The Creation of Teams

The last time that we spoke, we talked about how the create team and groups interface will be working. Well we’ve now got some more updates to share with you.

Right now you’re presented with a list of golf players that come either from your friends list or from being associated with a specific golf course. The player list lets you toggle this choice, lets you sort by username, first name and last name. There is also a search box where you type in the name that you’re looking for and all matching players will be displayed. Now when you’re ready to add a player to a team, you need only click one of the four buttons displayed which correspond to the matching teams.

Team Listing

Now you have your players added to the teams that you want them to play on, but you have one extra player who just happens to not be a GolfStakes.com member. Not a problem. You click the green and white plus sign which says “One Time Player” and you will be given a dialog box like the following:

From this dialog box you can create a temporary one time player that will be scored and tracked inside of the tournament and any rounds that associated with a tournament.

In Summary

Well that’s all we’ve got for now. Took a lot of work to get this polished and working. Not on the list is getting the teams made into groups.

Team and Group Management

The last couple of weeks have been spent building the Teams and Groups section of the Tournament interface. This page is going to be a heavy hitting action page. Take a look at the following screen shot.

Options

Right off the bat you’re going to have options to select creating a team or creating a group. This way you can setup your tournaments the way you want to play them. Next you can see a player list search box. Just typing anything into this text area will filter the player list down to the specific item you’re looking for.

The dropdown list is used to load the player list. Right now you can select players either by your friends list, or by the course that you have selected to play your tournament on.

Once the grid has been loaded, you can now scroll the rows up and down depending on how large a list you have, you can also sort the grid by username, first name and last name. When you’ve found the player you would like to add to the tournament, click on one of the four buttons displayed, and the player will then be moved over to the correct team list.

Currently the team list is just a working example which is displaying the user ID . When the grid is completed you will be able to see all information that you currently see on the rounds page for individual play. Take a look at this screen shot for an example of the information.

Now this information will not be editable on the grid itself. We’re planning on having a pop out edit form to make it easier for you.

Conclusion

Okay, so we’ve walked through the top section. We’re still working on the details of the team list grids and how we’re going to make the groups. But as you can see, we’ve done a lot so far an there is a ton more work to do.

Hope you like the direction we’re going with this, and as always we’re open to any comments that you have about the site.

Tournament Management

We’ve now completed the two of the first steps for creating and managing a tournament. As you saw from our preview a few weeks ago the main page is setup to have a grid listing out your tournaments, a section below that that lists out your tournament administrators and a nice call to action button on the right side that will take you into the tournament creation wizard. See the screen shot below for a view of the new layout for the main page.

Tournament List Grid

The grid that you see is now a nice paging and sorting grid. You can sort through your tournaments on the first three columns. At the bottom of the page you can see that there is now paging added. As you go over ten tournaments the grid will now start to add pages to shift through rather than one big long list.

Tournament Administrator List

The administrator list found under the grid will show the name, the last they that person was one and few action links. As you add administrators to your tournaments you will see a default of three people here and a scroll bar to roll through the rest.

Create / Edit Tournament Screen

Our general information tab for tournaments has grown some since we’ve last talked about it. As you can see from the screen shot below we’ve added quite a few items and features to the page.

General Tournament Information

Right now in the upper section of the page you can see that we have all of the necessary items to create a tournament along with start and end dates, sponsor information, fees and a description. Validation has been added to this page to insure that you have enter the very basic information for a tournament. The required fields are: tournament name, course and tee.

Tournament Rounds

Creating a tournament is more than just having the time and place. With GolfStakes.com you also have the ability to add rounds to your tournament when you creating the tournament. After filling in the required fields above, you only need to give the round a name, the date it will be played in your tournament, if you would like GolfStakes.com to give you summary screens in between holes and which holes you will be playing. Click “Add Round to Tournament” and the grid below will reload and show you new tournament. Clicking on course name will take you to the actual round page, and clicking remove will take this round out of the tournament.

All message of success, information and errors will show up where the red box is with an appropriate color scheme.

Summary

That’s it for now. We hope you like what you see here and are looking forward to creating your next tournament with GolfStakes.com. As always any comments or feedback is greatly welcomed.

Feedback Driven Upgrades

A few months ago we unveiled our new tournament management interface and we also used it in a large tournament as a real test of where we were going. Well we found that we were a little off on some things.

