Free tool
Golf league dues and prize fund calculator
Set your roster, dues and payout split and see exactly what lands in the weekly pot and what is left for September.
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Golf league tee interval and daylight calculator
Enter your field size, interval and pace and see whether a tee time start still finishes nine holes in the light you have.
The block your course gives you is fixed, the sunset is fixed, and the only variables you control are the interval, the group size and the format. This calculator turns those into the one number that decides whether league night works: how many minutes of light remain when the last group holes out on nine.
Run it for June and again for the last week of your season, because the same field that finishes comfortably in the long light of midsummer can be putting by phone light in September. If the margin goes negative, you have three honest options: a shotgun start, a wider tee time block from the shop, or a smaller field on the sheet.
Your result
Groups on the tee sheet
12
How many slots league night needs in the block the shop set aside.
Minutes from first group to last group
99
How long the starter is working the first tee on a tee time start.
Minutes until the last group finishes
219
From the first tee shot to the last putt on nine.
Minutes of light left at the finish
6
A negative number means the last group is finishing in the dark.
A margin under twenty minutes is tight, because one slow group or a late horn erases it.
When a tee time start stops working
Tee time starts are easy on the shop and easy on the starter, and they let latecomers slot in without disrupting anyone. They also stretch the finish, because the last group tees off long after the first and then still needs a full nine. Every group you add pushes the finish further into the dusk.
Watch the margin as your field grows. A league that added a flight in June is often the same league complaining about darkness in August, and the cause is not slow play. It is eight more groups on the same block with less daylight than the season opener had.
What a shotgun really buys you
A shotgun collapses the tee window to zero, so the finish is just the pace of the slowest group. That is the reason most large municipal leagues run one. The cost is that the shop has to hold the whole course, stage every cart before the horn, and get the entire field checked in on time rather than trickling them out over an hour.
A nine hole shotgun uses nine starting holes, so your field has to fit in the groups those holes can hold. If you have more groups than starting spots you are doubling up on some holes, which adds waiting on the first pass and pushes the finish back again.
Questions about this calculator
What pace should I use for a nine hole league round?
Time your own field rather than guessing. Have the starter note the horn time and the last card time for three weeks and use the average. Municipal league pace usually differs from the posted pace because carts, walkers and skins games all pull on it.
How much light is usable after sunset?
Most golfers can finish a hole for roughly fifteen to twenty minutes past sunset in clear weather, less under heavy tree cover and much less on an overcast night. Treat that window as emergency margin, not as planned playing time.
Our block is fixed. What can we change?
Group size and interval are the two levers you control without renegotiating the tee sheet. Moving from a nine minute to an eight minute interval buys back time across a large field, and swapping a few fivesomes for foursomes usually improves pace. If neither is enough, ask the shop about a shotgun.
More free tools and working documents
Working document
The league night run sheet, from cart staging to posted standings
One page that walks the counter through league night in order, so the same thing happens every week no matter who is working.
Now make that number survive twenty weeks
You have the figure, and keeping it true all season means every card, every sub who took an open spot at 5:10 and every drop week landing in the same place. BackNineLive does that arithmetic on league night and publishes flight standings before the last group loads clubs into the trunk. Ask for a demo and bring the numbers you just ran.