempt or accept it if the golfer played fairly. The mismatch is flagged for your awareness.

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Facility Challenges Best Practices

• Course installation — Make sure all stage courses are installed and tested on at least one bay before publishing
• Settings — Lock key settings (tees, pins, wind, gimmies) to ensure fairness
• Eligibility — Use flights (handicap bands, gender, age) to level the playing field
• Payout math — Use the payout validator to catch errors before publish
• Monitoring — Check the leaderboard and flagged attempts regularly during the window
• Approval — Always review flagged attempts (especially aces) before finalizing payouts
• Network challenges — Confirm all participating facilities have all courses installed before inviting them to join