You've got the crew. The flights are booked. The anticipation has been building in the group chat for six months (or more). Now you have to decide — how are we going to keep score?
The poorly planned trips end up being a footnote (and a source of potential headaches). The well-planned trips allow everyone to focus on what matters after spending thousands of dollars — golf and creating memories — and build momentum for next year.
Here's the full playbook for running a Ryder Cup–style buddies trip: how to pick the format for each day, how to draft teams, how to design the points system, and the common mistakes to avoid.
What Ryder Cup format actually means
Ryder Cup format on a buddies trip means three things:
- Two teams (typically four against four, but it scales — six versus six, eight versus eight, etc.)
- Multiple rounds across multiple days, with each round potentially using a different format
- Cumulative team points that carry across the entire trip. The team with the most Ryder Cup points at the end wins, regardless of who won each individual round.
The format flexibility is the magic. Day one might be four-ball. Day two might be Team Match Play. Day three might be singles match play. The points stack across everything. A team that gets crushed on day one can still come back on day two and three — which keeps everyone engaged through the entire trip.
If you've watched the actual Ryder Cup, you know the rhythm: pairs on Friday and Saturday, singles on Sunday, points adding up to a final total. Your buddies trip uses the same structure with whatever formats your group actually enjoys.
Note: Most prefer to play their own ball on these trips, so alternate shot isn't particularly common. More on format selection to follow.
Pick dates, courses, and confirm the crew
The unsexy part of trip planning is the part that makes or breaks the trip. Three logistics worth getting right:
Dates. Lock dates in 3 to 6 months out at a minimum, depending on where you're going and how many are going on the trip (more buddies joining + more prestigious location = more lead time needed). Not only do you need calendars to align — the courses need to have the availability, too.
Unless this is a well-established annual trip with the same group, be prepared to lose guys leading up to the trip. Unexpected work trips, child births, family emergencies, injuries — they happen.
Courses. Two reasonable approaches: a single home-base course (play the same course every day — simpler logistics, not as interesting) or a rotation (more variety, more memorable, but more logistics). Pick based on your group's preferences.
Depending on the length of the trip, rotating courses is typically more desirable, and it's a reason places like Pinehurst, Big Cedar, and Bandon Dunes are so popular (in addition to the world-class golf). They provide multiple courses without the logistics — e.g., ordering multiple Uber XLs to fit everyone and their clubs.
Most groups will have many opinions on the location. And sorting it out in the group chat gets messy. Best advice here is to try to get together in person to pick the destination.
Confirm the crew early. Lock commitments. It can feel ruthless, but it only makes life easier for everyone. You can only hang onto guys who "have to see what their work schedule looks like" for so long, unfortunately. If they bail on short notice, it can get particularly challenging finding someone with the resources and calendar flexibility to attend.
This can leave the rest of the group on the hook for greens fees, hotel or Airbnb costs, etc. — and it creates a challenge with the scoring format if the team sizes shift.
Draft the teams
Two reasonable ways to set teams:
Captain's draft (recommended). Two captains alternate picks, snake-draft style — first captain picks player A, second captain picks players B and C (or whatever your snake order is), back to first captain, and so on. Handicaps should be visible during the draft so each captain can balance skill on their team.
Random draw. Pull names from a hat and split them. This is better for groups where the politics of "you picked him over me" gets weird, or there are guys joining who are less familiar. Any concern about potentially unbalanced teams is nullified if you're using handicaps and net scoring.
If you're not sure about using handicaps, you should be using handicaps. There are free apps to help track handicaps, or you can use the official GHIN app.
This prevents predictable blowouts and makes the trip far more competitive.
Also worth doing: pick captains before the draft, not by drawing for them at the airport. Let them have some fun with it.
Format selection per day
The format you pick for each round is the single biggest creative call the captain makes. A trip with the same format every day gets stale by Saturday afternoon. Mix it up.
These are all formats where everyone will play their own ball.
Day one — arrival day (lower stakes)
- Best Ball / Four-Ball. Two vs two pairings; lowest score per side counts on each hole. The most forgiving format — bad holes get covered up by your partner. Good for the first round when guys are stiff from travel and getting their swings back. Can do match play (more forgiving) or stroke play.
Middle days (variety)
- Team Match Play. Two vs two pairings; total strokes per side are added up on each hole; the side with the lowest score wins the hole. Slightly less forgiving as every stroke matters, but a blow-up hole only costs a team one hole.
- High/Low. Two vs two pairings; each side's high (worst) and low (best) scores go head-to-head on each hole; two points available on each hole; no points or carryovers for pushes. Fun match-play-style game where each player can win or lose a point on every hole.
- Vegas. Two vs two pairings; two-man teams pair their scores into a two-digit number — low ball first, then high ball; lower number wins. Crazy swings and every ball matters.
Final day(s) — high stakes
- Singles Match Play. One vs one pairings. Each player on Team A is paired against a player on Team B. Head-to-head matches all day. This is the highest-stakes format with the most Ryder Cup points to be won. Maximum drama.
A common three-day structure: Best Ball for the first round, a combination of Team Match Play, High/Low, and/or Vegas for the middle rounds, and Singles on the final round. Variety, building tension, classic finish.
Ryder Cup points
Each matchup is worth one Ryder Cup point, and a tied matchup results in a half point for each team.
If there are two teams of four on the trip, the first round of the trip (if you chose Best Ball) will have four Ryder Cup points available — four different two-vs-two matchups. This is why Singles Match Play is such high stakes, and why it's recommended to conclude the trip — eight different one-vs-one matchups means eight Ryder Cup points up for grabs on the final round.
Common pitfalls
The mistakes that kill otherwise good trips:
- Overly complex format scheduling. Pick three or four formats max across three days. If you find yourself explaining the rotation more than once, simplify.
- Unbalanced teams. Take handicap/talent balancing seriously during the draft if you're using gross scoring. Again, we strongly recommend using net scoring.
- Letting the score get lost. By day three, no one remembers what happened on day one. The "math guy" should not also be the guy carrying the cooler.
Bonus considerations
In addition to running the Ryder Cup scoring over the trip, it can be particularly compelling to run a simultaneous individual stroke play competition (gross or net).
This adds another layer of competition on the trip, and another talking point — even among teammates.
The bookkeeping problem
By round three on day two, the running points total is on a napkin in someone's hotel room, buried in the group chat, or hidden on a spreadsheet. And two guys are arguing about whether hole 11 yesterday was halved or won.
This is the universal buddies-trip bookkeeping experience. Multi-round, multi-format, team-and-individual leaderboards with gross or net scoring across three or four days — it's almost impossible.
ForeBoard handles all of it automatically. Set up the trip once at the start. Each player joins by tapping a single link or scanning a QR code — no app, no accounts, no "did you download it yet?" texts at 11pm. Each round runs in its own format. Cumulative team points and individual stats run simultaneously. Live leaderboards on every player's phone. Everyone watching from home (wives, kids, the buddy who couldn't make it) follows along via the shareable spectator link.
The captain gets to actually play the trip instead of running totals during dinner.
Ready to plan your trip? Set up your Ryder Cup–style trip on ForeBoard → Pick the dates, draft the teams, format each round, share one link with the whole crew. You're set up in about a minute — no app, no accounts, no spreadsheets.