Top 3 Fantasy Golf Websites With Reviews
We have put together a list of our top 3 fantasy golf websites, with a review of each site. This list does not include daily fantasy websites and is intended for those looking for a website that allows them to create, manage, and run a fantasy golf league. In order for a fantasy golf website to be on this list, they must offer the ablity to set up custom rules, scoring, and allow leagues to be private.
1. Buzz Fantasy Golf
BuzzFantasyGolf.com is at the top of our list for many reasons. First, they offer more fantasy golf formats than anyone on our list. With their extremely flexible league setup, commissioners have a ton of options when it comes to setting their league rules and scoring settings. They have continued to enhance their platform over the years and have a modern league interface. Lastly, the customer support at Buzz is second to none. The founder of the website is willing to help with league setup, they have an easy to use contact form (which is uncommon these days), and their response time to support requests is extremely fast.
Features
Buzz clearly takes the cake when it comes to overall features. There are far too many to list everything out here, but I'll do my best to cover the primary features. You can view their detailed list of features on their commissioner product page.
League Setup
Users have so many options when setting up a new league on BuzzFantasyGolf.com. They have the ability to create a league using a template, where the league settings are preconfigured for simplified setup. For example, if you want to set up a One & Done league, they have a specific template for that. Or you can set up a league from scratch, walking through the setup workflow choosing each of your league settings.
When setting up a league, you have the option to keep your league private, requiring a password or special invite link to join. Or you can choose to leave your league open to the public and allow anyone to join. You can also restrict participants to a single entry or allow them to enter multiple teams.
League managers have the option to configure team selection using salary cap, a tiered selection approach, a live draft, limited golfer selection, weighted selection, or an open selection. You can also incorporate league transactions into your league by setting up free agency, trading, waiver wire, and blind bidding. Minimum and maximum roster sizes can be set for the entire season, or customized on a tournament by tournament basis.
The Buzz platform privides system generated golfer listings that can be used by leagues, with the option to have golfer values update weekly or remain the same throughout the entirety of the season. League managers can also choose to create their own list of golfers and golfer values for their league. And for leagues that use previous year earnings for salaries, they also offer the ability to assign salaries based on the previous year earnings.
They have multiple options when it comes to scoring. A league commissioner can choose to score by earnings, tournament strokes, round strokes, place finished points, accumulated to-par scores, and daily fantasy scoring format. You can also implement best ball style scoring by removing the worst golfer(s) per week, the worst golfer(s) per segment, the worst golfer(s) for the season, the worst team week(s) per segment, or the worst team week(s) for the season.
Team Management
Each team manager has the ability to update their team name, team logo, and add additional co-owners for their team. The functionality for selecting golfers is very user friendly, and the interface allows you to view golfer details without leaving the team management page. They also provide selection, course history, recent history, and weather data to help you research your picks. Team managers have the ability to view other rosters once the roster deadline has been met.
Live Scoring & Standings
The site offers real-time live scoring each week. The live scoring page displays the updated league standings, team rosters with current fantasy points, and a live leaderboard that includes fantasy points for each golfer.
League Interface
In my opinion, the league interface at BuzzFantasyGolf.com is nicer than any of the other platforms. The navigation is easy to understand, and they have a ton of information, data, and options. Beyond the league home page, the team management, and live scoring, they provide views of the standings broken out by tournament, segments, and season. Other league features include reports, an informational league settings page, the abilty to send invites, league prizes, league messages, golfer pages, tournament pages, and league transactions. Lastly, they provide the abiltiy to keep a league archive where you can view all of your previous seasons.
Commissioner Tools
The league commissioner is given special access to the league that allow them to make adjustments as the league is in motion. They have the abilty to update rosters at any time, they can create and remove teams, adjust any of the settings that were configured during league setup, send league emails, and view league winner information. Some additional miscellaneous tools include the abilty to manage who is paid or unpaid, adjust the league prize pool, view audit logs, and re-process standings.
Formats & Scoring
Available Formats
- Salary Cap
- Tiered Golfer Selection
- Weighted Golfer Selection
- Limited Selection (One & Done, Three & Done, etc.)
- Draft & Auction Leagues
- Choose Any
Scoring Options
- Earnings
- Tournament Strokes (custom point assignment)
- Round Strokes (custom point assignment)
- Place Finished (custom point assignment)
- To-Par Accumulation
- Result Category Scoring
- DFS Scoring
User Interface
Both the league setup process and the league interface are very user friendly. Even if you choose to create a league from scratch, the workflow for setting up a league is very straightforward. You are able to move forward and backwards through the setup wizard, and help topics along the way to assist as well. There are some scenarios where things get a little confusing if you are setting up a very complicated tier structure, where you start setting up different tiers for various tournaments in your schedule. But if that is the case and you have questions, the support at Buzz is fantastic!
