Nettzone Masters Pool - heyooooooooo

A tiny, self-hosted fantasy pool for the Masters Tournament. Pick six golfers, your best four scores each round count, lowest team total wins. Friends submit entries through a Google Form; scores refresh automatically every ~15 minutes via GitHub Actions. A Sunday Showdown adds three R4-only side contests (Pick 3, Champion Call, Boom Holes) via a second form.

Everything is static — there is no server. The site lives on GitHub Pages and the data lives in JSON files committed to the repo.

What's in here

.
├── index.html              # the leaderboard site
├── assets/
│   ├── app.js              # client-side renderer + scoring
│   └── style.css
├── data/
│   ├── scores.json         # auto-updated by the fetch workflow
│   ├── entries.json        # auto-updated by the form-poll workflow
│   └── showdown.json       # auto-updated by the Sunday Showdown poll workflow
├── scripts/
│   ├── fetch_scores.py     # pulls from ESPN, writes data/scores.json
│   ├── poll_form.py        # pulls from the main Google Form sheet, writes entries.json
│   └── poll_showdown.py    # pulls from the showdown Google Form sheet, writes showdown.json
└── .github/workflows/
    ├── update-scores.yml   # cron every ~15 min during Masters week
    ├── poll-form.yml       # cron every ~5 min, polls the main form
    └── poll-showdown.yml   # cron every ~2 min during the Sunday submission window

One-time setup

1. Create a public repo on GitHub and push this directory to it.

   git init
   git add .
   git commit -m "Initial pool setup"
   git branch -M main
   git remote add origin https://github.com/<you>/masters-pool.git
   git push -u origin main

2. Enable GitHub Pages. Settings → Pages → Build and deployment → Source: Deploy from a branch → main / (root) → Save. After a minute the site is live at https://<you>.github.io/masters-pool/.

3. Allow Actions to write to the repo. Settings → Actions → General → Workflow permissions → Read and write permissions → Save. Without this the automated commits will fail.

4. Kick off the first scores fetch. Actions → Update Masters scores → Run workflow → main. This populates data/scores.json with the field so picks can be validated and the Field tab on the site can show the player list.

5. Create the Google Form (see next section) and set the FORM_CSV_URL repo variable.

The Google Form

Friends submit entries through a Google Form you create. Form responses land in a linked sheet; the site polls a CSV export of the sheet every five minutes and merges new submissions into the leaderboard.

Setup

1. Create a Google Form. Add these short-answer questions in this order with these exact labels (case-insensitive but otherwise strict):

   • Display name
   • Pick 1
   • Pick 2
   • Pick 3
   • Pick 4
   • Pick 5
   • Pick 6

   Mark all of them required. Don't collect emails — none of the parsing needs them.

2. Link a sheet. In the form, Responses → Link to Sheets → Create new spreadsheet.

3. Publish the sheet as CSV. Open the sheet, then File → Share → Publish to web. Pick Entire document on the left and Comma-separated values (.csv) on the right. Click Publish. Copy the URL — it'll look like https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1v.../pub?output=csv.

   The URL is read-only and unguessable, but it's not auth-protected — anyone who has it can read the responses. Fine for a private pool.

4. Set the repo variable. Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → Variables tab → New repository variable. Name it FORM_CSV_URL, paste the CSV URL.

5. Update the entry button on the site. The "Submit Your Entry" button in the header and the link on the Rules tab both point to a Google Form viewform URL hardcoded in index.html. Search for docs.google.com/forms and replace both occurrences with your form's public URL (the one you get from the form's Send → link icon dialog, ending in /viewform).

6. Trigger the first poll. Actions → Poll Google Form → Run workflow → main. After it runs, any responses already in the sheet are on the board.

After step 6 you're done — the form-poll workflow runs every 5 minutes during Masters week and picks up new submissions automatically.

How dedup works

• Each form row produces one entry. The displayName field is the dedup key: if two rows share the same display name, the latest submission wins and the older one is dropped.
• A friend can resubmit by filling out the form again with the same display name; the new picks replace the old.
• Two friends with the same display name will collide. Tell them to add a last initial.
• If you delete a row in the linked sheet, it disappears from the leaderboard on the next poll.