We found that the interface was a little hard to use for more than just a few players (the tournament had 150+ players in it) and adding in players one a time turned out to be a test of patience. Setting up the tournament groups and flights took too long and had many involved steps to complete the action. And we had no way of sharing the tournament with other tournament administrators.

Our Changes

So we’ve gone back to the drawing board and we’re making some changes to the interface. First we’re going to the make the tournament home page a little bit more informative.

Here’s what is going to happen. The home page of the tournament management screen is now going to have a grid with your current tournaments displayed. This will link to a tabbed interface where you can go through and change whatever values need to be adjusted.

Second, you’re going to see a really large button that will take you in a new tournament setup wizard. Creating a tournament just didn’t stand out and now we’re going to highlight this feature.

On the bottom half of this screen you can see your tournament administrators. From here you can communicate with these people, view their profiles and whatnot. To the side you’ll see a link where you can add a new administrator. Clicking this link will take you to a screen much like this one:

Type in an email or a username, find the person whom you’d like to have as administrator of your tournaments and click the action of “Add as Admin”. You’ll now be redirected back to the tournament management home page and your new administrator will be displayed on the page.

Basic Info

Okay, we’ve go the home page redesigned and now we’re going to take a look at the new tabbed interface and how we’re going to build up a tournament.

Here’s the basic setup page. Also known as the first step of the tournament setup wizard. As you can see their are tabs staggered across the top of the wizard. When you’re first creating a tournament these we only activate after creating the general information of a tournament. When you’re editing a tournament each tab will be active and you will be able to dive in and adjust any information necessary.

The general information section is just that. You’re going to set the who, what, when, where parts of tournament. Once you choose the where (your course) you will also have the opportunity to create predefined rounds for this tournament.

Wrap Up

That’s all we’ve got now. Everything is up in the air over how we’re creating this functionality but we’re really working to make it easier on you, the user of GolfStakes.com. Come back again and we should have more information on the remaining tabs of this great new feature of GolfStakes.com.

Quick Tournament Overview

Adding in tournaments turned out to be a huge undertaking which involved a few months of hard work. Starting on August 6th GolfStakes.com is going for a live action test of the new features. To give you a taste of what it takes to setup and manage a tournament here is a quick overview.

The Setup

To create a tournament is pretty simple. The only items that you need is a name for the tournament, when it's being played, where it's going to be played at, a starting tee (the options come from the course that you select) and if this is a private tournament and if you will be using the 3-5 rule from the USGA handbook.

Once you create the tournament you can now add players to your tournament.

Simply search for the GolfStakes.com member whom you would like add to your tournament, select if they are a member or a guest and then add them to your player list. What you're doing here is actually creating a bucket to ease the creation of teams and flights.

Creating a team is a simple matter of select which player will play against which player.

Once you have create players, teams and flights you can easily view the tournament details.

Everything is in the details

From the details screen you can drill down and see:

• player details
• details of the teams in tournament
• flight information for the tournament
• and how many rounds are associated with the tournament

The last step of creating a tournament is associating a round with the tournament. The only thing needed for this action is a round name. Once you associate a round, you can now go to the round list page, and see all of  your players grouped together in teams ready to add side games, scoring and printing of score cards.

Wrap up

That's  it for now. Tournaments are a pretty direct path when you're setting one up. Once you have them setup, going out to the course and scoring the tournament should be as simple as playing a normal round. So there you go, have fun and enjoy your next tournament while using GolfStakes.com.

The Duke Gibson Classic

Starting on August 6th, 7th and 8th, GolfStakes.com is going to be used to track and score our very first large scale tournament at the Blue Hills Country Club in Kansas City. The Duke Gibson Classic is an annual event and will for the very first time be scored in real time using GolfStakes.com's new tournament management features.

Player's scores will be tracked during the three day event with daily adjustments made automatically via the GolfStakes.com scoring engine. During each daily round, players and spectators will have the opportunity to watch the action on GolfStakes.com's live leader board.

After several long months of work, we here at GolfStakes.com are excited about bringing the power of GolfStakes.com to a large scale tournament. We look forward to letting you know how the event went and where we'll be going with the tournament management features.

One year with GolfStakes

With over a year of working with GolfStakes.com we've made a lot of major improvements. Three major facelifts of the user interface, the addition of a messaging system, profiles, statistics, 23 different types of side games, and the always upgraded scoring engine. We're looking ahead at some of the great new improvements in store for you.

