Balls In Air

Balls In Air — How to Use

A simple guide for getting started, finding a game, and getting the most out of the app.

What is Balls In Air?

Balls In Air (BIA) is a private app for private club members to find games at their own club — golf, tennis, pickleball, and paddleball all in one place — without the back-and-forth of group texts, phone calls, and endless "who's in?" messages.

Members pick which sports they play at signup, and the app filters everything (the Looking feed, the Destination dropdown, the notifications) to just those sports. A tennis-only member won't be bothered with golf games; a multi-sport member sees the union of all the games they could actually want.

It works like this: a member who wants a game posts the day and time. Other members at their club who want to play can see the post and tap to join. The host either approves the joiners, or — even better — sets the game to confirm players automatically. When the group is full, BIA handles the roster, the calendar invite, and the reminders. Everyone just shows up.

The pitch in one sentence: Post once, see who's in within an hour, stop sending the same text to ten people.

Why use BIA instead of group texts?

Anyone who's tried to organize a Saturday foursome knows the drill:

"Anyone want to play this Saturday at 9?"

"Joe — out, helping daughter move in"

"Mike — maybe, let me check with the wife"

"Tom — in, but I'd rather play 8:30 if you can"

"Wait who else is coming?"

"Mike, are you in or out?"

... 47 messages later you have 3 players and Tom isn't speaking to Mike ..."

Now multiply that by every weekend, every member, every club. Group texts don't scale.

What BIA does instead

The text-message way The BIA way
Text 10 friends to find 3 players Post once, and the app shows it to whichever audience you choose: 1) a specific group of members you've already saved (your regular foursome, say), 2) every eligible member at your club, or 3) only the specific members you've already lined up
You forget who said yes The roster updates live; everyone can see who's confirmed
You text reminders the night before BIA reminds confirmed players automatically
Schedule changes = chaos Update the time once; everyone gets notified
New player can't crash the texted group Open the game to your whole club — find a 4th from someone you've never played with
Adding the game to your calendar means typing it in One tap, it's on your calendar

You still play with the same friends — and you'll discover other members who play your format and want a regular game.

Getting started (5 minutes, one time)

1. Create your account

  1. Open https://play.ballsinair.com on your laptop or phone.
  2. Tap "Create account".
  3. Enter your email, pick a password.
  4. Fill in your name and gender, and check "I play as a couple" if that applies (you can link your partner later from your profile). Your gender filters the right games to you — e.g., a men's game won't appear in a woman's feed. Checking couple simply adds couples games on top; it doesn't take away your own gender's games, so a woman who plays as a couple still sees the ladies' games.
  5. Pick the sports you play — Golf, Tennis, Pickleball, Paddleball. Check every sport you book time for at your club. You'll only see games for sports you select, and the Destination dropdown when you post a game is built from your picks. You can add or remove sports anytime in your profile.
  6. Search for your club and tap to select it.
  7. Submit.

2. Verify your email

Open the inbox of the email you registered with. You'll get an email from noreply@ballsinair.com with a "Verify my email" button. Click it. You're logged in.

This makes BIA feel like a real app instead of a website — same icon, same launch experience as any other app on your phone. You'll also need this step before push notifications work reliably on iPhone.

iPhone (Safari)

  1. Open https://play.ballsinair.com in Safari (not Chrome — Safari is the only browser that can install apps on iPhone).
  2. Tap the share icon at the bottom of the screen (the square with the up-arrow).
  3. Scroll down through the share sheet and tap "Add to Home Screen".
  4. The next screen shows the BIA icon and name. Tap Add in the top-right.
  5. Find the BIA icon on your home screen and tap it to launch.

Android (Chrome)

  1. Open https://play.ballsinair.com in Chrome.
  2. Tap the three-dot menu in the top-right.
  3. Tap "Add to Home Screen" (or "Install app" — wording varies by device).
  4. Confirm with Add or Install.
  5. Find the BIA icon on your home screen and tap it to launch.

The BIA icon is the green-and-white "BIA" mark — same one at the top of this manual.

4. Turn on push notifications

Notifications are how BIA tells you a friend invited you, a game you joined just filled, or your tee time changed. Without them you'd have to remember to open the app to check.

  1. Launch BIA from the home-screen icon (not from a browser tab — push only works reliably from the installed app).
  2. Tap Profile at the bottom of the screen.
  3. Find the Notifications card and tap "Enable notifications on this device".
  4. Your phone will pop up a permission prompt. Tap Allow.
  5. You should see "✓ Notifications are on." If it didn't work, see troubleshooting below.

