The event template

Write the whole tournament out once. Paste it in. Done.

Setting an event up a field at a time is fine at a desk and miserable on a phone the night before — and you have probably already written the thing down somewhere. So write it here instead, in whatever app you like, and Fore The Cup will build the event out of it: the rounds and their formats, every team and player, the sponsors, the side contests, and the invitations to everyone whose email you put in.

1. Copy the template below. Paste it into Notes, an email to yourself, or anywhere you can type comfortably.
2. Fill in what applies and delete the rest. Everything except the event's name is optional.
3. In the app, open Events → Start something → From a written plan, and paste it in. You will see exactly what it read before anything is created.

The template

Copy everything in the box. Lines starting with # are notes to you and are ignored.

# ---------------------------------
# FORE THE CUP — EVENT PLAN
# Delete anything you do not need.
# ---------------------------------

EVENT
Name: Riverbend Members' Cup
Type: club                  # society, club, charity or corporate
Host: Riverbend Country Club
Rounds: 2

COURSE
Name: Riverbend Country Club
City: Boulder
State: CO
Tees: Blue
# If we can find the course, the pars and stroke indexes come in automatically.
# A link to the scorecard helps when we cannot:
Scorecard: https://example.com/riverbend-scorecard.jpg
# Only if you know them, and only needed for course handicaps:
Rating: 72.4
Slope: 131

ROUND 1
Format: Four-Ball
Scoring: match play         # match play, stroke play, stableford or skins
Handicaps: yes
Holes: 18
Tee times: 08:00, ten minutes apart
# Who plays who. First names are fine. Leave this out to pair them in the app.
Matches:
Noah & Ryan       v  Jason & Andrew
Josh & Jack       v  Priya & Tom

ROUND 2
Format: Foursomes
Shotgun: 09:00
Matches:
Noah & Josh       v  Jason & Priya
Ryan & Jack       v  Andrew & Tom

TEAMS
Team: Blue
Noah Davison    noah@example.com    12.4
Ryan Kelly      ryan@example.com    +2.4
Josh Bell       14
Jack Toomey

Team: Red
Jason Wu        jason@example.com   14.2
Andrew Lang     andrew@example.com  9.6
Priya Raman     11.8
Tom Ellery      18.3

SPONSORS
Harbour Trust Bank | title | https://harbourtrust.example.com
Delaney Ford | gold | https://delaneyford.example.com
Kessler Orthodontics | hole
Northgate Realty

CONTESTS
Closest to the pin: hole 6, sponsored by Delaney Ford
Longest drive: hole 12, sponsored by Northgate Realty

FUNDRAISING                 # charity days only
Goal: 25000
Donate link: https://riverbendfund.example.org/give
Cause: Benefiting the Riverbend Junior Programme

What each part does

Players

One player per line, under the team they are on:

Team: Blue
Noah Davison    noah@example.com    12.4

The name is the only part we need. An email address anywhere on the line gets that person an invitation when the event is built. A number is read as a Handicap Index — write a plus handicap the way it is written on a card, +2.4, and it is stored as better than scratch rather than worse.

Order does not matter. Noah Davison 12.4 noah@example.com and Noah <noah@example.com> 12.4 both read the same.

Invitations

When you build the event, everyone whose email you included is invited to their team. If they already have a Fore The Cup account they get the invitation in the app and an email. If they do not, the email invites them to sign up — and when they do, they land on that team with their handicap already in place.

It does not matter if they sign up with a different address from the one you wrote down — a work address invited, a personal one used. Following the link in the email is what claims the spot, not the address they choose, and their handicap is waiting on it either way. An invitation can only be claimed once.

Course

Give the name with a city and state, and we look the course up and pull in its pars and stroke indexes. Course databases are not right every time, so it is worth a glance before you start — and if the course is not found, the app will tell you, and you can search for it, photograph the card by the first tee, or paste the scorecard link you put in the template.

Rounds

One ROUND block per round. Any of the fifteen formats can be named however you would say it — Four-Ball, fourball and four ball all work. Leave the format out if you have not decided; the app will ask.

Starts can be written either way: Tee times: 08:00, ten minutes apart or Shotgun: 09:00. We note it and make the draw one tap once the groups exist.

Matchups

Put a Matches: list under a round and the pairings are made for you — the part of setting a cup up that takes longest by hand:

Matches:
Noah & Ryan   v  Jason & Andrew
Josh & Jack   v  Priya & Tom

First names are enough as long as only one person in the event answers to them; otherwise write the full name. Partners can be joined with &, +, and or a comma, and v, vs and versus all separate the sides. For singles, one name each side.

Name a match if you like — Match 3: Noah v Jason — and it keeps that name on the board.

Anything that cannot be worked out is left for you rather than guessed: a name nobody has, a name two people share, partners who are not on the same team, or the wrong number of players for the format. The app names the match and you build that one by hand. Whole-field formats like a scramble have no matchups — everybody plays at once — so the list is ignored there and the app says so.

Sponsors

One per line. Add a tier and a website with pipes if you have them: Harbour Trust Bank | title | https://…. Tiers are title, gold, silver, hole and supporter.

Anything we could not read

Nothing here is fatal. If a line does not make sense, the app says which one and carries on with the rest — a plan that is mostly right builds mostly an event, and everything else is a few taps in the app.