The Organiser's Guide — Stag Day

The short version: you get everyone playing. One phone per group does the scoring. The app does the arguing, the fines and the write-up — and it builds the best man's speech while you're not looking. You carry the group; the Stag Day carries the admin.

What you're actually buying

A Stag Day turns a day's golf — up to thirty-six holes — into a proper competition with a story at the end, and hands the best man a speech built from what actually happened out there. You — the organiser — run the whole thing from your phone. Everyone plays, every round counts, and when it's over there's a full write-up, a set of fines and titles handed out, and the groom's day written down in a form you can stand up and read.

One pass covers one day — this one, start to finish, for everyone on it. It doesn't renew and it doesn't expire, and it doesn't stop working if your membership lapses before you get round to it. You bought a day. Run it whenever it happens. (Two stags to organise? That's two passes.)

Only one person needs to buy anything: you. Everyone else joins with one link: tap Get a group link, drop it in the chat, and each of them types their own name to take a seat. Up to eleven of them. No app, no account, no sign-up — and if they've already got an account, opening the link ties the day to it, so their titles and badges land where they belong.

In the app it's called a Day Pass. Same thing — that's just what the app has always called it.

What the price includes

The price includes three months of the app, so you're a fully paid-up member for the day and a couple of months after. Those three months are exactly that: when they're up, carrying on as a member is your call — the day you ran stays yours either way.

Already a Club Member? It's 20% off. The discount comes off automatically at checkout — nothing to find, nothing to type.

One price, one day, the whole group covered.

Before the day: set it up

1. Create the day and name it — whatever it's called in the group chat.
2. Say how much golf you're playing. The app asks for the morning eighteen, the afternoon eighteen, or both. Both is what the pass covers.
3. Add the lads. Tap Get a group link and drop it in the chat — one link, and each of them types their own name to take a seat, up to eleven. Copy it when it appears; it's only shown once, and New link gets you a fresh one whenever you want, killing the old one and any QR of it. At the course, Show QR for the first tee turns the same link into a code you can hold up or print. Add guest is still there for anyone you'd rather name yourself — and it's the only way to set a pronoun or mark someone able to keep the card. People who join themselves aren't ticked as scorers, so watch the count under the card. No account, no sign-up. The most interesting of you pick up names, and they land when the day's counted.

You can do all of this on a laptop the night before, sat with a beer and the group chat open. Nothing has to happen on the first tee.

Mark the stag

This is the bit that turns a golf day into a stag do, and it's one tick.

On the roster, tick Stag next to the groom's name. That's all of it. From that moment:

• the best man's material appears
• each round's write-up starts naming him
• the end-of-day account gets a section that's just about him

Nothing about the speech exists until you do it, so do it before the first tee — the app can only write down what it watched happen. Only one person can be the stag, and you can change your mind, though the write-ups get rebuilt without him if you do.

On the day: groups and Mums

When it's time to play, Shuffle into groups. The app splits everyone into playing groups for the round.

Every group gets a Mum — the one who holds the phone and does the scoring for that group. It's not a punishment; it's just whoever's got signal and a free hand. The Mum logs the round for the group as you go round.

If a group's slow off the mark, you can nudge its Mum — Remind [name] — one at a time. You're prodding the actual straggler, not spamming the whole day.

Shuffle again after lunch if you want different fourballs for the second eighteen. Nobody has to play with the same three all day.

Who's in, who's out

Not everyone lasts both rounds. Someone's had a long lunch, someone's got a work call, someone's simply gone. You mark it, per round:

• Excused — no fine. For the lad genuinely sitting one out. No round, no penalty.
• Shirked — Lord Lucan. For the one who vanished without a word. The app remembers, and the fine follows.

That distinction is the whole point: the app keeps the day honest, so you don't have to be the one playing bad guy. It applies to the groom like everyone else, and it's worth knowing that in his case it all ends up in the speech.

The rounds run themselves

Everyone plays, each group scores its own round, and every round rolls up into one place. You never chase a scorecard, re-add a total, or settle an argument about who was actually worst. It's all there on the Mum's phone, and lands in one place as each round comes in.

The payoff

When the day's done, here's what you're holding:

• The best man's material — the groom's day, built from what actually happened out there. Names, holes, witnesses. Ready to read out with a pint in hand, and nobody can deny a word of it because they were all standing there.
• Fines and titles — a moniker a day for the howlers, and the name sticks to whoever earned it most over the whole trip.
• The day's write-up — the whole thing told back to you as a story, the way it deserves to be remembered. Don't like the take? Write it again for another one.

Everyone keeps their day

And it isn't only yours. Everyone who played gets their own — the titles they earned, the badges they picked up, the write-ups of their rounds. Tell them to open their link when they get home: that's all it takes to claim it, and from then on it's theirs to keep. The day doesn't evaporate for the eleven people who were on it — each just opens their link and pockets their piece of it.

Turning up as a team

Nothing to do with the app, but worth a thought while you're organising: matching caps are the cheapest way to make twelve blokes look like they meant it, and they photograph a lot better than twelve different golf shirts.

Why it beats a group chat and a spreadsheet

Because it keeps itself. No shared note that three people edit and one deletes. No scorecard that goes in a bin at the turn. One link, one source of truth, and a speech at the end that a scorecard was never going to write for you.

Grab a Stag Day, and the only thing left for you to organise is the taxis.