Free golf league spreadsheet

How it works

The workbook has eight sheets. You type into the yellow cells: golfers, teams, starting handicaps, par and stroke index for each hole, the number of teams, and the gross score each golfer shoots. Everything else is a formula, so the schedule, handicaps, standings and skins update the moment a score goes in.

Setup takes about ten minutes. Roster holds up to 32 golfers and 16 teams. Course holds par and stroke index for nine holes, plus a table of the strokes a golfer gets on each hole at handicaps 0 to 18. Schedule builds the round robin from the number of teams you type: change an 8 to a 12 and the 12 team schedule appears, with a bye each week for an odd number of teams. Weekly Scores is a grid of golfers by week, up to 20 weeks.

Handicaps uses Method B, the average over par of a golfer’s recent rounds:

1. Strokes over par for a round = gross score minus the total par of the course.
2. Take the golfer’s last 5 rounds. With fewer than 5, use the rounds they have.
3. Average those strokes over par.
4. League handicap = the average times 0.8, rounded to one decimal.
5. A golfer plays off the starting handicap until the first round is on the sheet. After that, each week uses only the rounds before that week.

Matches are decided on net team totals. A golfer’s net score is the gross score minus the handicap they played off that week, and the side with the lower total wins the match. A win is worth 2 points and a tie 1, and both can be changed. Standings sorts the teams by points, then wins, and lists every golfer with rounds, average gross, best round and current league handicap. Skins pays one gross skin a week: the lowest gross score takes the pot, and a tie for low carries the pot to the next week.

Handicaps in the workbook are in nine-hole strokes. Gimme works league handicaps on an 18-hole scale and halves them for nine holes, so the number you see in the app is about double the one here.

Worked example: one golfer, five rounds

Pat plays a par 36 course and starts the season with a handicap of 8. In weeks 1 to 5, Pat shoots 42, 40, 44, 39, 41. The Handicaps sheet turns those into strokes over par: 6, 4, 8, 3, 5.

After week 5, the average over par is 5.2. Times 0.8 that is 4.16, so Pat’s league handicap is 4.2 and Pat plays off 4.2 in week 6. In week 5, Pat played off 4.2 and shot 41, a net 36.8, and that net goes into the team total for the match.

For the Skins sheet, say 12 golfers each put in $2 a week, so the pot is $24. If two golfers tie for low gross in week 1, nobody wins and the pot carries. Week 2 then pays $48 to the golfer with the lowest gross score, if there is only one.

When a spreadsheet is the right tool

• You run a league of up to 16 teams and you are fine entering scores by hand once a week.
• You want a working template to start from this week, with the schedule and handicap math already done.
• You want to see how a Method B league handicap and a round robin work before you pick software.
• You want a backup copy of the league that does not depend on any app.