The league interface and navigation are great for league participants and the website has a modern design that works on all devices. The league home page gives you access to the core data within the league. Each team manager can visit their team page that allows you to make your golfer selections as well as view other team rosters. The live scoring is one of my favorite features on the website, as it allows you to see your team points and league standings update in real-time as the tournament is in progress. On the live scoring page, you can view the standings by tournament, segment, or season. You can also view individual team rosters with their updated points, and view the tournament leaderboard that includes golfer points.
Customer Support
BuzzFantasyGolf has tremendous support. They have multiple places on the website where you can contact support with questions for feedback. You don't even need to have an account with them as they open their contact page up to the public. In this day and age, especially with larger companies, it can be next to impossible to even find a way to contact support. But that is not the case with the Buzz Fantasy Golf website. I have also found that they have a very quick turnaround on replying to email, and the founder is very engaging.
Pricing
Leagues at BuzzFantasyGolf.com vary on price depending on your league size. They also offer a 15 day free trial that does not require a credit card. Here is a detailed table of their pricing.
| League Size | Single Tournament Pool | Multiple Tournament Leagues |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Team Max | $30 | $60 |
| 50 Team Max | $40 | $85 |
| 100 Team Max | $50 | $110 |
| 500 Team Max | $60 | $135 |
| 1000 Team Max | $75 | $190 |
| 2000 Team Max | $100 | $250 |
Buzz offers individual user memberships that provide upgraded features on the website. If you have a membership, you are able to create leagues at no cost. At the time of writing this article standard membership is $1.99/month and a premium membership is $3.99/month.
2. Pro Tour Fantasy Golf
Next up on my list is ProTourFantasyGolf.com. They are an owner operated website and they offer private and public leagues. They do not offer a ton of customization when it comes to league setup, as commissioners are limited to the predefined formats that PTFG offers. They currently offer four different fantasy golf games to choose from, that each have similar formats using limited golfer selection and scoring based on earnings. Their service is intended for larger league sizes, so you may be out of luck if you run a league that is less than 30 participants.
Features
Pro Tour Fantasy Golf has a shorter list of customizable features, and you can read more about their full list of features on the features page of their website.
League Setup
The league setup process is not self service on ProTourFantasyGolf.com. Instead, commissioners must fill out a new league request form and submit it. This applies to only new leagues. The request form allows you to provide your league name, choose one of the four formats that are offered, supply your start and end tournaments, the number of segments, time zone, league size, and the league password. After submitting the request, someone from the website will follow up and help you get your league created.
Because there is not a lot of customizable settings for leagues offered on their website, and because it is not truly self service, the league setup process is very simple. But this might be a deal breaker for leagues that have very specific league rules and customizations.
Team Management
Roster selection is pretty straightforward on their website, especially for the one and done format. Some of their formats require you to manage your golfers for each of the four tournament rounds. They provide the ability for team owners to receive roster reminders and confirmations.
One of my biggest complaints with their system is that the golfers available to select from are not filtered down to the current field. This increases the risk of team owners accidentally selecting a golfer who is not playing. The do offer links to third party sites for the field listing, odds checker, golfer news, and weather reporting. But unfortunately that information is not built into the PTFG website.
Live Scoring & Standings
Pro Tour Fantasy Golf does not offer real-time live scoring. Instead, they update their standings at the end of every tournament round, which happens roughly three to four hours after the round has been completed. The official league standings are typically posted on Sunday evenings.
The league standings can be broken out into segments during the league setups, which gives league members the ability to view standings by segment or by season. They also offer charts that display fantasy golf standings data.
League Interface
The league interface at Pro Tour Fantasy Golf is very easy to use and navigate through the various functionality. The league pages are broken out into tabs at the top of the league pages making it easy to get to the data you would like to view. The design is a bit outdated and doesn't appear to have been upgraded for quite some time, which leaves the interface feeling somewhat old.
Commissioner Tools
As I mentioned earlier, there are not a lot of customizable settings for PTFG leagues. But they do give the league commissioner special access to help manage the league. The league commisioner has the ability to set up custom prizes, update rosters at any time, create teams for other participants, track who has paid, send league emails, and post messages within the league interface.
Formats & Scoring
Available Formats
- Limited Selection (One & Done, Three & Done, etc.)
Scoring Options
- Earnings
User Interface
The process to set up a new league is extremely user friendly as it is a single form submission with only a handful of fields to populate. The league navigation is also very user friendly and is easy to find your way around the webiste. My only critism in this department is that I think a design upgrade is well over due.
Within their leagues, they offer a league home page that has a summarization for the league. The league schedule page lists all of the tournaments being included. The standings page allows participants to view the standings by segment or the entire season. If you want to view standings by a specific tournament, you navigate to a separate results page. Team owners will make use of the lineup page which allows them to set their rosters each week. Beyond those core league pages, they also offer a team scorecard page, golfer stats, league prizes, and a page for posting league messages.
Customer Support
The support is great at ProTourFantasyGolf.com and I think it has a lot to do with it being an owner operated website. They have their contact form available on the website and are quick to respond to emails. They also offer a training session to all commissioners who are setting up a league with the website for the first time.
