Rotating Partners
Rotating Partners gives every golfer a new random partner each week instead of a fixed team for the season. Each week, RoundBoss draws the active roster into two-golfer sides, trying to avoid repeating a partner or an opponent pairing more than once over the season so far. The two sides in a pairing then play a best-ball match against each other, hole by hole — and the points land on each golfer's own individual standings, not on a team.
RoundBoss draws the roster into sides before each week, avoiding repeat partners and repeat opponents where it can.
Each golfer plays their own ball; a side's score on a hole is its better net score. Sides compare hole by hole, not round totals.
A side's hole points go to both members individually and build their own season standings — there's no fixed team.
How Scoring Works
Before each week, RoundBoss randomly draws the active roster into 2-golfer sides. The draw is tentative until the week's play window opens, then it becomes fixed. A later roster change or redraw only touches weeks that haven't opened yet — a side that already has a submitted round is never redrawn.
Each golfer plays their own ball and applies their own handicap strokes. On every hole, a side's score is the better (lower) net score between its two members.
The two sides in a pairing compare their best-ball net score hole by hole. The side with the lower score on a hole wins that hole's points; a tie splits them.
Every member of the side that won a hole has those points added to their own individual season total — see Credit Modes below for what happens when a partner is absent.
Configuration
| Setting | Default | Options |
|---|---|---|
| Hole Win Points | 1 | Any value, as long as win ≥ tie ≥ loss |
| Hole Tie Points | 0.5 | Any value, as long as win ≥ tie ≥ loss |
| Hole Loss Points | 0 | Any value, as long as win ≥ tie ≥ loss |
| Credit Mode | Members who played | Members who played, or All members |
| Handicap Method | Rolling average | Rolling average, or Established |
Standings
Rotating Partners uses an individual standings table instead of a team leaderboard. Each golfer's weekly hole points are summed across the season. Ties are broken first by total points, then by each golfer's lowest average net score — averaged only over complete rounds, so walking off early never looks better than finishing a full card.
Credit Modes
Managers choose how an absent golfer's side's points are credited:
| Mode | Default | What an absent golfer gets |
|---|---|---|
| Members who played | Yes | 0 points for the week, even if their side (playing with a ghost partner) won. |
| All members | No | Their side's points for the week — the ghost and the partner earned them, and credit follows the side. |
While a week's play window is open, a side scores nothing until every member has posted a card — a golfer who hasn't posted yet shows 0 provisionally. Once the window closes (or the week locks), a still-missing golfer becomes a ghost and is scored under whichever credit mode the league uses. If both members of a side are absent, the side scores nothing for either golfer.
Starting Handicap (Seed) Required
Every golfer in a Rotating Partners league needs a starting average or handicap on file before they can be added to the league — the weekly draw and the hole-by-hole scoring have nothing to compute strokes from otherwise. This is enforced wherever a golfer is added: the wizard's Players step, a single Add Player, and CSV import. There's no new-member grace period like legacy formats have — the seed is required immediately, not after a few weeks.
Ghosts for Absent or Odd Golfers
Rotating Partners never leaves a golfer without a partner to play against:
- One partner absent — the present golfer is paired with a ghost built from the absent golfer's own at-the-time average (spread across the round by par and the hardest holes by stroke index). The absent golfer still gets 0 personally, subject to the Credit Mode above for the side's points.
- Whole side absent — the opposing side plays against a ghost side built the same way, so their result is still earned on the course rather than an automatic walkover.
- Odd number of golfers at draw time — the leftover golfer gets a ghost partner built from that week's field's median average. Who gets the ghost rotates, so no one golfer gets a ghost partner twice before everyone else has had one.
Locking a Week
Locking a Rotating Partners week runs one final recompute and freezes the result and each golfer's handicap snapshot. Unlocking, editing, and relocking a week is a normal manager flow — unlike legacy formats, which only re-derive on their first lock. For a simulator league, locking a week while golfers are still actively playing a round is refused until the manager confirms; confirming then closes out those bay sessions as part of the lock.
Playing on a Simulator Bay
Rotating Partners can be a real-course or a simulator league. On a sim bay, RoundBoss sends the round to GSPro as plain stroke play — each golfer plays their own ball, so partners don't need to share a bay or even play at the same time. RoundBoss combines the two cards into the weekly best-ball result and hole points afterward. Closest to the Pin is supported on Rotating Partners simulator leagues, scored against the week's live draw as the field.
Enabling the Format
When creating a league, select Rotating Partners from the format step.
Add every golfer with their starting average or handicap — required before they're added, not optional.
Hole points and the Credit Mode are configured from the league's engine settings after creation.
Not Yet Supported
Rotating Partners leagues don't yet support several things other formats do. RoundBoss refuses turning these on rather than silently ignoring them:
- Presses
- Play the Card / a missed-opponent rule, and flat Miss Points — an absent golfer is handled instead by the ghost-partner rule and the Credit Mode above.
- Marker Validation
- Siri Voice Scoring
- Skins
- Low Net side game
- Custom Leaderboard Views
- WHS handicaps — a golfer's seed must be a starting average, not a GHIN Handicap Index.
- Substitute players
- Brackets
- Play Ahead (playing future weeks before the current one opens)