Eclectic (Ringer Board): Your Best Score on Every Hole

Quick answer: An eclectic — also called a ringer board — takes your best score on each individual hole across every round of the trip and combines them into one composite card. Play the same course twice and your card can only improve.

How it works

Requires playing the same course more than once during the trip.
For each hole, keep your lowest score from any round.
Combine those eighteen best scores into one card.
Lowest eclectic total wins.

Scoring

Totals go very low, and that is the appeal. Your birdie on the 4th from round one sits next to your par on the 12th from round three, and the resulting card is the round you keep insisting you are capable of.

It can be run gross or net. Net is friendlier and keeps the whole group involved to the last hole.

When to play it on a golf trip

Eclectic is the perfect background competition for a trip that plays one course repeatedly — a home-club weekend, or a resort package with two rounds on the same layout. It costs nothing to run alongside your main board and it gives every player something that is still live on the final day.

It is also the kindest format in golf. Everybody has a good hole in them, and this is the board that remembers it.

House rules worth agreeing first

Whether it runs gross or net.
Whether all rounds feed it, or only the ones on the repeated course.
Whether a hole played twice in a scramble counts — usually it should not, since the score is not yours alone.

FAQ

Do you need to play the same course twice? For a true eclectic, yes. Across different courses it becomes a "best of each hole number", which is fun but not really the same thing.

Is eclectic gross or net? Either. Net keeps more of the group competitive.

What is a ringer board? The same thing. "Ringer" is the more common term in the United States, "eclectic" in the UK and Ireland.

Run it without the spreadsheet

GolfTracker Trips scores this format across every round of a trip, alongside whatever
else your group is playing, and rolls it all into one leaderboard for the weekend.
Start free at GolfTracker Trips — up to 8 players and 2 rounds, no card.