Question 1

What is a golf pool?

Accepted Answer

A golf pool is a friendly competition where participants each draft a team of professional golfers for a real tournament. Your team's score is the combined score of your selected players. The team with the lowest total score wins. Golf pools are popular for major tournaments and are a great way to make watching golf more engaging with friends, family, or coworkers.

Question 2

How do golf tournament pools work?

Accepted Answer

A commissioner creates a pool and sets the rules — roster size, value bands, cut penalties, and payouts. Participants join by drafting a roster of golfers within a point budget (value cap). As the tournament is played, scores update automatically and a leaderboard tracks every team's position. After the final round, winners are determined by the lowest combined team score.

Question 3

How do I create a golf pool?

Accepted Answer

Sign up for a free account, then use the pool creation wizard. You'll choose a tournament, set roster rules (how many golfers, counting vs. non-counting), configure value bands based on world rankings, set payout positions, and choose a lock deadline. Share the invite link with your group and you're ready to go.

Question 4

What is OfficePoolGolf?

Accepted Answer

OfficePoolGolf is a platform for creating and managing golf tournament pools for professional golf events. Commissioners create pools with custom rules, invite participants, and track leaderboards throughout the tournament. OPG provides the tools — it does not collect, hold, or distribute any money.

Question 5

How do I join a pool?

Accepted Answer

Browse open pools in My Clubhouse, or use an invite link from a commissioner. Select your roster of golfers within the pool's value cap, accept the disclaimer, and submit your entry.

Question 6

Is it free to use?

Accepted Answer

During beta, all tier levels are free. Commissioners can create pools at any tier (Par, Birdie, Eagle, Albatross) at no charge. Future pricing has not been determined.

Question 7

Do I need to know the pool commissioner?

Accepted Answer

Yes. OPG is designed for pools among people who know each other — office pools, friend groups, fantasy leagues. All financial arrangements (entry fees, payouts) are handled directly between participants and the commissioner. OPG does not facilitate or guarantee any payments.

Question 8

Is OPG affiliated with the PGA Tour, ESPN, or any tournament?

Accepted Answer

No. OfficePoolGolf is an independent platform. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any professional golf tour, tournament, governing body, broadcaster, or any professional golfer. Tournament names, player names, rankings, and related marks are the property of their respective owners and are used here solely to identify the events that pools are based on.

Question 9

What are the pool tiers?

Accepted Answer

Each tier unlocks more features and capacity:  Par: up to 10 entries, 1 per user, 5 value bands, 3 payout positions  Birdie: up to 25 entries, 3 per user, 6 value bands, 5 payout positions  Eagle: up to 100 entries, 5 per user, 10 value bands, 10 payout positions  Albatross: up to 500 entries, 10 per user, 20 value bands, 20 payout positions  During beta, all tiers are free.

Question 10

How do value bands work?

Accepted Answer

Players are grouped into bands by their Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). Each band has a point value. If you set a team value cap, participants must mix players from different bands instead of picking all top-ranked golfers.  To include unranked players (amateurs, etc.), set the last band's max rank to 9999 — this acts as a catch-all for anyone without an OWGR ranking.

Question 11

What tiebreaker options are available?

Accepted Answer

Even Split (no tiebreaker — tied entries split the payout), Earliest Submission, Best Single Round, Fewest Cuts (includes withdrawals and DQs), Best Score Type (the team with the rarer score type wins — albatross beats eagle, eagle beats birdie, and so on), and Predict the Winner (Eagle+ only).  Whichever rule the commissioner chose fires first. If two entries are still tied after that, the cascade continues through Best Score Type → Best Single Round → Fewest Cuts → Earliest Submission. Entries that survive every step share the position and split the prize evenly.

Question 12

How do cut/WD/DQ penalties work?

Accepted Answer

Three options:  - Highest Round Score: For each missed round, the worst score shot that day among players rostered in this pool is applied. - Field Average: The average round score for that day (across the entire tournament field) is applied. - Fixed Penalty: A configurable fixed score (e.g., 80) is applied per missed round.  Penalties are computed from players who played that round, including players who were later cut. Only rounds the field has actually completed count toward penalty calculations.

Question 13

What does the setup checklist require before I can open my pool?

Accepted Answer

Pool name, tournament selection, payout structure, and lock time must all be set. Payment methods are recommended but optional — you can handle payments outside the platform.

Question 14

What are commissioner notes?

Accepted Answer

Commissioner notes (Birdie+ tiers) let you add custom context, rules, or instructions that participants see on the pool page and join page. This is useful for things like payment instructions, league rules, or any other details your participants need to know. A content filter is applied to prevent inappropriate language.