Pricing
Setting up a league will have a minimum cost of $150 per league and that will get you up to 30 teams.
| League Size | Price |
|---|---|
| Up to 30 teams | $150 |
| Per Team Over 30 | $5 |
3. FGLWeb.com
The final fantasy golf site on my list is FGLWeb.com, which has been around since 1995. Their service offering is more similar to Buzz Fantasy Golf, as they allow commissioners to set up a custom fantasy golf league and configure all of their specific league rules. Once you complete the league configuration, you can invite your league particpants to join your league. While the concept is similar, the two websites are drastically different from a user experience and design perspective. FGLWeb.com does not appear to have been updated within the last decade or two, resulting in a clunky user experience and a less than appealing interface.
Features
FGLWeb definitely out ranks Pro Tour Fantasy Golf in the features department, as they have many more configurable settings for their fantasy leagues. While they are more feature rich than the second ranked website on the list, there are a few negative items I'd like to point out. First, they don't have a standard user account setup which means you register a league rather than a user account. Because of this, they don't have your typical user login and profile managment. Instead, your login is directly tied to your fantasy golf league. The other significant flaw with their website is that their private leagues are accessible to anyone who visits the website. They don't require any type of authentication for users to view leagues they do not belong to.
League Setup
Setting up a league on FGLWeb consists of walking through a few pages of configurable league settings. First you enter your league name, your personal info, and assign a username and password that is then used to later manage your league. Next you set up your league to be public or private. If you set your league as private, a code is required to enter the league if you click the link from the main league listing page. Then you can configure whether your league will be a draft or a salary cap league.
The next section allows you to choose what tours you want to include in your league. The two options are the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. From there, they give you the ability to set your team roster sizes, and allow you to break them out by regular events, majors, special events, and other events.
They allow the commissioner to choose their league schedule, but the process to do so is not very user friendly and the process consists of entering comma separated tournament IDs into a text box. Scoring can also be configured and your choices are between earnings, FedEx Cup points, or setting up points for place finished. If your league allows trading, you can also configure those options as well.
Overall, I would say that they have quite a few configurable options with their fantasy leagues. But the league setup process and user interface is not very user friendly. If you use their service, I would suggest having some patience as it may take a while to get through the entire process.
Team Management
The team management functionality on FGL is pretty barebones. The roster selection page is essentially a number of drop down lists depending on the number of roster spots your commissioner sets up. The system doesn't restrict you from select the same golfer twice and it doesn't enforce rules during selection. If you happen to break your league rules or select the same golfer twice, it takes you to a separate page that displays an error and informs you to click the back button to fix your errors.
It also doesn't appear that they offer the ability to select new rosters every week. If they do I was unable to determine how to configure that setup. Overall, the team management features on FGLWeb are definitely lacking to say the least.
Live Scoring & Standings
There is no live scoring feature on FGLWeb.com. They only offer updated standings after the tournament is complete. They do have the ability to view leagues standings by the overall season totals as well as breaking it into segments.
League Interface
The league interface at FGL is very, very outdated. The main league page displays the standings in a very narrow list, with tons of white space on both sides. Then below the standings is a very long list of navigational buttons that lead you to various league pages. I find the navigation of the site to be rather difficult, and the ability to review tournament leaderboards, results, and golfer statistics is lacking.
Commissioner Tools
FGL does offer a commissioner page with special functionality to allow the league commissioner to update and manage various data for your league. They allow you to add, modify, and delete owners. They also allow you to email your group. One nice feature is that they provide the ability to adjust points for a given week. One key item they are missing is the abilty to modify rosters for team owners.
Formats & Scoring
Available Formats
- Draft
- Salary Cap
Scoring Options
- Earnings
- FedEx Cup Points
- Custom Points
User Interface
Setting up a league on the website is a bit challenging and the workflow is a bit overwhelming. Trying to figure out all of the possible configurations is problematic, and there are too many controls and descriptions on each of the setup pages. The league setup process should really be broken out into more sections that group the configuration in a practical manner.
As mentioned in other areas of this review, the user interace is pretty bad at FGLWeb.com. I won't go any further into that topic, but I'd recommend a quick peek at the main page of the website and I think you'll get the idea.
Customer Support
I wasn't super impressed with the support when I reached out to them. There is no formal contact form on the website, and it just supplies an email link to owner of the website. When I reached out to ask him questions about what functionality his leagues provide, he replied with a very brief message instructing me to just create a league and see if it meets my needs.
Based on the lack of effort in the response I received, and what looks like a lack of effort to maintain the site, I would rate the support at FGLWeb pretty low.
Pricing
The only straightforward aspect of FGLWeb.com is their pricing. They charge a $125 flat fee to run a league on their platform. It doesn't matter if you have 3 teams or 50 teams. And it doesn't matter if you play for a full season or run a single tournament pool. The cost will be $125 regardless.