Our first one is going to be the addition of tournaments. We're planning to roll out the ability to create teams, flights and tournaments integrated with the ability to manage all aspects of the game during a tournament.

The second major upgrade is going to be league setup and management. We know that a lot of you like to play on leagues and this has been a long term goal for us.

So we're doing some heads down coding and cranking out new additions to the site. Come visit GolfStakes.com and see what's new and exciting in the world of online golf scoring.

Your Friends Tab Update

We're always trying to improve the user experience on GolfStakes.com and today I would like to give you a preview of what your 'Friends' tab will look like in the near future.

As you can see from the new layout, we have put some thought in to how this section is going to be used. First we've added a visual avatar to be displayed so that you can quickly see who you are friends with and to be able to find them just by scrolling by. Second, we have your friends screen name displayed in the center of the friends list, with the date and time of their last login underneath. Third; on the right hand side of this section, you can see a link called 'Search for Friends' this will take you to an advanced search page where you can find people you know just by typing in their email address. Four and Five; these are action buttons links that you can do. You can send a message directly to your friend via GolfStakes.com's internal messaging system, or if you no longer want to be associated with this friend, you can quickly remove them from your list.

Last, as you can see, there is a scroll bar that appears to the right of your friends list. When you have more than three friends, you will now be able to quickly scroll through your list.

A few points to notice. The green display name and the avatar picture are all hyperlinks and when clicked will take you to that user's public profile.

That's it for now, we hope that you like what you're seeing and as always if you have any comments please leave them either in our 'Community Forums' or through the GolfStakes 'Contact Us' page.

Your New Inbox

With the way that managing friends has been changed, we felt that there was a need for users to communicate between each other. From this need we've created our new internal messaging service.

When you log in to the site and go either to the 'My Game' tab or the 'My Profile' link you will see on the far right side a new tab called 'Inbox'. Clicking on this tab will take you to an area where you can see sent and received messages and can compose new
messages to send to your friends.

Status Codes

If Sending	Sent	Pending	Invited
If Receiving	Sent	Read	Accepted

Each list of messages generally show the same information except the status will be different between sent and received messages.

Clicking on the subject of any message will take you to the details of that message. Depending on what type of  message you are viewing will determine what type of actions you can take with the message. A new received message will give you the option to mark the message as read. A newly received invitation will allow you to accept the friend invitation and become friends with the sender of the message.

Clicking on the 'Compose Message' link to the far right of the inbox will take you to the the 'Compose Your Message' page.  The form displayed is very simple to use. Clicking on the 'Send To'
link next to the empty text box will bring up your personal contact last (basically the same as your friends list). From this list you can sent one person to receive your message. The contact list box will close an the message now has that person assigned as the receiver of your message.

 
You are now free to add a subject line, and a personal message to this user. When you are done, click the green button called 'Send' will save the message and send an email notification to the recipient. 

That's it for your inbox. We will be adding in more functionality in the future. If you have any feedback for this functionality or any other please feel free to leave use some feedback on our contact us page, or in the GolfStakes forums.

New Friends Tab Functionality

We've made some changes to the way friends are found and added on GolfStakes.com.

First thing is, you have a tab found under the 'My Game' which is called 'Friends'. Under the 'Friends' tab you have a list of all of your current friends. This list will display the current display name of your friend, the last time there were online and gives you a hyperlink to their profile. To the far right you will see two options
for the page. First you can now search for a friend on GolfStakes and second, you can now remove a friend from your Friends List.

Clicking on the 'Search for Friends' link will take you to the Friend Search page still located under the 'Friends' tab. From here we have given you the option of searching for a friend by your friends email address. Type in the address, and click the green 'Find Friend' button. If your search is successful, you will be presented with a display of that users display name, their location, their avatar and two action links; one to add them
as a friend and one to send a message to them.

If you notice, you will see that the display name is bold faced, you can click on this link and be taken to this user's profile page. In addition, you can also click on the avatar and go to the user's profile page also.

Clicking on the 'Add as Friend' link will take you to a page under your inbox where you can now invite this person to be a friend of yours. You can add in a personal message if you wish.
When an invite is accepted, both people are now linked as friends. They will see you, and you will see them. Being a friend means that you can now communicate with each other through the inteneral messaging system found on GolfStakes and that you can now be associated with other players golf rounds. To send the invite, click the green button called 'Send Invitation'.
A user will only be made a friend when the invitation is accepted. Once an invitation has been accepted, both users will be friends of each other.

