Setting Up Group Pairings

Group Pairings is where you arrange your registered golfers into their tournament starting assignments. For a Shotgun, those assignments are starting holes. For Timed Starts, golfers are placed into sequential starting slots with start times based on your selected interval.

Player records come from Player Registration, but Group Pairings controls how those players are organized for tournament play.

Important: Before arranging your golfers, confirm your Course Holes, Groups/Hole, Golfers Per Group, Schedule Start Time, and Schedule Format. Changing these settings later can recalculate existing assignments, so it is best to set them first.

Before You Begin

Group Pairings uses several settings configured under My Event > Event Setup & Settings > Event Settings.

Setting	What it controls
Course Holes	The number of course holes used to create available starting slots. Standard options are 9, 18, 27, or 36.
Groups/Hole	The number of group positions available for each configured course hole. The standard organizer options are 1 or 2.
Golfers Per Group	The maximum number of golfers allowed in each starting assignment.
Schedule Start Time	The common start time for a Shotgun or the first start time for Timed Starts.
Schedule Format	Determines whether golfers use Shotgun or Timed Starts.

Golfers Per Group is enforced in Group Pairings. If it is set to 4, for example, you cannot manually add a fifth golfer to the same starting assignment. Increase the setting under Event Settings first if your tournament requires larger groups.

Max Players is separate from Group Pairings capacity. Max Players controls when Player Registration stops accepting additional golfers. Group Pairings capacity is based on Course Holes, Groups/Hole, and Golfers Per Group.

For the full Scheduling model, see Scheduling Overview.

Choose Your Schedule Format

Under My Event > Event Setup & Settings > Event Settings, choose the Schedule Format that matches how golfers will begin play.

Format	How it works
Shotgun	All groups begin at the same Schedule Start Time from assigned starting holes around the course.
Timed Starts	Groups start one after another beginning at the Schedule Start Time. One shared interval is applied to every starting slot.

Shotgun

With a Shotgun format, Course Holes and Groups/Hole determine the available starting-hole assignments.

For example, an 18-hole tournament with 2 Groups/Hole provides two starting assignments on each hole.

Timed Starts

With Timed Starts, the same settings determine the number of sequential starting slots, rather than simultaneous starting-hole assignments.

For example, 18 Course Holes with 2 Groups/Hole provides 36 sequential starting slots.

On the Group Pairings page, select an interval from 1 to 20 minutes. Event Caddy applies the selected interval to all starting slots beginning with the Schedule Start Time.

Individual start times cannot be edited separately.

How Registered Golfers Appear in Group Pairings

Go to Player Management > Group Pairings.

Your unassigned golfers and registration groups appear on the left side of the page. Available starting assignments appear on the right.

Golfers who registered together generally arrive in Group Pairings together. Event Caddy automatically splits a registration group when necessary to meet your Golfers Per Group setting.

For example, if four golfers registered together but Golfers Per Group is set to 2, Event Caddy will bring them into Group Pairings as two groups of two.

The initial Group Name will generally use the Company Name entered during billing. When no Company Name is available, groups can instead be identified using sequential numbers such as 1, 2, 3, and so on.

A Group Name is only an organizer-facing label used to help manage Group Pairings. Changing it does not update billing information and does not change the team's Live Scoring Team Name.

Assign Golfers to Starting Slots

You can organize golfers manually or use Auto assign.

Assign Groups Manually

Go to Player Management > Group Pairings.
Review the unassigned golfers and groups on the left side of the page.
If you are using Timed Starts, select the interval you want applied between starting slots.
Drag an entire group from the left into an available starting slot on the right.
To move only one golfer, drag the individual player instead of the entire group.
Continue assigning golfers until the starting slots are organized as needed.

You can mix golfers who originally registered separately. Moving golfers in Group Pairings changes their tournament starting assignment; it does not rewrite their original registration record.

Use Add Group

Instead of dragging a group from the left side of the page:

Select Add Group inside the desired starting slot.
Choose the available group you want to assign.
Continue until the starting slot contains the golfers you need.

Add Group is an alternate way to select and place an existing group. It does not create a different type of player group.

Use Auto assign

Select Auto assign to place currently unassigned groups into the available starting slots automatically.

