A PGA pick 'em pool is the lightest version of the whole enterprise. Everyone picks one golfer. You compare results. No tiers, no salary cap, no spreadsheet with fourteen tabs. It works for a casual crew, a weekly run through the season, or a survivor league where you can only use each player once.
When pick 'em beats tiers
Pick 'em fits small, casual groups. One pick per tournament, winner takes the pot — lowest to-par, or best finish, your call. Survivor formats run all season: one pick per week, no repeats, miss the cut and you're out (or you lose a strike, depending on house rules).
Tiers make sense when ten people would all pick the same favorite, when you're running a major with a deep field, or when you want structure that forces different lineups. Most groups that start with pick 'em move to tiers for Augusta. Both are legitimate. Pick 'em is the on-ramp.
One pick for the week
Simplest version: name one golfer before lock. Lowest to-par among the picks wins. Or best finish position — first beats second. Prize-money scoring exists but it's harder to follow live. To-par is what most people expect.
Survivor through the season
Each week, pick a golfer you haven't used yet. You'll need a shared record of who's been taken — a column in a doc, a tab on the sheet, something people can check before they submit. Last person standing wins, or whoever racks up the most weekly wins.
The pool gets harder as the season goes on and the obvious picks are gone. That's the point.
Duplicates, ties, and lock time
Without tiers, two people will pick the same golfer unless you ban it. First submitted gets the player, or duplicates share the result — decide before lock. Ties can go to whoever guessed closest to the winning score.
Same lock rules as any pool: before Round 1, written down, no exceptions for your buddy who texted at 10 a.m. Thursday.
When everyone picked Scheffler
That's the signal to graduate. Six tiers, one pick each, best four count — that's the format most friend pools use for majors, and what The Money List runs today. Our tier setup guide covers the details.
For a season-long pick 'em run, pair it with a season structure — majors worth double, regular events worth a point for the win. Daily pick 'em within one tournament is more commissioner work than most people want. One pick for the week is what people usually mean.
Ready to run your pool? For tiered majors with live scoring, The Money List runs six-tier friends pools — best four scores count.
Create a friends pool