From the friends search result page, if you click on the 'Send a Message' link, you will be taken to the 'Compose Your Message' page found under your 'Inbox' tab. From here, you will see that the 'Send To' box is already filled out with your recipients display name. You are now free to add a subject line, and a personal message to this user. When you are done, click the green button called 'Send'.

The last thing that can be done under the new 'Friends' tab is to be able to manage your friends list. Clicking on the 'Remove Friends' link will take you a section where you are presented with
a list of your friends with a 'Remove' link next to the name. If you click on the this remove link, the selected friend will be removed from both your friend list, and your friends 'friend list'.

That's it for managing friends. You can now add, remove and communicate with them easily through the GolfStakes user interface. If you have any feedback for this functionality or any other please feel free to leave use some feedback on our contact us page, or in the GolfStakes forums.

Rebroadcast of Radio Show

Kyle had a great time doing the radio show last Saturday. For all of those who missed out on hearing live the first time, the show will be rebroadcast Friday April 3rd on 1140Am and 1160AM at 6pm in the Kansas City metro area.

Tune in to hear Kyle talk about GolfStakes.com!

Personalization Added

I know it sounds like a simple thing, you would really like to have a picture up that identifies you on GolfStakes.com. Now for the past couple of months we have had a graphic up, but you had no way of personalizing this graphic or to add your own. Now you do.

Introducing Gravatars

Gravatar.com is a web site which provides globally recognized avatars and allows a user to sign up for free and to upload as many avatar images as they would like to have and manage all of these images from one spot. GolfStakes.com has taken the unique approach of taking the Gravatar.com provided path and linking that in with our system so that you too can have access this this great service.

Steps to putting up your avatar

There are a few steps that need to be completed before a GolfStakes.com user can have an avatar posted on the web site. First you need to visit Gravatar.com and signup for a free account on their web site. You will need to provide an email address to them, and you will  need to be able to verify this email address.

Once you have your Gravatar.com account login to GolfStakes.com and go to your settings page.

Two things you should notice. A gray golfer image is displayed next your profile control panel. This is where you new avatar will be displayed. Second, you should see that under the profile management heading there is now an option to add/remove an avatar. Click this click to add your Gravatar.com image.

You're now on the avatar management page.

We give you short introduction of what we're doing with Gravatar.com, how to get a Gravatar.com account, and what we'll do with the email address that you provide to associate your Gravatar.com account with a GolfStakes.com user account.

Clicking the 'associate accounts' tab will now take you to where you can actually associate the accounts.

Now the only thing that we need from you is the same email address that you used when you signed up for Gravatar.com. What we're going to do with this email address is that we're going to do a one way encryption of the email address and then use that as part of the path way for your Gravatar.com identity icon. We will have no way of knowing what email address you have entered and the email address is no longer human readable (the encryption used can not be used to un-encrypt this address). When you click the associate my email address' button you will be sent back to the settings page and if the email address you entered on GolfStakes.com is found on the Gravatar.com servers, your new image icon will be displayed in the upper left corner.

Now we know that there are times when you no longer want to have an icon identifying yourself. You can easily go back to the settings page, and click the 'add or remove avatar' link. You will now see on the avatar page and option to remove your Gravatar.com email from our servers. Once  you click the button on this page, we no longer know which email to use, and the GolfStakes.com default icon will now be displayed in place of your custom image icon.

Summary

We hope that you like this new feature of GolfStakes.com. As you start to use the site more, you'll notice that the new avatars will start to appear in new areas. Right now you will see your new avatars on the profile page, and on your handicap page. You will also be able to see your friends avatars, and soon you will be able to see avatar images when you search for friends, and on some of the golfing statistics pages. Let us know how we're doing and we hope that you enjoy this new service on GolfStakes.com

We're On the Radio

This Saturday morning (3/28/2009) Kyle is going to be on the radio in Kansas City Missouri. Listen to 1510AM @ 8am and hear Kyle talk about all the great features of GolfStakes.

Hot Talk 1510 KCTE - Programming

KC Sports and Fitness 8 am - 9 am
Hosted by: Steve Fisch and Jim Potoski

User Profile Section Updates

Your account settings page now has a few more items that you
can control.

Account Management is where you can control specific items associated with your GolfStakes membership. You can change your password, your email address and your security question from here. If you feel that GolfStakes.com just isn't for you, you also have the option to close your account with us.

