League Setup Wizard
The setup wizard walks you through creating a league, tournament, or golf outing. A league takes seven steps (Mode, Basics, Format, Details, Players, Schedule, Review); tournaments and outings skip the Players step and take six. The progress bar at the top shows where you are, and you can go back and edit any step before creating.
Step 1 — Mode & Where You Play
The first screen asks what type of event you are creating:
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| League | Weekly season play with standings, matchups, and a full schedule. |
| Tournament | Multi-round event (2-4 rounds) with optional cut lines. |
| Golf Outing | Single-day event with teams and side games. |
Below the mode cards, Where do you play? offers two choices:
- Real Course — outdoor play on grass. Scores are entered by the manager or the players.
- Simulator — indoor play on GSPro. Unlocks the Bridge, GSPro live scoring, kiosk check-in, and the GSPro course catalog.
The Simulator option is locked (padlock icon) until your account owns a facility with an active Golf Course plan. The lock message links to Set up your facility. Simulator leagues are a Golf Course Starter / Pro feature; Clubhouse ($10/seat) leagues are outdoor / manual-scoring. See Billing.
Step 2 — Basic Info
Enter your league name (at least 3 characters — it is shown to every player) and pick Holes Per Round: 9 or 18. For a 9-hole league, a Which 9? picker appears so you can choose Front 9 or Back 9; scoring, pars, and stroke holes follow the nine you pick.
Step 3 — Format
The available formats depend on the mode you chose in Step 1.
League Formats
| Format | How It Works |
|---|---|
| Match Play | Head-to-head. Players compete hole by hole in weekly pairings. |
| Team Match Play | Teams compete head-to-head with individual matches within each team pairing. |
| Stroke Play | Lowest net score wins each week. Standings based on cumulative performance. |
| Stableford | Points awarded relative to par on each hole. Higher is better. |
| Scramble | Teams play from the best shot each stroke. |
| Best Ball | Each player plays their own ball; the team's score on each hole is the best net score among members. |
| Alternate Shot | Two-player teams alternate shots on each hole. One score per hole for the team. |
| Rotating Partners | A new random partner every week (no repeat pairings where possible). Best net ball against another pair, hole by hole — the winning side's points go to each golfer individually, not to a fixed team. See Rotating Partners. |
| Team Nassau | Season-long teams of two. Each week A plays A, B plays B and the teams play best ball, each over the front 9, back 9 and 18 — nine points a match. 18 holes only. See Team Nassau. |
Tournament Formats
Tournaments support Stroke Play, Stableford, and Match Play.
Outing Formats
Outings support Scramble, Stroke Play, and Stableford.
Step 4 — Details
This step collects format options plus the course you play.
Format Details (leagues)
- Scramble / Best Ball — choose a team size (2, 3, or 4 players).
- Team Match Play — choose a team size and set the Sweep Bonus Points (awarded when a team wins every individual match in a pairing; default 3).
- Alternate Shot — fixed at 2 players per team.
- Rotating Partners — no team size to set; RoundBoss draws 2-golfer sides fresh every week. Hole-win points (default 1 / tie 0.5 / loss 0) are configured after creation from the league's engine settings.
- Team Nassau — no team size to set; the wizard's Team Nassau Details step holds its rules (ties, no-shows, handicap and the weeks before handicaps are set). No starting handicap is asked for. You build the two-golfer teams on the Roster, Teams tab after the league is created.
Course — Real Course leagues
- Course Scorecard — search by course or club name. Selecting a course imports its par, hole handicaps, course rating, slope, and yardage, and lets you pick a tee set. You can also skip this and set the course up later.
- Zip or Postal Code — US zip or Canadian postal code. Used for the weather forecast and, if you don't set one, to derive the league's time zone so tee times display correctly.
- Time Zone — optional; only needed if you leave the zip/postal code blank or want to override what it derives.
Course — Simulator leagues
- GSPro Course — search the GSPro catalog by course name and pick a tee set. The tee set's pars and hole handicaps are imported.
- Venue location — required for simulator leagues (the bays use it to decide which week can be played today): a Zip or Postal Code, or a Time Zone for a venue outside the US/Canada.
