Majors Challenge

Rules & How to Play

Here's how a weekly Majors Challenge pool works, start to finish — picking your team, counting scores, building the purse, and breaking ties. Your commissioner makes some of these calls, so check your league's Event Rules for the ones that apply to you.

Jump to an answerMy golfer withdrewHow is my score calculatedHow the purse is setWe finished tied
01

How to Play

Five steps from invite to live leaderboard.

1

Join a league or start your own

Become the commissioner of your own league, or ask a friend to send you an invite to theirs. The commissioner chooses which events the league plays during the PGA season.

2

Choose your team of 8 or 12 golfers

Roster size is determined by your league commissioner. Golfers are segmented into four groups by their world rank.

3

Pick one alternate for each group

Your alternate is used if one of your starters withdraws from the event. Depending on league rules, the alternate may also come into play if a golfer withdraws before the third round.

4

Follow your friends

Tag your friends in the Members section, then switch on the Following toggle to collapse the Leaderboard to just the teams you care about.

5

Play week to week, all season

Fantasy contests run week-to-week with no season-long obligation. Most leagues play the four majors — Masters, PGA Championship, US Open, British Open — plus the Players Championship, but tournaments are available all season long.

2
The team picker — starters, alternates and stats across four groups
The Majors Challenge team picker: starters and an alternate chosen from four groups of golfers ranked by world rank.
02

Scoring

Live with the PGA

During the tournament the Majors Challenge leaderboard updates in real time with the PGA.

Your team's position

A team's position on the leaderboard is the sum of its golfer scores.

Dropped scores

Your commissioner may count all of your golfers, or drop the worst-performing scores. The number dropped is set by the commissioner.

Cut, Withdraw and MDF

Most asked

Find the moment your golfer withdrew. Every branch ends in one of two outcomes.

Alternateyou get a replacement golferCutno replacement, worst score applies
Before his first tee time

If one of your golfers withdraws before his first tee time, that golfer is replaced with your alternate — no action needed.

Alternate
Multiple withdrawals in one group

If more than one golfer in a group withdraws before start of play, you receive an alternate for the first withdrawal and a CUT for any additional one.

After start of play

If a golfer withdraws after start of play, the result follows one of two league options set by your commissioner.

1Option 1

All withdrawals turn into a CUT.

Any round→Cut
OR
2Option 2

A golfer who withdraws in Round 1 or 2 receives an alternate. After Round 2, a withdrawal turns into a CUT.

Round 1 or 2→Alternate
After Round 2→Cut
What a lost golfer scores

You receive the worst four-round PGA score in place of every golfer on your squad that:

Is CUT or MDF
Withdraws after start of play
Is disqualified
03

Entry and Purse

The entry fee and purse depend on how your commissioner sets the league up. There are two formats — leagues use one or the other.

Format A

Fixed Entry

Every team pays the same amount to enter a golf pool. The total amount collected is the purse for that tournament.

Worked example
100teams×10entry=1000purse

Your commissioner sets how many winning places share the purse and at what percentages.

Format BRecommended

Stroke Play (variable purse)

Your loss is a variable amount that depends on how well your team performs compared to the best team in your league — stroke play, for fantasy golf. Every team in your league contributes their share to the purse.

Worked example
10shots off the lead=10points owed into the purse

The further back in the field you fall, the more you'd owe in.

The stroke multiplier

Your commissioner selects a multiplier that reduces or increases the purse by that factor.

1× — default
20 strokes back, you owe 20 points.
0.5×
Same result, you owe 10 points.

If you enter multiple teams you are responsible for the loss on each team — this can add up quickly with a multiplier larger than 1.

The purse continues to grow throughout the tournament, particularly over the weekend as teams with many cut golfers see their score balloon.

Winnings

Your commissioner sets how many winning places share the purse and at what percentages. Payouts can be configured differently for each tournament.

04

Tie Breakers

First tie breaker — always

Ties are first broken on cut count — the roster with the fewest cuts wins.

Any golfer that does not finish the 4th round of an event counts toward your cut count.

If both the score and the cut count are the same, your commissioner's chosen rule applies. Leagues use exactly one of the three.

1
Rule 1

Split Points (with cuts)

Splits the purse across all ties.

Example

2nd place pays 200 and 3rd pays 100. If those teams tie, the two places split 300 — 150 each.

2
Rule 2

Split Points (without cuts)

The same as Rule 1, but ties are split across teams having the same score regardless of cut count.

Example

With this rule a team with 2 cuts can still tie a team with 1 cut.

3
Rule 3

Match Cards

The team containing the lowest score for a single golfer breaks the tie. If those match, compare each team's second-best golfer, and so on until the tie breaks.

Walked through step by step below.

How Match Cards resolve

Rule 3, step by step

Team A and Team B have finished on the same score with the same cut count. Match Cards works down each roster, best golfer first, until one team's card is lower.

1Compare best golfers
Team B — best golfer−5
Team A — best golfer−3

Team B places ahead of Team A. The tie is broken here and the comparison stops.

2Best golfers match?
Best golfer — both teamsTied
2nd best golferDecides

If both teams' best golfers shot the same score, each team's second best golfer determines the tie breaker.

3Keep going down the card
Best→2nd→3rd→4th…

This continues golfer by golfer until the tie has broken. If every golfer matches all the way down, the teams split the purse as described in Rule 1.

Not sure which options your league uses? Open Event Rules from your Leaderboard.

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Other ways to play

Majors Challenge is one of several golf pool formats. See them all and pick the one that fits your league.

View all game formats →