Profile management does exactly what it says it does. From here
you can update your personal information like your name, your display name, your GHIN index and write some open text about yourself. You can also add or change a mailing address and a phone number.

These new options can be found under the settings link next to your profiles avatar.

Speaking of profiles, you now have several ways of reaching your profile while on the GolfStakes.com web site. First, there is a global link found in the upper right corner of the site. Click your name will always take you to your profile. Second, when you click on 'My Game' you will see that a profile link displays on the left hand side near a gray and white golfer avatar. Third, when you're inside of the 'My Game' section of the site, you will notice that there is a prominent glossy white button or green button
in the middle of the page. This link will also take you to your profile.

In the future, we're looking to adding a number of other features and additions to you profile section. This will enable you to find your friends faster and to make new friends easier.

Hope this helps, and enjoy using GolfStakes.com.

User Interface Updates

From some feedback we had at the Chicago Golf show we've made some changes.

Gone are the drop down menus. People were having a hard time keeping the menu open or the menu got in the way of doing something on the page. We've replaced the drop down menus with a nice second level of menus. These menu items appear in the green bar directly under the main menu items.

Second, we've moved the profile and dashboard areas into a new section of the site. To get to your dashboard items, click on the 'My Game' link and you should now be able to access you score and handicap history, your friends and favorite course lists, along with a direct link to your profile page.

We have also changed the way you can update your personal information. Next to the golfer avatar picture, you will see a link called 'Settings'.

Clicking on this link will give you access to your GolfStakes.com account and allow you to update your personal information, change you password and manage your friends. In the future you will see a lot more options added to this section.

 

That's it for now, let us know how we're doing. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in our forums or send it directly to us using the contact us page found under the information tab.

Speed and uptime

We've been having a few issues lately of our hosting company not being able to keep our site up 100% of the time. To fix this problem we've taken the site to a new hosting company. We our new company we now have the ability to scale both our databases and our web servers with little problem.

For you the user, you really shouldn't notice any changes in the way GolfStakes.com works. Everything should appear normal and work as advertised. We have had to make one change to the way you access the mobile site. Instead of typing "m.golfstakes.com" into your phones web browser we now as that you use "mob.golfstakes.com"

Other than that, have fun using GolfStakes.com!

GolfStakes.com facelift

After a month of hard work and testing I'm proud to announce that GolfStakes.com has launched a new version of the web site. A lot of thought as gone into how we built this new version of the site and I think we've made a great improvement in both appeal and usability.

The Home Page

When you first come to Golfstakes.com you will now notice that we have changed the way that a user logs into the site, navigates the site and is informed of the benefits of using the site.

 

On the left hand side we have given the user a quick login area. You simply need your user name and password to enter into the member areas of the site. If you do not have a username and password, registering for one is quick and painless. You are given two ways of getting to that area through the 'sign up is free' link on the left next the sign in block, or the 'register' link at the top right.

Logged in Home Page

Once you are logged in you are presented with your user dashboard.

Your user dashboard will have tabs where you can check our your scoring stats for your prior golf rounds, check to see which golf rounds you have coming up, check on your friends activity, and see a real time calculation of your handicap.

On the left where the login area was, you will now see a placeholder for you user avatar, and links to your user profile and to log out of the site.

Browse a course

To make it easier to just browse through our 18,000 plus golf courses we have made a link called 'Golf Courses' which will take you to a listing of all 50 states.

Simply clicking on one of these links will take you to the course results page preloaded with all golf courses from the selected state. You also have the ability to refine your search from the results page if you do not feel like digging through hundreds of search results.

User Profile

Your user profile is your personal presence on GolfStakes.com. This is where other players can see more information about you, see how you score and what your favorite courses are.

From this page, you also have the ability to update your profile or changes your login password.

Playing a round of golf

The main reason a user comes here is because they want to score a round of golf. We've now made it easier to start setting up a round, your groups, and your side games.

Three green buttons give you quick access to enter scores for the round all at once, see the current results of the round, and to add/edit/delete side games from your round. Two tabs divide up the round into the course information section and the players sections. Red buttons give you quick access to tutorial videos on how to complete any of the tasks necessary to make a golf round. Two more green buttons are on the page, one for search for a golf course and a second one for making this round into a tournament round. Remember the tournament number as this can be given to your friends and they too can join your round via the 'enter tournament' link accessible through the main menu.

