Leagues and seasons

Create a league

Every new league starts as a Draft, so you can set it up before anyone sees it.

Short on time? Tap Perch Thursday twilight league under Start from to fill in a 10-night Thursday league with weekly skins. If you see the Albie button, tap it, describe your league in a sentence and tap Set up with AI.

League style Casual (gross) skips estimated handicaps and tracks weekly skins for you. Who can play sets whether golfers join the league first (Members) or anyone nearby can join a single night (Open drop-in). Open drop-in leagues show under Open on the Events screen when the league is Public.

1. On the Events screen, tap New, then New league. It works on the web and in the phone app.
2. Enter a Title and a Label such as Spring 2026, and pick a Home course if every night is at the same course.
3. Choose a Format: Singles, 2-player teams or 4-player teams. Teams also pick Team scoring and Net or Gross.
4. Under Play days, set the First day, Number of days, Frequency and Day(s) of week, plus the tee time and any Per-night entry.
5. Add a Season registration fee, or leave it blank to be free to join. Leave I'm playing too on if you play.
6. Choose Points (Simple, PGA-lite or Configure later) and tap Create league.

Open registration and your league nights

While the league is a Draft, its page shows Set up your league. Only two things can stop you: the league nights must be planned, and a season fee needs Stripe connected in Settings > Payments.

When you tap Open registration, The Perch creates every planned night for you and registers your members. Each night is its own event page with the course, tee time and format copied from the schedule. You can change any single night afterwards.

Open Play, then Schedule, to change the plan. Format (all days) offers Stroke Play, Modified Stableford, Stableford, Quota, Scramble, Best Ball, Match Play, Chapman / Pinehurst, Alternate Shot and Greensomes. Tap Save schedule, then Create next day or Create all days to add nights you haven't created yet.

Each night in the Schedule list has a points multiplier (for example 2 for a double-points final) and a Counts button. Tap Counts to mark a rained-out night Cancelled: it stays on the list and scores zero points. The phone app sets the multiplier from a few quick steps.

Rained out? Tap Manage beside the night: on the league page for the next two nights, or under Play, then Schedule, for any night not yet finalized. You can Postpone every league night one round, Move to makeup date or Cancel this night.

Reminders: open Comms and set Automatic day reminders to 1 day before, 2 days before, 3 hours before or your own number of hours. Each registered player gets an email with their tee time, group and the top of the standings. To send one by hand, open Play, then Tee sheet, and tap Send reminder.

Players, invites and subs

Players join from the league page with Join league, or Join - $ and the fee when there's a season fee, which they pay by card. Joining signs them up for every upcoming night, and they cancel the nights they can't make. You can turn that off in Schedule with Members are in every night by default.

To bring people in, open People, then Roster. Use Add friends for Perch members, Copy link under Invite link to share, or paste addresses under Invite by email and tap Send invites. In League settings (the gear), Registration can be Open registration or Host assembled (only people you add or invite can join), and a Roster cap starts a waitlist when the league is full.

A player who can't make a night taps Can't make it? Request a sub. The request shows under Sub requests on the Roster page, where you tap Handled once it's sorted. To credit a sub, go to Substitutes on the same page, pick the night and the Absent member, enter the sub's @username and tap Record sub.

The Substitutes setting in League settings decides what a sub's round does: Sub earns points for the absent member, or Subs play for themselves (attendance only).

Points, standings and skins

When a night is played, the league page shows Close out night. Closing it out adds that night's points to the standings.

Open Play, then Scoring, to choose Season points or Match play. Season points use a points table by place or a Formula. To let each player's worst weeks drop, set Count best weeks in League settings. Next to each player on the Roster, Adjust pts adds or takes away points with a reason that members can see.

Match play leagues get weekly head-to-head matches and a W-L-T table. On the league page, tap Generate schedule to pair every member against every other (leave Weeks blank for a full round robin). Enter each result yourself, or use Decide from to tie a week to a league night so closing it out decides the matches. Points per win and Points per tie are set on Scoring.

Also on Scoring: Track weekly skins turns on gross skins from each night's hole-by-hole scores. League handicaps gives every player the league's own number from league rounds only (by default 90% of the average of the best 4 of the last 8), used instead of their Perch estimated handicap. Set starting league handicaps on the Roster page. Score deadline sets how long players have to enter their own scores.

Under Results, Full standings shows the season table, with dropped weeks dimmed. After the first night is closed out, Share standings makes a shareable image. Public standings page is the league's own page, and anyone can follow along without an account.

Finish the season

To end with a bracket, open Results, then Playoffs. Pick Top 4, Top 8 or Top 16 and tap Create playoff bracket. The top of the standings are seeded into a single-elimination bracket, and playoff matches never change season points. Team-roster leagues can't use the bracket yet.

If a late score correction comes in after the season is archived, tap Refresh archived standings on the Playoffs page.

1. On the league page, tap Status under League Details and choose In progress once play starts.
2. When the last night is closed out, choose Completed.
3. The Perch freezes the final standings, and within the hour every member gets the final standings by email and an in-app notice with their own finish.

Start next season

League nights don't show Run it again. A league repeats from its Next season page with Start next season. The new season copies every setting, the schedule shape, points, fees and the welcome email into a new draft. The roster and results stay with the old season.

Returning players get first dibs for sets a head start (No head start, or 7, 14, 21 or 30 days) that begins when you open the new season. Until it ends, only last season's players can join.

1. Open Play, then Next season, and tap Start next season. Near the end of a season the same card also shows on the league page.
2. Check the Season label, Starts and Ends dates, choose the head start and tap Create the draft. The new season's settings open.
3. Make your changes, then tap Open registration on the new season.
4. On the new season's Next season page, tap Invite returning players. Last season's players get an email and an in-app invite.

On the phone

The phone app runs most of a league: create it, Open registration, change the Status, the Schedule (Save schedule, Create next day, Create all days), Manage a night, Build tee sheet, the Roster with Add friends, invites, sub requests and Adjust pts, Comms reminders, standings and Start next season, which sits at the bottom of the Play screen.

A few things open the web instead: Scoring (except Score deadline), Teams, Playoffs, Sponsors, Season finances, sending the tee sheet reminder and Invite returning players. Recording a sub is on the web only. On the phone, the season fee, Season dues and Substitutes are in League settings, and each night's Counts button is on the Schedule screen.