You can also tap "Send test notification" right below — within a few seconds you should get a push that says "BIA test notification — If you can see this, push notifications are working on this device." That confirms everything's wired up.

Troubleshooting:

Posting a game

Tap the + Post button at the bottom of the screen.

Step 1: Pick the format

For a typical weekend round, use Standard game.

Step 2: Fill in the details

Step 3: (Optional) Invite specific players

If you already know someone wants to come, you can tap Invite player and select them. They get a notification immediately. You can also mark them as pre-confirmed — meaning they're already in, no acceptance step needed. Useful when you've already agreed in person.

Step 4: (Optional) Add guests

Bringing a non-member friend or family? Add them as a Guest — just type their name (email optional). The guest takes up a slot but isn't a BIA user themselves.

Step 5: Submit

Your game is live. Other members at your club who match your audience and visibility settings will see it within seconds.

The BIA (Balls In Air) concept

This is the heart of the app — and where the name comes from.

When you post a game time, that time can mean one of two different things to your players:

BIA = Yes

The posted time is when the ball actually goes in the air. (Or the first serve, in tennis; first dink, in pickleball.) Players should arrive earlier to warm up, drop bags, check in.

"Saturday at 8 AM, BIA Yes" → arrive by 7:30 to be ready at 8:00.

This is the case when you have a booked tee time or a reserved court. The clock is fixed; the world is built around showing up early.

BIA = No

The posted time is when to show up. Play begins whenever everyone's ready.

"Saturday at 8 AM, BIA No" → just be there at 8:00. We'll head out together.

This is the case for open-format play, walk-on golf, drop-in pickleball, etc. Casual arrival, no specific start.

Why does this matter?

Because the question "Is that BIA?" used to be the first thing every invitee asked. Now it's answered at the moment of posting, and shown to every player in every notification, on their game card, on their calendar event. Nobody has to ask. Nobody shows up at the wrong time.

Joining a game someone else posted

Browse the Looking feed

Tap Looking in the bottom menu. You'll see all the games posted at your club that match your audience, the sports you play, and that have open spots. Each game card shows:

Filter

Filter by date, course, game type (standard vs. outing), to narrow down to what you care about.

Tap the game

Tapping a card opens the game's detail page. You'll see the full roster (who's confirmed, who's been invited), the host's notes, and a Join button.

Three ways to respond

Tapping Maybe Play or Can't play again clears it (toggles). The host of a named-recipient game (Group or Private) sees the roster of who replied; for club-wide broadcasts the soft replies are kept private — the host invited everyone, so a "passed" list there would be meaningless noise.

You can also be directly invited — the host taps your name from a member list, you get a notification asking if you're in, tap Accept or Decline.

Either way, once you're confirmed, the game appears in your My Games page and the calendar invite is ready to add to your phone.

Changed your mind before the host answers?

You don't have to wait to be declined, and you don't have to text the host.

Open My Games, find the game under Requested, tap it, and tap Cancel request. The host is told you've withdrawn, and the game goes back to being an ordinary open game you can request again later if your plans change back.

This is the polite exit. It's better than going quiet: the host knows where they stand, and they aren't holding a mental seat for someone who can't make it.

Note: your own games no longer appear on the Looking feed — they show up in My Games as the host. The Looking feed is for games posted by other members.

The Verified badge ✓

When you see a small green check ✓ after a member's name, that person is Verified at this club — they've completed at least one game here. The badge is BIA's quiet way of separating "known quantity" from "brand-new sign-up" without anybody having to ask awkward questions at the first tee.

How a member becomes Verified

There's no application and no admin button. You earn the badge by playing your first game at the club:

  1. You request to join a game, or a host invites you directly.
  2. The host confirms your spot.
  3. The game happens (the host doesn't retroactively cancel it as a no-show within 24 hours).
  4. The next day, you're Verified at that club. A small in-app notification confirms it.

The host's confirmation is the social vouch. The game running to completion is BIA observing that the vouch held. That's it.

What it means in practice

Where the badge shows up

Per-club, not global

Being Verified at Oak Hill says nothing about Whispering Pines. Each club's Verified badge is earned at that club. If you belong to three clubs, you'll earn three separate badges — one per club, each from your first uncancelled game there.

Edge cases

Sharing your experience (reviews)

Once you've played a game and earned your Verified ✓ at a club, BIA may email you a quick, optional invitation to review the app — the kind of honest, two-line testimonial you'd give a friend at the bar. It takes about 30 seconds: a star rating and a sentence or two.

How it works

Don't want the emails?

