Short answer. The moment a Commissioner taps Start round, Ringer resolves every player's Handicap Index, tee, Course Handicap and strokes by hole and keeps that snapshot. The scorecard, the board and the money read the snapshot from then on. Changing an index mid-round changes nothing on the card.
How it works
- Who is frozen. Every participant who RSVP'd "in" and is not marked unavailable for that round.
- What is frozen. The index used, its source and verified status, the tee, the Course Handicap with its decimals, and the strokes on each hole. Each game applies its own allowance to the frozen Course Handicap, so a 100% skins game and an 85% team game share one snapshot.
- Before the round starts nothing is frozen. The Handicap Analysis page reads "Live until the round starts." and every edit to an index, tee or override shows straight away. Once live it reads "Frozen when the round went live."
- A player added after the start is frozen from their index as it stands that moment. Nobody else's number is touched.
- Reopening a round does not re-freeze anyone. The numbers stay exactly as they were struck at the start.
- Closing a paper-scored round without starting it freezes first, so results come from a proper snapshot.
Who can do this
Only a Commissioner (host, co-host or co-commissioner) can start a round, and only a Commissioner can make the two corrections that re-strike a frozen handicap:
- A tee correction for a group or a single player during play. Ringer changes the tee and replaces the affected players' snapshot in one step.
- A change of hole count for the round, which re-strikes everyone because the card itself changed.
Direct tee edits on a live round are blocked; use the tee correction instead.
Back to setup is allowed only while the round has no scores at all. It throws away the snapshot so the next start freezes fresh. Once a score is in, the round is underway.
Good to know
- Ringer handicaps are not official. The freeze is there so the numbers your crew agreed to at the first tee are the numbers the money is settled on.
- A few readouts outside the board (such as the readiness check before publishing) may quote today's index rather than the frozen one. The card, the board and the money always use the snapshot.
- Any member of the outing can review the snapshot on the Handicap Analysis page.
If it doesn't work
- "Could not prepare the scorecard. Check the players and course, then try again." The freeze failed at Start round, so the round was put back to scheduled. Usually a player's course data or tee is missing. Fix it and start again.
- "Could not prepare the scorecard. Please try again." The same failure on a solo Quick Round. The new round was discarded; create it again.
- "Scores are already in — this round is underway." Back to setup is not available once any score has been saved.
- "Pairings changed while Ringer was recalculating handicaps. Reload and apply the tee correction again." Someone changed the groups at the same moment. Reload and repeat the correction. Other tee-correction messages are listed in Handicap error messages.
- "The scoring engine could not freeze a trustworthy official scorecard. Resolve the round scores and handicaps, then publish again." A current player has no frozen row, so Ringer will not mix frozen and live numbers. Check that every player in the round has a handicap snapshot, then publish again.