Running the group

Somebody organises it. They post the tee times, they chase the fourth, they remember what everyone agreed. Most of that is unpaid and thankless, and when that person gets tired the group usually goes with them.

Rivalry takes the parts a phone can do.

The house rules

Write down how your group actually plays: snake settles on 18, pushes carry, whatever your amendments are. It shows up underneath every game's rules while people are playing, which is where the arguments happen — not three screens away in settings.

Edited by whoever runs the group, read by everyone. It ends the specific argument that starts "no, we've always done it this way".

Handicaps

The group sets the number each player is played off. No GHIN account needed, no external service — the number your group agreed is the number the strokes fall on.

Changing somebody's handicap changes what every future match is worth, so it goes into the group's story like anything else that moves money. Nobody has to notice it happened, and nobody can quietly adjust themselves before a big round.

Seats, and getting people in

Add people as names on day one and send the join code later — their rounds count from the start and get claimed when they arrive. That's covered properly in groups, seats and invites.

The desk

The group screen opens with what needs doing, when anything does. A tee time that came and went with no round filed gets a nudge for a few days — the record is quietly wrong until it's in, and FILE IT drops you straight into scoring. A regular who's missed the last four straight gets named, because that's not a schedule clash any more, it's a text you should send. And the season's pace sits underneath, against where last year stood on the same day. When the group is well run, the desk shows nothing at all.

The pool

Call a major the way you call a Saturday. Open a pool from the group screen — the event and when picks seal — and everyone names their winner. Picks are hidden until the field tees off, sealed after, and whoever ran the pool types in what golf decided. Matching forgives spelling; it does not forgive nicknames. The record remembers who read the field right. Never for money — winner takes nothing but the crown.

What only an admin can do

Set the house rules and handicaps, rotate the join code, rename a seat, and end the group's era. Everything else — posting tee times, adding expenses, marking the tab settled — anyone can do, because on a real buddies trip whoever booked the house is rarely whoever runs the group.