Set your notifications to Off in Profile and you won't be asked for a review or sent anyone else's. Muting a specific club's notifications also stops review emails for that club.

Pickleball skill matching

Pickleball is the one sport where a mismatch ruins the morning for everyone — a 4.5 and a 2.0 on the same court is no fun for either player. So BIA matches pickleball games by skill level. It's quick to set up and then it just works in the background.

Rate yourself once

The first time you add Pickleball as a sport — at sign-up or later in your Profile — BIA asks you to pick your level. It's a one-time, honest self-assessment. A few things to know:

Rate yourself honestly. The whole point is to land you in games with good rallies — over-rating yourself puts you in games you'll lose badly, and under-rating ("sandbagging") puts you against people who came to play. The rubric below is specific on purpose so it's easy to find your honest spot.

The level rubric

The picker groups nine levels into three color tiers. Tap a tier to see its levels, then pick the one that sounds like you. Stuck between two? Tap "What's my level?" for the full rubric side by side.

🟢 Beginner (1.0 – 2.5) — Learning the rules, basic dinks and serves, here to have fun.

🟡 Intermediate (3.0 – 3.5) — Consistent serves, deep returns, and the third-shot drop.

🔴 Advanced (4.0+) — Strategic play, fast hands at the kitchen, competitive.

When you post a pickleball game (hosts)

Posting a pickleball game adds one extra choice: who can join, by skill. BIA centers the match on your level (locked in at the moment you post — changing your rating later won't shift a game that's already up). Pick one of three modes:

Whatever you choose, the game card shows your anchor level and the mode (e.g. 🟡 3.5 · Strict match) so joiners know exactly what they're walking into — except Open games, which carry no level chip because everyone's invited.

When you're looking to join (members)

You don't have to do anything — the filtering is silent. Pickleball games you don't qualify for simply don't appear in your Looking feed, and you won't get notified about them. You'll only ever see games where you'd actually be a good fit (plus every Open game). This holds even inside group posts: if a host posts a strict-match game to a group, only the group members in the right band see it.

A few exceptions where the filter steps aside: the host always sees their own game, anyone the host hand-picks and invites by name is let in regardless of level, and anyone who already holds a confirmed spot stays in. And if you haven't set your own level yet, you'll only see Open pickleball games until you do.

Saving your regulars as a Group

If you and three buddies play almost every Saturday, you don't want to invite them by hand each time. Set up a Group.

  1. Tap Groups in the bottom menu.
  2. Tap Create Group, name it ("Saturday 8 AM crew", "Tuesday tennis", whatever).
  3. Add members.

Now, when posting a game, set Visibility → Group and pick your group. Only those members see it. Tap to join, tap to pass — same as any game, but private to the group.

You can be in as many groups as you want. Different days, different members, different formats.

Adding members is private — they're never told and never see it

Group membership is your private curation, and it's fully invisible to the members. When you add someone to a group:

The only thing a member ever experiences from a group is the games you post to it (below) — and those never name the group. If a member doesn't want a particular host's game pings, they can mute that member (Profile → muted members), which quietly stops every game notification from that person. There's no group-level control for members, because there's no group for them to see.

Adding a member after you've already posted a game to the group

When you add a new member to a group that already has upcoming games posted to it, BIA catches the new member up automatically — with a separate notification for every still-open future game posted to that group. This is a game notification, not a "you were added" notification, and it deliberately hides the group name (see below).

Example: you posted Saturday's game on Tuesday to your "Saturday Crew" group. Wednesday you add three new members to the group. By the time they see their phone Wednesday afternoon, they have:

They can tap the notification, see the game, and request to join. They're never told they were added to "Saturday Crew" — only that there's a game in one of their groups. No manual heads-up from you required.

Filters honored. A new member only receives catch-up notifications for games they would actually have received at post-time:

So a tennis-only club member added to a golf group won't get pinged about golf games. A snowbird who muted their summer club for the winter doesn't get golf pings during ski season. And so on.

Group name still hidden. The catch-up notification says "in your group", not the actual group label — same privacy rule that applies to the original broadcast.

Stepping away from a group you own

If you created a group but won't be playing with it anymore (joined a new club, schedule shift, the regular crew dissolved), you have two choices on the group's detail page:

There's a guardrail: if you tap Delete group while other active members are in the group, BIA pops up the member list first with Transfer ownership highlighted as the recommended path and Delete for everyone as a separated destructive button (with a second confirm before it fires). Most of the time when an owner taps Delete, what they actually mean is "I'm stepping away" — and the group shouldn't end for the rest of the crew. With no other active members the guardrail is skipped — there's no one to transfer to, just a simple "Are you sure?" prompt.

