Club glossary
What Is a Member-Guest Tournament?
A club's signature invitational in which each member partners an invited guest as a team, usually over two or three days in flights played as round robins.
A member-guest is a club tournament in which each member invites a guest to play as a two-person team. It is the signature event on most private-club calendars — often two or three days of golf, meals, a welcome party and prizes — and it is the club's chance to show its course and hospitality to members' friends and business contacts.
Common formats
Member-guests vary, but most combine these elements:
- Two-person teams playing four-ball, with each player's net score on the hole compared and the better one counting.
- Flights — teams grouped by combined handicap, so teams compete against others of similar ability.
- A round robin within each flight — every team plays a nine-hole match against every other team, earning points for each match.
- A shoot-out — the winners of each flight play a final few holes against each other for the overall championship.
- Side games — skins, closest to the pin, long drive — often with their own purse.
Some clubs instead play two or three rounds of four-ball stroke play, or use a mixed format — one day four-ball, one day Stableford or scramble.
Example
A club runs a 60-team member-guest in ten flights of six teams. Over two days, each team plays a nine-hole match against each of the other five teams in its flight: two points for a win, one for a halve. The team with the most points wins the flight, and the ten flight winners meet in a shoot-out on Sunday afternoon.
What the committee has to manage
- Registration and guest verification — each guest's Handicap Index®, often checked through the USGA.
- Flighting — by combined Course Handicap™, balanced so each flight is competitive.
- Pairings and tee times — which teams play which matches, off which holes, often from a shotgun start.
- Scoring — every match result, points table and tiebreaker, posted live.
- Billing — entry fees, guest fees, dinners and merchandise, charged to the member.
Why it matters at a private club
Member-guests fill quickly and are demanding to run: dozens of simultaneous matches, points tables, tiebreakers and a room full of players waiting for the leaderboard at dinner. Hand-kept scorecards and spreadsheets lead to delays and disputes. Live scoring on each player's phone, with points tables calculated as holes are entered, removes most of the scoring-room work.
Related terms
For formats in depth, see member-guest tournament formats and round robin member-guest scoring.
In Bubs: member-guest registration, flighted round robins, live scoring and entry fees charged to the member's account run in one place. See tournaments & scoring.