Groups
Stop organising golf in a group chat
Caddyio replaces the WhatsApp group used to organise tee times with a real tee sheet, shared group scorecards and club notifications, so a roll-up or society day is booked, scored and recorded without anyone counting replies in a chat thread.
The group chat is doing a job it is bad at
The Saturday roll-up lives in a chat thread: someone asks who is in, replies arrive over two days, the count is wrong, two people book the same slot and a message about the fourth ball is buried under photographs of somebody's second shot. Nobody who joined the club last month is in the group. There is no record of who played, so the order of merit is kept in a spreadsheet by whoever volunteered. The chat works because it is where people already are — that is its only real advantage, and it is a good one.
The organising bit, done properly — the social bit, left alone
Caddyio takes over the parts a chat thread is bad at, and does not try to replace the conversation.
Actual tee times, actually booked
Members book from the real tee sheet on their phone. The count is the booking, not a tally of thumbs-up emojis, and two people cannot take the same slot.
One shared card for the fourball
Play Together runs a live shared scorecard for the group — including name-only guests who are not club members — so the round is scored once, by whoever is holding the phone.
It reaches everyone, including the new member
Club notifications and the member feed go to every member, not just the ones somebody remembered to add to the group. A new member sees the roll-up in their first week.
The record keeps itself
Who played, what they shot and where that leaves the order of merit are recorded as a by-product of playing, instead of being maintained by a volunteer in a spreadsheet.
Keep the group chat
This is not an argument for deleting it. The banter, the abuse about a missed putt and the photograph of the flooded fifth all belong in the chat, and no club software has ever successfully replaced that. What moves is the administration: the booking, the scoring, the results and the announcement that has to reach everyone. Clubs that try to move the social part as well end up with both, and members who ignore one.
Common questions
- Can guests and non-members be included?
- Yes. A shared Play Together card can include name-only guests who have no Caddyio account, so a fourball with two visitors still scores on one card. Guest scores are kept out of members' handicap and statistics records.
- Do members need to install anything?
- No. It runs in the phone browser on your club's own domain, and members can add it to their home screen if they want it to behave like an app.
- How do members find out about a roll-up now?
- Through the club's own notifications and member feed, which reach every member rather than only the ones in a particular chat group. Clubs can target members, visitors or both.