Every tournament and club competition, on one system members can follow live
Ten scoring formats covering the Saturday medal, the club championship, and the knockout. Online entry with payment, pairings by handicap, live scoring from any phone, leaderboards on the clubhouse screen, countback settled on the card, and prizes that post straight to member accounts. Results reach the Honours Board and the season Order of Merit on their own.
Most clubs run competitions on four things at once: the tee sheet for the times, a spreadsheet for the draw, paper cards for the scores, and a committee member's evening for the results. The software the club pays for handles the first of those. Everything after the first tee is manual, which is why the prize presentation waits on somebody with a calculator, and why the handicap secretary loses a Sunday to reconciling cards.
Links Meridian treats a competition as a first-class event rather than a tee sheet with a note attached. Setup runs as a wizard: format, field size, entry fee, flights, divisions, leaderboards, and the prize list, with a dry run that reports exactly what will be created before anything is written. Save the finished setup as a template and next year's captain's day is three fields and a date. Templates can be shared across every club in a group.
On the morning, the draw is generated by handicap, taken from member requests, or built by hand, and the tee sheet blocks the slots as it goes so nobody books over the field. Players open their pairing on their phone and enter scores hole by hole. Cards queue locally when the signal drops on the back nine and sync when it returns. Playing partners attest each other's cards, and a card somebody disputes goes to the committee instead of being overwritten in silence. The board on the clubhouse screen moves as the scores land.
When the committee closes the round, one engine ranks every board: gross, net, Stableford, and the team formats, each at the handicap allowance you configured, with countback applied to the card when two players finish level. Prizes resolve against the rules you set. Skins and sweep pots are held as a club liability until they are paid out, so the money reconciles instead of landing in revenue where it never belonged. Positions are written once, which is why the Order of Merit, the Honours Board, Course Records, and each member's profile all agree with each other.
One competition, seen from both sides
The committee gets a control desk for the whole event. Members get a competition they can follow from the first tee.
For the committee
The tournament desk
What the competitions secretary, the professional, and the handicap secretary each need, gathered on one screen per event.
- Setup wizard covering basics, field, pricing, flights, divisions, boards, and prizes, with a dry run that previews what will be created
- Templates for repeat events, shareable across every club in a group
- Pairings generated by handicap or member request, or built by hand, with players moved between groups directly
- A scoring grid for entering and correcting cards, with withdrawals, disqualifications, and no-returns handled as distinct outcomes
- Attestations and disputes surfaced to the committee, not buried inside a card
- Match-play draw with byes and automatic progression, or round-robin group tables
- Side-game pots with funding sync and a confirmed payout step before any money moves
- Round close and reopen, with prizes resolved against the rules you configured
For your members
The Digital Clubhouse
The same competition, inside the member app they already use for booking, their account, and the club feed.
- Entry and payment in the portal, priced separately for members and guests
- Entry windows, early access for premium categories, and a waitlist when the field fills
- Their pairing, tee time, and starting hole on a boarding pass
- Hole-by-hole scoring that keeps working when the signal does not
- Attest a playing partner's card, or raise a dispute for the committee
- The live board, their flight and division, and where their round is heading
- The match-play bracket, and their own side-game winnings hole by hole
- Results on the Honours Board, in Course Records, and in the season standings
The outcome for your club
The presentation happens on the day
Scores are already in when the last group walks off. The boards are final, countback has separated the ties, and the captain can hand out the prizes while the field is still in the bar.
A volunteer can run it
The competitions secretary is rarely a software person. The wizard asks plain questions, the dry run shows what it is about to create, and a saved template turns next year's setup into three fields.
Your handicap secretary gets Sunday back
Cards are entered by the players and attested by their partners on the green. Nothing waits to be typed up, and a disputed card is flagged rather than discovered three weeks later.
Members follow it, so they enter the next one
A board that moves while the round is on gives members a reason to watch, to talk about it afterwards, and to put their name down again. Competition entries are a retention lever most clubs leave idle.
The sweep money reconciles
Pot buy-ins sit as a club liability until they are paid out, then draw down against the payout. The cash tin stops being the system of record, and the year end has nothing awkward in it.
Nothing disagrees with anything else
One engine ranks the boards, writes the finishing positions, resolves the prizes, and feeds the Order of Merit. The season table cannot drift away from the result members watched.
Ten formats, each ranked on its own terms
Handicap treatment is the part most platforms get wrong without telling you. This is what each format actually does.
Team allowances follow WHS Appendix C and the USGA recommended scramble weightings, and every one of them can be overridden per event. Flights by handicap band and divisions by age, gender, membership category, or index run on top of any format, each with its own leaderboard and prize list. Ties are settled on the card: back-nine countback, or the full ladder of last nine, last six, last three, and the 18th.
How a competition runs on the platform
The same six steps whether it is a midweek Stableford or the club championship.
Set it up
Format, field, entry fee, flights, divisions, boards, and prizes in one wizard. The dry run reports what will be created before you commit to any of it.
Open entries
Members enter and pay in the portal. Entry windows, early access for premium categories, and a waitlist that holds the overflow once the field is full.
Make the draw
Generate pairings by handicap or from member requests, or build them by hand. The tee sheet blocks the slots as the draw is made, so nobody books over the field.
