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Settle Up Golf handles pair assignments, flight scoring, and settlement — so you can focus on your round.
Two of the most popular club event formats — and how to run them without the spreadsheet headache.
Member-member and member-guest tournaments are the backbone of club golf. They're the events people talk about all year, plan their vacations around, and — if you're lucky — win a trophy for. Both formats use the same basic structure: two-person teams competing together over one or more rounds. The difference is who those two people are.
In a member-member, both players are members of the same club or regular group. Everyone knows everyone, the trash talk starts in February, and the pairings are usually the subject of intense negotiation. Partners often have a long history together — sometimes that's an advantage, sometimes it's the reason for the blowup on 14.
In a member-guest, each member invites someone from outside the group — a college friend, a brother-in-law, someone who owes them a favor. The dynamic changes: the member knows the course, the guest doesn't. The member has to manage their guest's expectations while also playing their own round. It's equal parts golf event and hosting obligation.
Both formats use pair scoring — the team's result is based on a combination of the two players' scores. What makes them interesting is that combination method. The options range from straightforward to creatively punishing.
The most forgiving format: on each hole, the lower score of the two players counts for the pair. Bad hole for one partner? Doesn't matter if the other makes a net par. Best ball keeps both players engaged because even a mediocre round can have a handful of good holes that save the team.
In a 12-pair tournament, pair best ball with net scoring (applying handicap strokes) is the most common setup. It rewards depth — pairs where both players can occasionally make a good score — rather than just the pair where one player dominates and the other tags along.
Add both players' scores on every hole. Lower combined total wins. This format is much more demanding — there's nowhere to hide, and a blowup hole from either player hurts badly. Most groups use net combined (both players' net scores added together) rather than gross combined, unless the field's handicaps are very tight.
Combined stroke scoring creates a different kind of pressure. In best ball, you can shrug off your 7 and let your partner's 4 carry the hole. In combined, that 7 goes on the card and you've given up ground. The format separates pairs who are both playing solidly from pairs who are riding one hot player.
Some events use Stableford points rather than raw scores, which makes the aggregate approach more workable. Each player earns points on every hole (double bogey = 0 points, bogey = 1, par = 2, birdie = 4, eagle = 8), and the pair's combined points decide the winner. Stableford's structure limits the damage from a blowup hole, which is why it works well in combined-score formats where raw stroke play would be brutal.
A shamble — where the team picks the best tee shot and then each player plays their own ball from there — is also common in member-guest events that want to give guests an easier time off the tee while still requiring individual scoring from that point.
Most member-member and member-guest tournaments divide the field into flights based on combined handicap. A pair with a 4-handicap and an 8-handicap (combined: 12) would be in a lower flight than a pair with a 14 and an 18 (combined: 32). Each flight competes against other pairs with similar combined handicaps, so the results are meaningful.
Common flight structures for a 20-pair field:
Within each flight, net scoring levels the field. A pair in C Flight with a combined 34 handicap isn't at a disadvantage against a pair in C Flight with a 28 — they just get more strokes.
The tricky part of member-guest events is handling guests whose handicap indexes are unknown or unofficial. Some events assign a default handicap (usually based on self-reported score), some cap guest handicaps at a maximum to prevent sandbaggers from dominating. Deciding that policy before the event saves a lot of friction afterward.
Member-member and member-guest events often run over multiple days — a Friday evening "get-to-know-you" scramble, then Saturday stroke play, then a Sunday final for the top pairs from each flight. The multi-day structure adds drama because it keeps the leaderboard moving and gives pairs who had a rough first day a chance to recover.
In a two-day format, cumulative net scores across both days determine the flight winners. Day 1 is often just about making the cut — surviving to Day 2 in contention. Day 2 is where it gets settled. Some events run a Calcutta pool where the pairings are treated as lines and people buy in before Day 1, creating an additional layer of action for the whole field.
Club events often give trophies rather than cash — but informal member-member and member-guest tournaments in regular groups typically run a pot with flight winners, closest-to-the-pin prizes, and maybe a long drive. Here's a common structure for a 16-pair event with $50 per player buy-in ($1,600 total pot):
The specifics depend on your group, but the principle holds: everyone puts in, flights create meaningful competition at every handicap level, and the payouts go far enough down that a decent chunk of the field has something to play for on the final holes.
The complexity of a member-member or member-guest tournament — pair assignments, flight management, multi-day scoring, skins running in parallel, and final settlement — is exactly what makes it hard to run on paper. Settle Up Golf handles the pair setup, best-ball scoring math, cumulative leaderboard across days, and final Settle Up sheet automatically. No more IOUs at the 19th hole.
Set up your pairs before the event, assign foursomes, add skins and Low Net as games, and share a join code. Every player scores on their own phone, sees live pair standings, and gets their final P&L the moment the last group finishes.
Step-by-step setup: How to Run a Pairs Tournament in Settle Up Golf →
Settle Up Golf handles pair assignments, flight scoring, and settlement — so you can focus on your round.