Master Pool Guide: How to Run, Play, and More

It’s that time of year again. The biggest tournament in golf is back. Sports fans from around the world are excited about the 2023 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. What if you want to play in or run your own Masters pool? Here’s what you need to know.

Also, don’t forget to join the RunYourPool Augusta contest with Paige Spiranac!

Running a Master Pool

Here are a few quick steps to get started if you are looking to run your own Masters pool. Check out the pool with Paige Spiranac!

Determine the Format

There are a couple of different options if you are trying to create your own pool. Here are some options that are common for Masters pools.

Pick 6, Use 4

In this format, everyone selects a team made up of six golfers using an online pick sheet. The sheet is broken into six different tiers based on world golf ranking. The best four golfers’ scores make up your team score. The lowest score wins the pool. Cut golfers receive a score of 80 for rounds three and four.

Pick x, Use y

Similar to the pick six, use four format. The difference is that you can change the number of golfers everyone picks and decide to only use some of the best scores or all of the scores. Remember, if you want to use the scores from every golfer, take into account that many people will have a lower chance of winning because of the golfers who miss the cut don’t generate scores or earn any money.

Snake Draft

You can run a snake draft over text or in person. Just determine a random draft order and everyone picks a golfer for their team. In a snake draft, each golfer is selected once. You can use par scores or money earned to score the pool. For a snake draft, the order goes as follows: 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1 and repeats.

Salary Cap Format

For the salary cap format, assign each golfer a dollar value and each person making selections can’t exceed a total salary. This is similar to how you would be picking golfers on a DFS site such as DraftKings or FanDuel. Manual spreadsheets are common for salary cap formats.

Send Out Masters Pool Invitations

There are plenty of different options for setting up an office pool. Websites have options for the Masters where you can share out a link for everyone to join. Get the pool set up, format it, and then send out the link to everyone who is going to be playing in the pool.

Scoring the Masters Pool

There are a couple of options for scoring. You can do To Par scoring, Money Earnings, and even Daily Bests.

For To Par scoring, add up all the scores of your golfers. Whoever has the lowest total wins the pool. For Money Earnings, whoever has the most money earnings across all of their golfers wins. For a Daily Bests scoring, you take the top four or fie scorers from each day to form your team score.

How to Play: Selecting Golfers

For a Masters pool, there are usually tiers of golfers that you can select from to make up your team. There are six tiers with 10 golfers in each tier. You pick one golfer from each tier. The tiers are divided up by world golf ranking so the teams are usually divided up as fairly as possible.

After selecting your team, scoring is based on the best four golfers at the end of the tournament. If your score is the lowest, you win the pool! There are other formats such as money earned. In this case, if your golfers have the most money earned at the end of the tourney combined, you win!

Masters Pool FAQs