A season long golf pool with friends sounds like a spreadsheet with fifty tabs and a commissioner who quits in May. It doesn't have to be. The pools that last all year are usually just a series of individual events — majors, maybe a few big weeks — with a simple way to name a season champion at the end.
Three structures that survive contact with real life
Majors only: four pools, same format, season winner by lowest combined to-par across the four (or most event wins). Low overhead, high engagement each quarter. This is what I'd recommend for year one.
Points per event: 1st gets 10, 2nd gets 9, and so on. Add them up all season. Rewards consistency over one hot major.
Survivor pick 'em: one pick per week, no repeats. See our pick 'em guide. Engaging early, thinning out as the good options disappear.
Whatever you pick, write the math down before event one. Total to-par across events. Best eight of twelve counting. Majors worth double. Don't adjudicate in December.
The dead zone between July and April
Season pools die in the quiet months. Run a FedEx playoff pool if your group wants one more event. Post mid-season standings even when you're not playing. Keep buy-ins per-event so missing one week doesn't feel catastrophic.
Commissioner workload
If you're updating a sheet every Sunday, you won't make Memorial Day. Season-long needs the same invite flow each week, live leaderboards, and locked picks without a dozen DMs.
The Money List is built around per-event friends pools — create one for each tournament you care about. Link them to a Group and you get a trophy room when events finish. Submitted lineups also copy to The Field, where season Earnings and World Rank accumulate. Private standings stay per-event. The national ladder is there for year-long bragging without merging every pot into one confusing mega-league.
Money, trophies, and missed weeks
Many groups skip a season pot and Venmo per event. Fine. If you collect season money, do it upfront or quarterly — the app won't escrow it.
The year-end prize can be a thrift-store trophy and a Slack photo. Stakes don't need to be monetary to matter.
Decide before the season what happens when someone misses an event: last-place points, or the week doesn't count toward their best-N total. Don't make case-by-case calls in December.
Start small. Year one: Masters plus one other major, same format. Year two: full major slate or a Group trophy case. Season-long pools grow. They rarely survive a twelve-page rulebook on day one.
Create this week's pool, attach it to your Group, repeat when the next event opens.
Ready to run your pool? Run one friends pool per event on The Money List and link them to a Group for a season trophy room.
Create a friends pool