Last  you see a save button. Clicking this button will create the round, save all associated specifics and enable you to start scoring.

Wrap up

We hope that you'll like the new look and feel of the site. There are more changes on the way. We're looking at bringing the home page and the user profile page together to make it quicker and easier for the user. We've got handicapping built in now for those that would like to have real time calculations. We're adding in a bucketful of statistics for those who like to see how they're doing on the greens. And we're looking to bring more features such as league play and group memberships to the site.

A List of our side games

In just the last few weeks we have added a great many side games to GolfStakes.com and I feel that we really have given much description to the users about them. So here we go.

All these side games can be played with or without handicapping.

 

Side Game Description

7 Point – There are 7 points per hole.  Point for lowest putts, 2 points for low Individual Score, 2 points for not having the highest score, point for closest to pin, point for birdie.

Abilene – 4 or 5 point game played 2 vs 2.  Point for closest to pin, point for low single score, point for low team total, point for low team putts.  On the 5 point there is an extra point for Long drive.  Some people also play with buckets.  Which means if you get all the points, you can add a point to your total, or double the points.

More Abilene Information

Best Ball – Simply the lowest score, you can assign the # of balls to use in best ball.  In 2 man teams you can set the best ball to 1 or 2.   If one, then it uses the lowest score on the team, if its 2 then it uses both scores together to determine the score.

Bingo-Bango-Bongo – Rather like Abilene, except it only uses 3 points.  Bingo – first person on the green.  Bango - the person closest to the pin.  Bongo – the first player to hole out.  This game also can also use buckets.  So if someone gets all 3 points, they can add a point to the score, or double the points.

More Bingo-Bango-Bongo Information

Birdies – Pretty straightforward.  You get a point for each birdie you make.  If you get 5 birdies and your buddy gets 2 birdies, then he owes you 3 points.

Chip Game – A little unusual.  You get a chip for certain feats, either good or bad.  You can decide what the values of those feats are worth, and the person holding the chip on the last hole get the points.  For instance, there is a chip for Birdies, and you set the point value for the Birdie.  If I get a birdie on hole 3, then I am holding the chip, if you get one 4, then you take the chip from me.  Whoever holds the chip on the last hole is the only one who gets points.  Chip games are ( 1 putt, 3 putt, Birdie, Chip In, Double Bogey, Eagle, Flagstick Putt, Lost Ball, Other, Out of Bounds, Par Par Par, Proximity, Sand, Sand Save, Trees, Triple Bogey, Unplayable Lie, Up and Down and Water Hazard.

More Chip Game Information

Custom Game – This game allows you to do whatever game you want.  You simply set points for each golfer while you are entering the scores for that user.  So whatever game you are playing, if we don’t have it, you can still keep track of it.

More Custom Game Information

Daytona – Daytona is played quite a few ways.  The way it’s implemented now is a winner take all.  You play on 2 man teams.  You scores are combined to form a 2 digit number, using the lowest score first.  If you and I are on a team and you shoot a 3 and I shoot a 4, then our score is 34.  If the other team shot a 5 and a 5, then there score is 55.  These scores are added through the whole round and the team with the lowest score is the winner.

Eagles – Just like birdies, except you get a point every time you make an eagle.

Hammer – One team has the hammer, they can hammer the other team whenever they want, which increments the value of the wager for that hole.  So if a hole is worth 5 points, and the hammer gets passed back and forth 3 times then the hole is worth 15 points.  Low score wins the hole.

Match Play – Pretty standard match play.  You get a point for winning the front nine and a point for back nine.  You aren’t playing for score, only playing for winning holes.  You can set the software up to autopress for you.  So when someone is 2 down it will automatically make a press, which is another side game starting at that hole.

Match Play 18 – Same as match play, except instead of having a point for the front nine and a point for the back, you play for all 18.

Nassau – Similar to match play, except you get a point for front, point for back and a point for overall.

Nine-Point – This is a good game to play with a threesome.    There are nine points on each hole.  If player1 beats player2 and player2 beats player3, then player1 gets 5 points, player2 gets 3 points, and player3 gets 1 point.  If two players tie for high score, then low player gets 5 points, and the other 2 get 2 points each.  If 2 players tie for low score, then they each get 4 points and the high score player gets 1 point.  Finally, if all 3 players tie, then they each get 3 points.  The score always adds up to 9 points.