Play the round
Players open their pairing and score hole by hole. Cards queue out of signal and sync on the way back in. Partners attest each other's cards on the 18th green.
Watch it live
Boards move as scores land, on members' phones and on the clubhouse screen, with flight and division boards rotating alongside the overall.
Close and settle
One engine ranks every board, countback separates the ties, prizes and pots resolve, and results reach the Honours Board and the Order of Merit.
Running a competition: the usual arrangement vs one platform
What's included
Common questions
What is the best golf tournament software for running a club championship?
Look for one system that covers entry and payment, the draw, live scoring, the boards, countback, prizes, and the season standings, because the handovers between separate tools are where competition days go wrong. Links Meridian does all of it on the same data as your tee sheet and member records, so a result posted on the 18th updates the leaderboard, the Order of Merit, the Honours Board, and the member's profile in one beat.
Can members enter and pay for competitions online?
Yes. Entry runs in the member portal they already use for booking, with separate member and guest pricing, an entry window you set, early access for premium categories, and a waitlist once the field is full. Payment goes through Stripe and posts to the ledger. Entries taken at the pro shop till register the player the same way.
Does live scoring work when there is no phone signal on the course?
Yes. Scores are entered hole by hole and queued on the device when the connection drops, with a sync indicator showing how many entries are still pending. They upload as soon as the signal returns, so a dead patch on the back nine does not cost you the card.
Which competition formats are supported?
Stroke play, Stableford and modified Stableford, match play, scramble, shamble, best ball, foursomes (alternate shot), Chapman, and skins. Team sizes are configurable, so a two, three, or four-person scramble all run on the same format. Sequential, shotgun, and crossover starts are all supported, and event categories cover club championship, captain's day, member-guest, member-member, invitational, pro-am, charity, ladies' day, junior, and mixed. Clubs running something unusual can define a custom format with its own points table and tie rules.
How are ties resolved?
By card countback, if the committee configures it for the event. Two options are built in: a straight back-nine countback on the ranked metric, or the full ladder of last nine, last six, last three, and the 18th. Countback applies only between two complete cards with hole-by-hole data. If no countback is configured, the tie stands and both players share the position, which is the correct behaviour rather than an arbitrary split.
Can we run a match play knockout?
Yes. Seed the sides, generate a single-elimination bracket with byes handled automatically, and record each result as it comes in. Winners progress on their own, and an incorrectly recorded result unwinds cleanly. Round-robin groups with a points table are supported as an alternative. Members see the bracket in the portal as it fills in.
How are team handicap allowances calculated?
Per format, following WHS Appendix C. Foursomes takes 50% of the partners' combined course handicaps. Chapman takes 60% of the lower handicap plus 40% of the higher. Scramble uses the USGA recommended weightings, 25/20/15/10 for a four-person team, sorted low to high. Best ball and shamble score each player's own net ball and take the best on the hole. Every default can be overridden with a handicap allowance you set on the event.
Can we run flights and divisions in the same competition?
Yes, and they are different things. Flights split the field by handicap band. Divisions filter by age, gender, membership category, handicap range, or a named list of members, and the filters combine. Up to twenty of each per event, and each one can carry its own leaderboard and its own prize list.
How is skins and sweep money handled?
Buy-ins are held as a club liability, not booked as revenue, because the money is not the club's until it is paid out. The resolver works out the skins hole by hole, including carries. Paying out is a deliberate, confirmed step, so nothing leaves the pot by accident. Winnings can go out as cash, member account credit, or a gift card, and each posting draws the liability down and reconciles.
Do results feed the season Order of Merit and the Honours Board?
Yes, at round close, and from a single ranking. That last part matters: where a platform ranks the leaderboard one way and the season standings another, a net or Stableford event ends up awarding season points by gross order. Positions here are written once by the same format-aware engine that produced the board, so the boards, the prizes, the Order of Merit, Course Records, and member profiles cannot disagree. An event can also be marked as not counting toward the Order of Merit.
Is there a leaderboard display for the clubhouse?
Yes. A dedicated display view rotates through the boards you have marked for it, so the overall, the flights, and the divisions each get their turn on the screen. Members watch the same boards on their phones.
Will it say competition or tournament to our members?
Whichever your members say. The member-facing wording follows your club's country by default, so clubs in Britain and Ireland see competitions and clubs in North America see tournaments, and you can override it either way. It is a small thing that members notice, because software written for somewhere else usually gets it wrong.
Related pages
Member app & Digital Clubhouse
Where members enter, score, watch the board, and see the Honours Board.
Tee sheet & online booking
The sheet the draw blocks against, and the engine behind every booking.
Membership & handicaps
Member records, categories, and the index behind every net score.
Pro shop & POS
Entries taken at the till, and prizes paid out as credit.
Accounting & ledger
Where entry fees, pot liabilities, and payouts land in the books.
For private members' clubs
How the platform fits a club with a committee and a competition calendar.
Free Stableford points calculator
Score a full or nine-hole card by Stroke Index — points per hole, net scores, total.
Free playing handicap calculator
Apply the right format allowance and get the handicap each player actually plays off.
See your own club championship run on the platform
Ask for a demo built around a competition you actually run, set up with your own formats and flights. Free 30-day trial when you are ready.