When a pick doesn't match a real golfer

The poller validates every pick against the live field. Misspelled or ambiguous picks don't quietly disappear — they show up on the leaderboard under a Pending fixes section with the bad picks highlighted in red, so the friend can self-diagnose and resubmit.

The poll workflow also logs every row's verdict in the workflow run. If you want a more granular view: Actions → Poll Google Form → most recent run → poll job.

The Sunday Showdown (secondary R4-only contests)

Three sub-contests sit on top of the main pool, all scored on Sunday's final round only. Friends submit a single secondary form on Sunday morning and their picks are entered in all three contests at once.

Contest	Picks	Scoring	Tiebreaker
Pick 3	3 golfers	Sum of all three R4 to-pars (no drops). Lowest wins.	Full R4 of pick #1
Champion Call	1 winner + a guess	Must pick the actual winner. Closest winning to-par guess that wasn't too optimistic wins (i.e., can't guess a better score than the winner actually shot).	Smallest absolute diff
Boom Holes	1 golfer	Combined strokes-to-par on holes 12, 13, 15, 16, 18 in R4. Lowest wins.	Full R4 to-par

Cut survivors only — the showdown picker filters out anyone who got cut, WD'd, or DQ'd. The submission deadline is 10:30 AM Eastern on Sunday (constants in assets/app.js and scripts/poll_showdown.py — both must match if you change one).

Setting up the showdown form

1. Create a second Google Form (separate from the main pool form) with these short-answer questions in this exact order:

   • Display name
   • Pick 1
   • Pick 2
   • Pick 3
   • Champion
   • Winning to-par guess
   • Boom Holes pick

   Mark all required.

2. Link a sheet and publish it as CSV (File → Share → Publish to web → Entire document → Comma-separated values). Copy the URL.

3. Set the repo variable. Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → Variables tab → New repository variable. Name it SHOWDOWN_FORM_CSV_URL and paste the published-CSV URL.

4. Get the prefill entry IDs. In the form's three-dot menu, choose Get pre-filled link, fill in any answers, then Get link. Copy the resulting URL — you'll see segments like entry.1234567890=foo. Note each entry.NNNN ID and which question it belongs to.

5. Update SHOWDOWN_FORM_PREFILL in assets/app.js. Replace the seven REPLACE_* placeholder values with your form's base URL and entry IDs. The picker auto-hides itself until the base URL no longer contains REPLACE_, so the site will quietly skip the showdown picker until you wire it up.

6. Trigger the first poll. Actions → Poll Sunday Showdown form → Run workflow → main. Any test entries already in the sheet show up on the Sunday Showdown tab.

The poll workflow's cron is active — it polls every 2 minutes from Saturday 22:00 UTC through the Sunday cutoff (14:30 UTC).

How Boom Holes scoring gets its data

scripts/fetch_scores.py pulls per-hole R4 strokes for every cut survivor from ESPN's per-competitor linescores endpoint and stores them as an 18-length r4Holes array on each player in data/scores.json. The renderer sums the boom-hole strokes-vs-par client-side, so changing the boom hole set is a one-line edit to BOOM_HOLES in assets/app.js (no script changes required).

Scoring rules

• 6 picks per entry, best 4 scores each round count toward the team total. Your two worst picks each round are dropped (and they can change round to round).
• Cut golfers keep their 36-hole to-par total — that score still counts if it's one of your best 4.
• Withdrawals and DQs take their last reported to-par + 10 stroke penalty.
• Lowest team total after Sunday wins.

These constants live at the top of assets/app.js if you want to tweak them.

How the automation works

• update-scores.yml runs on cron during Masters week (Apr 9–13 2026) every 15 minutes. It runs scripts/fetch_scores.py, which hits ESPN's public golf leaderboard endpoint and rewrites data/scores.json. If scores changed it commits and pushes. The script also fetches per-hole R4 strokes from ESPN's linescores endpoint for Boom Holes scoring (stored as r4Holes on each player). The site reads scores.json on every page load (with cache busting) and re-renders.