Belonging to more than one club

Members of more than one private club (a country club in town, a beach club for the summer, a winter club in Florida) can add up to three memberships and use BIA for all of them in a single login.

How it works

The 3-club cap

BIA caps memberships at three clubs per member. This keeps the experience focused — three is enough to cover most members' real-world club portfolio (primary, summer, winter) without turning the Looking feed into a marketplace.

Joining a club — what you'll see right away

The first time you join any club — whether it's your initial sign-up at registration or adding a second/third club later from Profile — BIA looks at what's already happening there and sends you a single welcome-style inbox row summarizing it. Something like:

"Welcome to Oak Hill Country Club — 4 upcoming games match your sports. Tap to see them in Looking."

The count includes games at that club you'd qualify for (your sport, not muted, not on a day you blocked, etc.) — so a tennis-only member at a golf-heavy club only sees the tennis count. This welcome catch-up is scoped to your own gender: a man is only caught up on Men's games, a woman on Women's games (plus Couples games if you're a confirmed couple). "Open to all" games are deliberately left out of this first-time summary — a brand-new member shouldn't be greeted with a backlog of cross-gender or accidentally-opened games. (Open games still show up in your live Looking feed and ongoing notifications — this only scopes the one-time welcome.) If there are zero qualifying games, no notification fires.

It's a single summary row, not one notification per game — joining a club shouldn't slam your inbox at the welcome moment. And it doesn't push to your lock screen — you're already in the app, so an inbox row + the next 6 AM digest is the right cadence.

The group catch-up notifications described under Groups work differently: those fire one notification per game (so you can tap directly into the specific game) and never announce the group itself — being added to a group is private, so the only thing a new member ever hears about is the game, with the group name hidden.

Per-game group chat

Every game has its own group chat thread on the game's detail page. Only the host and confirmed players can post; everyone else who can see the game can read.

Use it for the things group texts cover today:

Messages send a real-time push notification to everyone else in the chat. The author of each message is shown by name, with a Host chip next to the host's posts so you can tell who's calling the shot. The thread is append-only — no edits, no deletes — so the timeline is a faithful record of what was said.

When system events happen mid-game (e.g., the host transferred hosting), they appear in the chat as a centered italic line — no name, no avatar — so the audit trail lives in one place alongside the conversation.

Calendar integration

On any game you've confirmed, tap Add to Calendar.

The calendar event will include:

When the host changes the time, you get a notification — but the original calendar entry doesn't auto-update. You'll need to add the updated event manually. (This is a limitation of Google/Apple calendars, not BIA.)

Notifications — what you'll hear about and when

BIA sends you notifications for things you'd care about, and stays quiet otherwise.

You'll be notified when:

You can change the cadence:

Quiet hours stop push notifications during the time you set (e.g., 10 PM – 8 AM). The hours are evaluated in your local time zone — captured when you registered — so 11pm means 11pm where you live, not on a server somewhere. Email always arrives — quiet hours don't block email.

Mute entire-club games — If you only care about games from your saved groups and don't want to hear about every game posted at your club, toggle this on in Profile → Notifications.

Mute specific members — If a particular member's posts you'd rather not see, mute them in the member directory. Their games won't appear in your feed. (They won't know you've muted them.) You can still receive direct invites from them if you want.

Sport filter — You only receive notifications for games in sports you've opted into in your profile. A tennis-only member won't get pinged about a golf foursome and vice versa.

Test it anytime — In Profile → Notifications, tap Send test notification to verify push is working on the device you're using. A test message arrives within a few seconds.

Home-screen badge — When games are posted to your club overnight (during your quiet hours), you'll see a small number on the BIA icon on your home screen the next morning — e.g., "3" meaning three new games posted overnight. The badge disappears the moment you tap the icon. (Requires iPhone running iOS 16.4 or later, with BIA installed to the home screen; Android shows a small dot rather than a number.)

My Games

Tap My Games in the bottom menu to see every game you've hosted, joined, or been invited to. Games are ordered soonest first — the next match you're playing sits at the top, then later dates follow chronologically.

This is where you'll come most often to:

Requested — games you're waiting to hear about

If you've asked to join a game and the host hasn't answered yet, it appears in a Requested section at the top of My Games, with a count of how many you're waiting on.

These aren't commitments yet, so they're kept separate from the rest of your schedule — they don't show up on the Week or Month calendars, and they don't count toward your week. The section only appears when you actually have a request outstanding.

Tap any of them to open the game, see who else is in, or cancel your request if you no longer need the spot.

