Setting up your profile

After you verify your account, Golf Buds asks for a few details so other golfers know who they are playing with. Setup has three short steps, Basics, Golf details and Visibility, and you can change everything later.

What your profile shows

• Display name: how other golfers see you. If you signed up with a provider, it is filled in from that provider and you can change it.
• Region: England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
• Home course: the course you usually play, chosen from the Golf Buds course list.
• Travel radius: how far you are happy to travel for a round, from 10 to 150 miles. Find a round uses it as your starting search distance.
• Bio: an optional few lines about you, up to 280 characters. You add it later from Edit profile.
• Photo: if you signed up with Google, Facebook or GitHub, your photo from that provider. Otherwise your initials show.

Golf Buds shows other golfers the names of your course and region. As the app puts it:

People will see the course and region name, not your address or live location.

Handicap

You choose one handicap status:

• Self-reported: you enter your handicap yourself, as a number from -10 to 54.
• No handicap: you have no handicap, and no number is shown.

Club verified is a separate status that you cannot choose yourself. Golf Buds does not check your handicap with any golf club or golf body, and the handicap on your profile is never an official handicap. It helps hosts and other golfers find rounds that suit everyone.

Once your handicap has not been updated for 90 days, your profile asks you to review it:

It’s been a while since this handicap was updated. Review it to keep your profile accurate.

Your handicap status is always shown on its own line, separate from your verification label.

Visibility settings

Three visibility settings control what other golfers can see:

• Profile basics
• Home course and region
• Playing history: the rounds you have played and who you played with

Each setting can be Golf Buds members, Visible to connections or Private. When you first set up your profile, your basics and your home course and region are visible to Golf Buds members, and your playing history is private until you decide to share it.

Changing your profile later

1. Open the Profile tab.

2. Tap Edit profile.

3. Change your details, handicap, home course or travel radius, then tap Save profile.

4. To change your visibility settings, pick a new option for each one under Privacy, then tap Save privacy settings.