• poll-form.yml runs every 5 minutes during the main entry window (currently disabled — cron commented out since the main pool deadline has passed). It runs scripts/poll_form.py, which fetches the published-CSV form responses, validates picks against the current field, dedups by display name, and rewrites data/entries.json. The poller is stateless — every run rebuilds the form portion of the file from the current sheet contents, so deleting a row in the sheet eventually removes it from the leaderboard.

• poll-showdown.yml runs every 2 minutes from Saturday 22:00 UTC through Sunday 14:30 UTC (the showdown submission window). It runs scripts/poll_showdown.py, which fetches the showdown Google Form CSV, validates picks against cut survivors, dedups by display name, and writes data/showdown.json. Entries that fail validation appear in a "Pending fixes" section on the site with detailed error messages.

GitHub Actions cron is best-effort and may be delayed several minutes when GitHub is busy — fine for golf, not fine for stock trading.

If something breaks mid-tournament

• Manual score refresh: Actions → Update Masters scores → Run workflow.
• Manual form poll: Actions → Poll Google Form → Run workflow.
• Manual showdown poll: Actions → Poll Sunday Showdown form → Run workflow.
• ESPN endpoint changes: edit scripts/fetch_scores.py. The shape it expects is documented in the parsing functions. Worst case, write the fields you care about into data/scores.json by hand and commit — the site only cares about the file's shape, not where it came from.
• A friend can't get their entry to validate: check the Pending fixes section on the site, or open the latest poll workflow run. Names are matched against the Field tab — case-insensitive, accent-insensitive, unique substrings and unique last names work, but typos don't fuzzy-match. The same applies to showdown picks, which match against cut survivors only.

Tweakable constants

Where	What
assets/app.js top	PENALTY_WD, PENALTY_NULL, BEST_OF, PICKS_REQUIRED, SUBMISSION_CUTOFF
assets/app.js top	PICK3_REQUIRED, BOOM_HOLES, SHOWDOWN_PENALTY_WD, FEES, SHOWDOWN_CUTOFF
scripts/poll_form.py top	SUBMISSION_CUTOFF (must match app.js)
scripts/poll_showdown.py top	SUBMISSION_CUTOFF (must match SHOWDOWN_CUTOFF in app.js)
.github/workflows/update-scores.yml	Cron schedule for score fetch
.github/workflows/poll-form.yml	Cron schedule for form poll (currently disabled)
.github/workflows/poll-showdown.yml	Cron schedule for showdown poll
scripts/fetch_scores.py	ESPN endpoint, status mapping, R4 hole-by-hole fetch

Submission deadlines: cutoffs are enforced in two places each — the picker UI hides itself after the deadline, and the poller drops any form rows with a submittedAt timestamp at or after the cutoff. Both constants must match if you change one.

• Main pool: 2026-04-09T14:00:00Z (10 AM EDT, Thursday April 9)
• Sunday Showdown: 2026-04-12T14:30:00Z (10:30 AM EDT, Sunday April 12)

Auto-refresh

The site auto-refreshes every 30 seconds on read-only tabs (Pool, Showdown, Leaderboard, Field, Rules, Results). Refresh is suppressed when:

• The user is on a picker tab (Make picks / Make Showdown picks) before its cutoff, to avoid losing in-progress selections.
• A player scorecard modal is open.

Results & settlement

The Results tab computes payouts across all four contests (main pool + three showdown), calculates each player's net balance (entry fees paid minus prizes won), and shows the minimum set of transfers needed to settle up.

Contest	Entry fee	Payout
Main Pool	$20	70/30 split (1st/2nd), 3rd gets entry fee back
Pick 3	$20	70/30 split (1st/2nd), 3rd gets entry fee back
Champion Call	$10	Winner-take-all (full refund if no eligible winner)
Boom Holes	$10	Winner-take-all

Local preview

cd C:\git\Masters
python -m http.server 8000

Then open http://localhost:8000. The site fetches data/scores.json and data/entries.json over HTTP, so opening index.html directly via file:// won't work — you need a local server.