Point Play – If players shoots a 2, they get 100 points, if the player shoots a 3 they get 5 points, if the player shoots a 4 they get 10 points and a 5 will get you 1 point.  This is played this way regardless of the par of the hole.

Skins – Standard skins game.  The player or team with the lowest score gets a point and win the hole.  Ties are moved to the next hole.  If we tied on hole 1, then hole 2 would be worth 2 points.

Skins No CarryOver – Same as skins except points do not carry over.  So if we tie on hole 1, then that point will never been assigned and hole 2 will be worth only 1 point.

Sows – This is a putting game.  A putt that is made longer than the flag stick is worth 2 points, if you 3 putt, then you give all the other players 1 point. ( Or you go negative 1. ).   Any birdie putt is a point.

Stableford – Bogies is worth 1 point, Par is worth 2 points, birdie is worth 3,  Eagle is worth 4, 3 under is worth 5.

Stroke – Standard stroke play.  Lowest score wins.

Stroke Match Play – It’s just like match play, except that each hole is worth the difference of our scores.  If I beat you by 2 strokes on 1, then hole 2 is valued as 2.  You still get 1 point for front and one point for back, but you get hurt more for blowing up on a hole since your difference is what is being recorded.  For instance, I win hole 1 and 2 by one stroke, you win hole 3 by 4 strokes.  In normal match play, I’d be one up on you.  In stroke match play, I’d actually be down 2 at that point.  You can press just like regular match plays with this game.

Train Wreck – This is a great roller coaster of a game.  1 point for bogie, 2 points for par, 3 for birdie, 4 for eagle, 5 for an albatross and 10 points for a hole in one.  However, if you shoot a double bogey, or get 2 bogeys in a row, then all your points are wiped out.  You could be winning handsomely going down 18, but if you double bogey 18, then you lose all your points.  It makes it really interesting when you have a lot of points and you bogey a hole.  Because you know that if you bogey the next hole you’ll lose your points.

More Train Wreck Information

Vegas – Very much like Daytona, except it’s not a winner takes all.  2 Person teams, your scores are combined to make your score,  I shoot a 3 and you shoot a 4, our team score would be 34.  When you total those all up then the difference is how many points you get.  For instance, if team one added scores were 350, and team 2 was 375, then team 2 is down 25 points to team 1.  You can also choose a few options, For instance, when you get a birdie, you can choose to double the points.  On an Eagle, you can choose to double, or triple the points.  You can also switch the opponents score when you get a birdie or an eagle.  So if your opponents got a 47, and you had the option on to switch their score when you got an eagle, then the score would flip to 74 if you got an eagle or better.

 

Wrap up

I know it can seem kind of daunting, but after playing just a few rounds with side games you will see what fun playing a round of golf can be.

An influx of new users

At the end of 2008 we have started to have an large number of new users join GolfStakes. Just to help the new community members along, I'm going to point out a few neat community features that we have.

Course Favorites

When you're on a course home page you should notice that there is a hyperlink up in the upper right hand corner that says "Add to My Favorites List". What this link does is take the course that you're currently viewing and adds it a quick pick list which shows up on a users profile.

When you view your own profile you have will see a list of Courses as hyperlinks and also the option to remove the course from your list. Click on the course name will take you to that courses home page. Clicking on the remove link will delete this course from your course list.

If you are viewing another person's profile, you will see a similar list of course name, but with just a hyperlink to that courses home page.

 

Leaving comments

Another community feature that we're offering to our members right now is the ability to add comments to courses.

At the bottom of course home page you will find a section for comments. You simply type in your comment and click the "Add Comment" link under the text box and the comment will be displayed on that course page. As an added feature, the user who made the comment is displayed with a hyperlink back to their user profile.

Creating Friends on GolfStakes.com

If you are on a users profile, and you find that you have similar tastes in golf courses, we have a feature that you will like.

On a users profile you should be able to find a link called "Add as a Friend". What this link will link you with the other user. You will then be able to see this user in your Friends List,

and on your User Dashboard.

Your friends list is where you can add and remove friends at will, while on the dashboard you can only add a friend. The friends name is a hyperlink that friends profile. On Your Dashboard, you can also see when your friends have last logged into GolfStakes.

Wrap up

That's it for now, hope you enjoy the community features of GolfStakes, and remember you can always make suggestions for new features in the GolfStakes.com forums.