Privacy policy

The short version

• Other golfers see how you play (your handicap or typical score, walk or ride, and the habits you choose to share), not your name, email, or phone.
• Your gender and age range are private. Nobody sees them, and they're never used for matching.
• The course you book with gets your name on its tee sheet, like any booking.
• We don't sell your information or show ads.
• You can delete your account from your profile at any time.

What we collect

Your account. Your email address and name. If you sign in with Google, Google tells us your name and email address, and whether the email is verified. If you set up a passkey, we keep its public key and the kind of device it's on (like "iPhone"). Your fingerprint or face never leaves your device, and we never see it.

Your golfer profile. Your display name, your game (a handicap, a typical score, or "not sure"), whether you walk or ride, and whether you usually play 9 or 18. Everything else is optional: pace, round type, how you like to play, how much you like to talk during a round, tees, what you do at the turn, whether you drink or smoke on the course, and your match preferences. Gender and age range are optional too, and private.

What you do on MatchPlay. The tee times you book or release, the names of guests you add, tee time watches, league signups and the teammates you add by name, squads you make or join with the names and email addresses you add to them, guests' email addresses if you add them to a booking, your name and email if you join a tee time through a friend's link, and post-round feedback (how the group was, which golfers you'd play with again, ratings of the course, and about when you finished).

If you contact us as a course. The details you put in the course form: your name, course, role, email, phone, and tee sheet.

Automatically. Cookies that keep you signed in. An anonymous search session cookie that expires after 30 idle minutes, which lets us count searches without knowing who made them. To stop abuse of sign-in, we briefly keep a one-way scrambled form of your email address and network address. Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs.

How we use it

• To show tee times and rank groups by how well they fit you.
• To book and release your spots on the course's own tee sheet.
• To email you about your bookings and the things you asked for: sign-in codes, round reminders, "How was your round?", closures and delays at a course where you're booked, tee time watch alerts, league messages, and a note when someone in your squad books you into a round.
• To suggest league teammates whose games fit yours.
• To understand and improve matching, using searches and feedback in aggregate. Search records hold what was searched and the area, never your account, your network address, or what you typed.

Who sees what

Other golfers see the playing style on your listing: your game as you gave it, walk or ride, 9 or 18, and the optional habits you answered. Names are hidden on listings. Contact details, gender, and age range are never shown.

Courses get your name on their tee sheet for each booking, as with any reservation. They see post-round feedback and pace of play only as totals and averages across several golfers, never your own answers, finish time, or comments. A course running a league you join sees your name on its roster.

League teammates see your name. They see your email only if you share it: by confirming a suggested match, or by pressing "Share my email with my team".

Squad members see the squad's name and each other's names. Anyone in a squad you've joined can book you into a tee time with them: the spot is yours, we email you the details, and you can release it. Squad members never see your email address, and see your bookings only when they're on them.

Inviting someone to a squad sends them an email from MatchPlay with your first name. We keep the address only until they join, you remove them, or they stop squad invites. We never tell you whether an address already has a MatchPlay account.

Who you'd play with again is never shown to the golfer it's about. Only if two golfers pick each other after the same round do we tell them, and offer to start a squad: then each sees the other's name and how they play. A "no thanks" is never shown to the other golfer.

Joining through a friend's invite link books you on their tee time under the name you type, as their guest: they see your name, and so does the course. We email you a link to make the spot yours. We keep your email on that link until you claim the spot or stop invites, and a one-way scrambled form of it so the same email can't join the same tee time twice. An invite link shows only the booker's first name, the course, the time, and the spots left, never who joined.

Adding a guest's email to a booking sends them a link from MatchPlay, with your first name, to claim the spot as their own: then it's theirs to manage, and you can no longer release it. We keep the address until they claim the spot or stop invites, and delete the record 7 days after the round.

Service providers process information for us so MatchPlay can run: Vercel (hosting), Neon (our database), Resend (sending email), and Google (if you sign in with Google). They may use it only to provide their service to us.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect golfers and courses from fraud or abuse.

Emails and your choices

Round reminders, post-round emails, league emails, and squad offers each have an unsubscribe link, and you can turn each off separately. Sign-in codes, and notices about a booking you hold (like a closure or delay, or a squad member booking you in), don't: they're about your own booking. Every squad invite and claim link has a link to stop them to that address for good, from anyone; we keep only a one-way scrambled form of the address to honor it. You can change your profile and match preferences any time on your profile.

How long we keep it

• Your account, profile, and feedback: until you delete your account.
• Anonymous search records: about 13 months.
• Tee time watches: deleted 30 days after they end.
• Rounds already played stay on the course's tee sheet, as the course's own record. When you delete your account, MatchPlay unlinks them from you.

Deleting your account

Delete your account from your profile. We delete your account, profile, preferences, feedback, watches, league signups, and squad memberships, and sign you out everywhere. If you have upcoming bookings, release them first (or wait until after the round), so nobody is left holding a spot in your name.

Who MatchPlay is for

MatchPlay accounts are for golfers 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect information from children.

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll update the date at the top and tell you by email or on the site.