Question 15

How often are scores updated?

Accepted Answer

Scores update automatically during tournament play when data sources are available. Scores are shown relative to par (e.g., -12, E, +3). The "Updated" timestamp on each leaderboard shows when scores were last refreshed.

Question 16

What is the difference between Standard and Weekend Shootout pools?

Accepted Answer

Standard (R1–R4) pools score all four rounds and lock before the first tee-off on Thursday — the classic format.  Weekend Shootout (R3–R4) pools score Saturday and Sunday only and lock at Saturday morning before R3 tee times, so entrants can keep adjusting their roster through Thursday and Friday play. Any rostered player who misses the cut gets penalty strokes for both R3 and R4 instead of real strokes. The format is chosen during pool creation and cannot be changed after.

Question 17

What does "counting golfers" mean?

Accepted Answer

If your pool is set to "5 pick 4", each team picks 5 golfers but only the best 4 scores count toward the team total. The worst-scoring golfer is dropped. This adds strategy — you want a reliable roster, not just one star player.

Question 18

How are positions displayed?

Accepted Answer

Positions show a "T" prefix only when there is an actual tie (e.g., T3 means tied for 3rd). Top 3 positions are highlighted in gold.

Question 19

Can I edit my roster after submitting?

Accepted Answer

Yes, as long as the pool is still open (before the lock deadline). Once the pool locks, rosters are frozen for the duration of the tournament.

Question 20

What is What-If analysis?

Accepted Answer

What-If analysis (Eagle+ tiers) is available on your team page after a tournament completes. It lets you swap players on your roster to see how your score and position would have changed — useful for learning which picks mattered most.

Question 21

What notifications will I receive?

Accepted Answer

OPG sends email notifications for pool status changes, entry confirmations, roster alerts (e.g., player withdrawals), field changes, tournament updates, round recaps (Birdie+), and season kickoff announcements. Optional web push notifications are also available — including big-move alerts (Eagle+ pools) and cut-line alerts at the end of R2. Push requires opting in from your browser or installed app. Every notification also lands in your in-app inbox at My Clubhouse → Notifications. You can turn off categories individually, set quiet hours (10pm–7am local), or pause all non-transactional notifications at once from your notification settings.

Question 22

Does OPG handle money?

Accepted Answer

No. OfficePoolGolf is a platform for organizing pools. It does not collect entry fees, hold funds, or distribute payouts. All financial arrangements are between the pool commissioner and participants. When you join a pool with an entry fee, you are required to acknowledge this via a disclaimer before submitting your entry. The commissioner can optionally share their preferred payment-app handle on the pool page to make payments between group members straightforward.

Question 23

What is the payment ledger?

Accepted Answer

The payment ledger (Birdie+ tiers) lets commissioners track who has paid. Participants can self-report their payment, and commissioners can confirm, reject, or waive payments. This is a tracking tool only — no money flows through OPG.

Question 24

What are the payout rules?

Accepted Answer

Commissioners configure payouts as percentages that must sum to 100%. Pools support up to 20 payout positions (varies by tier). Tied entries split the combined payout for their positions evenly. Payouts are calculated from the total entry fees and distributed by the commissioner directly to winners.

Question 25

What data does OPG collect?

Accepted Answer

When you sign in with Google or magic link, we receive your email address and (from Google) optionally your name and profile photo. You choose a public username during onboarding — this is the only name other users see. You can optionally provide your legal name (never displayed publicly) and timezone preference. We do not collect financial information, payment details, or billing addresses.

Question 26

What information is public?

Accepted Answer

Only your username is shown publicly. Your legal name and email are never displayed to other users. On guest-accessible pages, even usernames are redacted.

Question 27

What cookies does OPG use?

Accepted Answer

OPG uses authentication cookies (managed by Supabase) to keep you signed in. We use Google Analytics 4 to understand aggregate site usage; this sets analytics cookies but is not used for advertising or cross-site tracking. We do not use third-party advertising cookies. See the Privacy Policy for the GA opt-out link.

Question 28

How long is my pool data kept?

Accepted Answer

Pool data retention depends on the pool's tier: Par pools are archived after 30 days, Birdie pools after 365 days, and Eagle and Albatross pools are kept indefinitely. Archived pools are hidden from active views but not deleted. Your user profile persists until you request account deletion.

Question 29

How do I sign in?

Accepted Answer

Google OAuth or magic link (passwordless email). No password to remember.

Question 30

Can I delete my account?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Contact admin@officepoolgolf.com to request account deletion. We will fulfill deletion requests within 30 days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started

Pool Setup (Commissioners)

Scoring & Leaderboards

Payments & Money

Privacy & Data

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