Pick a course that is installed in GSPro on your sim PC. On league night the kiosk checks for the course folder before launching a round; if it is missing you will see a Course Not Installed screen and the round will not start.
Some GSPro catalog tees have no official course rating or slope — most commonly "Par 3" tees and other par-3/executive/9-hole courses. RoundBoss leaves these blank rather than making up a number; you'll see "No official rating" on that tee. Handicaps still work — they use the standard slope (113) and par instead.
Side Games (leagues and tournaments)
- Closest to the Pin — optional. Toggle it on and you pick the hole for each week (or tournament round) after setup; RoundBoss records the winner from the shot data on simulator leagues, or you record it manually on real-course leagues.
Tournament Details
- Number of Rounds — 2, 3, or 4.
- Cut Line — optionally cut the field after a chosen round, keeping the Top N (with or without ties).
Outing Details
- Team Size — 2, 3, or 4 players for scramble outings.
- Side Games — Closest to Pin, Longest Drive, and Skins.
Step 5 — Players (leagues only)
Enter each player's name and email (one row per golfer; Add player adds a row). Every golfer needs an email: RoundBoss emails each one their personal link. To bring a list in from a spreadsheet, click Paste a list and paste one golfer per line (John Smith, [email protected], Jane Doe <[email protected]>, or the Name and Email columns copied from the sheet). Next stays off until every row has a name and a valid email, with no name or email listed twice. The wizard creates the roster for you. For simulator leagues, use the exact names players use in GSPro — shots are matched by name. This step doesn't need a headcount up front, so it comes before Schedule: weeks/dates are generated independent of the roster, and matchups/teams are created from the actual names after the league exists.
Two optional automations appear once you have enough names:
- Generate matchups for the whole season — individual formats (needs at least 2 players).
- Team assignment — team formats (needs at least two full teams): Random teams, or Pick teams myself, which opens an inline team picker right here in the wizard — tap a team number for each player to assign them, with a running count of how many players are on each team so far. You can still fine-tune assignments later from Roster → Teams either way. Scramble teams post one round per week, so no matchups are generated.
You can skip this step and add players later from Roster → Players (individually or via CSV import).
A trial league's player count is capped (currently 4). If you type in more names than the cap allows, the wizard adds the first names up to the cap and tells you on the Review step which ones weren't added — activate the league from Settings to add the rest.
Step 6 — Schedule
Set the Start Date (or Outing Date). For leagues, also set Season Weeks (1-52).
- Leagues create weeks that you manage individually with matchups and scores.
- Tournaments create one round per day starting from the start date.
- Outings create a single event day.
Timing options depend on where you play:
- Real Course — an optional Default Tee Time applied to every generated week, plus a Stagger Interval (minutes between groups) so each group tees off a few minutes apart. Both are editable per week later.
- Simulator — an optional Session Start Time. There is no stagger for simulator leagues.
Step 7 — Review & Create
The final screen summarises everything: type, name, holes (and which 9), format, team settings, schedule, play surface, course, and players. Each row has an edit button that jumps back to that step.
Click Create League. You land on the league management page immediately. During your free trial the league is activated automatically — there is no payment step in the wizard. When you are ready to add more than the trial's 4 players, activate seats from the league settings (see Billing).
After the Wizard
From the league management page you can:
- Add more players individually or via CSV import
- Adjust the course and assign per-week course overrides
- Set up handicap and scoring settings in the Settings tab
- Generate or edit matchups for any week
- Open player registration if you want players to join themselves
- For simulator leagues: install the Bridge and review the Simulator tab (see GSPro Overview)
Tips for First-Time Managers
Start small. You can always add more weeks later from Schedule → Weeks with Add Weeks. If the button says the season is full, raise the season length in the Settings tab first. A week that gets no course plays the league’s default course (its default course combination, otherwise the first course added), and a course added later is linked to every unlocked week that has none.
Review scoring defaults. The default match play scoring is 1 point per hole won, 0.5 for a push, and a 3-point low-score bonus. Adjust these in Scoring Configuration to match your group's preferences.