You can then review the assignments and manually rearrange golfers where needed.

Rearrange Individual Golfers

After golfers have been assigned, you can move individual players between starting assignments.

This lets you:

combine golfers from different registrations;
separate golfers who originally registered together;
adjust the makeup of a starting assignment; and
change the order of golfers within an assignment.

The order of golfers can also matter later when creating Cart Signage, because cart signs use the pairing order when organizing golfers into pairs.

Group Pairings will not allow you to exceed the configured Golfers Per Group limit.

Edit a Group Name

If the organizer-facing Group Name is not useful for your planning:

Select the edit option beside the Group Name.
Enter the new name.
Select Save.

Editing the Group Name affects only Group Pairings organization.

It does not change:

the billing Company Name;
player registration information; or
the Live Scoring Team Name displayed on the leaderboard.

Players enter their Live Scoring Team Name when they first access Live Scoring.

Saving Your Group Pairings

Group Pairings auto-saves as you make changes while connected to the internet. There is no separate Save or Finalize button.

Group Pairings does not have an offline mode. An internet connection is required for changes to save. Live Scoring has separate offline functionality, but that behaviour does not apply to Group Pairings.

For larger tournaments, use the available collapse controls on the Group Pairings page to reduce the amount of information displayed while you work.

Changing Event Settings After Pairing Golfers

Event Caddy will preserve and recalculate existing assignments where possible if you later change settings such as:

Course Holes;
Groups/Hole;
Golfers Per Group;
Schedule Start Time; or
Schedule Format.

However, changing these values can alter the available starting assignments.

Always review your complete Group Pairings after changing scheduling settings. The safest approach is to confirm these settings before you begin pairing golfers.

Export Group Pairings to CSV

Once you have arranged your golfers, select Export to CSV from the Group Pairings page to export the current pairing and starting-assignment information.

The export can be useful for organizer records or for working with the finalized pairing information outside Event Caddy.

The Start List, Bag Drop Report, and Cart Signage are separate tournament-day outputs generated from the pairing information inside Event Caddy.

Player Information and Group Pairings

Group Pairings organizes player records but does not own the player record itself.

If you need to change a player's name, email address, phone number, Guest Player information, or other player data, make that change through Player Registration. Updated player information carries through to Group Pairings.

See Managing Players and Registrations for player-management instructions.

Group Pairings and Live Scoring

When Live Scoring is enabled, Event Caddy generates Live Scoring Access Codes for the starting assignments established through Group Pairings. Review your Group Pairings before the automatic Live Scoring distribution runs 3 days before the tournament whenever possible.

If Group Pairings change after access information has been distributed, the affected players may still have a link for their previous starting assignment. Review the affected Access Code in the Start List and regenerate/resend it when necessary.

Player Registration does not need to be closed for the automatic distribution.

Detailed Live Scoring setup remains separate from Scheduling. See Setting Up and Managing Live Scoring

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I assign golfers who registered separately to the same group?

Yes. You can move individual golfers from different registration groups into the same starting assignment, provided you do not exceed the Golfers Per Group limit.

Can I have more than two groups per hole?

The standard Event Caddy organizer settings provide 1 or 2 Groups/Hole.
If your tournament requires more than two groups per hole, contact Event Caddy Support to discuss the setup.

Can I configure more than 36 Course Holes?

The standard supported Course Holes options are 9, 18, 27, and 36. Treat 36 as the maximum for normal tournament setup.

Does Max Players control how many golfers fit in Group Pairings?

No. Max Players controls registration capacity.
Group Pairings capacity is controlled separately by Course Holes, Groups/Hole, and Golfers Per Group.

Can I import my own player list or Group Pairings file?

Organizers cannot currently import players or Group Pairings themselves.
If you already have a player list, Event Caddy Support can assist with importing the players and can prepare registered groups from the supplied data. The organizer still completes the actual starting assignments in Group Pairings.

Can I change player information from Group Pairings?

Use Player Registration to maintain the player's record. Changes to player information then carry through to Group Pairings.

Does Group Pairings work without an internet connection?

No. Group Pairings auto-saves while connected but does not have an offline mode.