Polar Bear League · Winter 2026
Take the map.
This winter, golf courses around the Bay Area are up for grabs.
Join a team, win matches, take control of courses, and defend the territory you've claimed.
The longer you hold a course, the more valuable it becomes — and the more reason everyone else has to come take it from you.
How it works · Registration takes about two minutes · Not in the Bay Area? Register interest for your city
Season
Oct – Feb
Rounds
Every 2 weeks
Teams
8–12 players
Format
2v2 scramble
Build your territory.
Every round has the potential to change the map.
Take a course from another team and it becomes yours. Hold it and its value grows. Lose it and someone else takes over.
By the end of the season, every team will have left its mark on the map.
Every course starts unclaimed. Win there and the pin turns your team's color. The map on the right plays out a sample season, week by week.
The map opens. Nobody owns anything yet — every course is up for grabs, and the first team to win there claims it.
What will your team own?
Corica.
Presidio.
Metro.
Harding.
Maybe your team locks down one course all winter. Maybe you spread across the Bay. Maybe another team spends the season trying to knock you off your best territory.
The map keeps score of all of it.
Every round has stakes.
Your match can help your team take a new course, protect one you already own, or knock another team off valuable territory.
The map updates every two weeks, giving each team a fresh decision about where to play next.
The courses are the board.
At the start of each round, your team can see exactly who owns what and how valuable each course has become.
From there, you decide where you want to play. Protect a course that's producing points. Go after someone else's territory. Claim something that's still open.
Then Links builds the matches and you go play.
How does it work?
Teams
Players are placed on teams of roughly 8–12 for the winter.
Each team has a captain, team chat, shared territory, and a season-long point total.
Rounds
League rounds happen every two weeks.
At the beginning of each round, teams see the current map and decide which courses they want to attack or defend. Links creates the actual matchups based on player availability.
Territory
Every participating course can be controlled by one team.
Win at an unclaimed course and your team can claim it. Beat the team that owns a course and ownership changes hands.
Home-course advantage
When defending a course your team owns, your twosome gets one extra mulligan.
Growing territory value
A course becomes more valuable with each consecutive round your team holds it.
The increasing value means long-held territory produces more points — and becomes increasingly attractive to challengers.
Capture bonus
Take a course from another team and you earn a bonus based on its current value.
The course then resets and begins building value again under its new owner.
Match scoring
Winning a normal team match earns a point for your team.
Every result contributes to the season standings.
Wildcards
Sometimes availability won't create perfect team-vs-team numbers. When that happens, Links can create Wildcard matches using players from different teams.
Players can still win points for their teams, but the result does not affect territory.
Do I need to play every round?
No. Polar Bear League is designed around real-world schedules.
You'll provide your availability ahead of time, and Links will build each round around the players who can make it.
What skill level is this for?
Anyone comfortable playing a round of golf should feel at home here. Low-handicap players are welcome. Higher-handicap players are too.
Matches are scrambles, and Links handles the pairings with competitive balance in mind.
Own the winter.
The map starts open.
By February, every course will have a story.