Withdrawing

Sometimes life happens. On any game you've confirmed, scroll to the bottom of the game detail page and tap Withdraw. The host gets notified, the spot reopens, and the game is still there for someone else to fill.

Withdraw or Cancel request? BIA picks the right one for you — you'll only ever see one button. Withdraw appears once you're confirmed and gives your seat back. Cancel request appears while you're still waiting on the host, and simply takes your name out of the queue (you were never holding a seat).

If you're withdrawing more than 24 hours out, no harm done — the spot reopens. If you withdraw the morning of the game, BIA logs it but doesn't penalize you. (Repeat-flakers — the social pressure of your own club will sort that out.)

Posting a recurring game or outing (whole season at once)

Have a Saturday morning crew? A Tuesday-Thursday tennis foursome? A monthly group outing? You don't have to post each one individually — BIA can create the whole series in a single tap. Works for both Standard games and Group Outings.

On the Post a game form (or Post an outing), tick Repeat this game / Repeat this outing (under the visibility section). A panel expands with two choices:

Hit Post and BIA creates every game in the series in one go — each with its own roster, chat, and schedule. Members see them in their Looking feed and confirm per-game (Bob can play 8 of the 10 Saturdays). A small Recurring chip appears on each card so members understand the game is part of a series.

A few things worth knowing:

Editing or cancelling the whole series

Open any game in the series → tap the host's action row at the top. Two extra buttons appear (only on series games):

Use case: "Saturday Crew is taking the rest of the month off — coming back in two weeks." Open the next Saturday game → Cancel all future. Then in two weeks, post a new short series for the back half of the season.

Group Outings — assigning foursomes

For a Group Outing (16 people, 24, 36 — anything bigger than a foursome), at some point you stop collecting names and start pairing them up. BIA gives you a built-in Foursomes panel on the outing's detail page so you can do it inside the app instead of on a legal pad.

Where to find it. Open your Group Outing's detail page. Once you've accepted at least one request, the Foursomes section appears below the roster. It's host-only — members don't see this panel.

How to assign. Each confirmed member and guest gets a row with their name and a small number box. Type 1 next to four people to put them in Foursome 1, type 2 next to the next four, and so on. As you type, BIA re-buckets the players below the input list into preview cards — Foursome 1, Foursome 2, etc. — so you can see who you've grouped together without scrolling around. An "Unassigned" card at the bottom catches anyone you haven't numbered yet.

Randomize (auto-fill). Don't want to type numbers at all? Tap Randomize and BIA deals every confirmed member and guest into balanced foursomes for you in one tap. It never makes a 5-some — groups are capped at 4, and any leftover players form 3-somes instead (13 players → 4/3/3/3, not 5/4/4). Don't love the mix? Tap Randomize again — you can re-roll as many times as you like, and you can still hand-edit any group afterward. Nothing is shared until you Save then Publish; the shuffles are a preview for your eyes only, even after a first publish. (Golf only — racquet outings use match sides, so those are assigned by hand.)

Soft size warnings. If a group ends up with fewer or more than 4 players, the preview card border turns amber and the size line shows "less than 4" or "more than 4." BIA does not block you — when you assign by hand, outings often run 3-somes (drop-out) or 5-somes (charity tradition), so the warning is just a sanity check, not a rule. (The Randomize button always keeps groups at 4 or under.)

Save first, publish second. Tap Save to persist your assignments. Members can't see them yet — they're in draft mode. Tap Publish when you're ready: every confirmed member with a foursome number gets a push notification ("you're in Group 3 — tap to see who you're with") and the Your Foursome card appears on their game detail. Re-publish later if you tweak assignments after the first publish; BIA pushes a refresh to the affected members.

Download the printable Excel. Anytime, tap Download .xlsx. You get a spreadsheet in the standard 3-column format (Group | Member | Handicap) with 9 foursome blocks, blank handicap column, and any unassigned players in a trailing block. Take it to the pro shop. The handicap column is intentionally blank — fill it in from your club's GHIN export at posting time.

What confirmed members see. Once you publish, every confirmed member opens the game and sees a Your foursome card near the top:

Group 2 — you're paired with: Mike O'Brien · Mary Saunders · Bob Kim (guest) They never see the full multi-group roster, only their own group. The Verified ✓ badge appears next to each member name so they know who they're playing with.

Guests are included. Any guests you've added to the outing appear in the panel + the .xlsx alongside member slots, marked with a "(guest)" tag. The starter at the first tee gets to see who's a member and who's a guest at a glance.

Tennis, pickleball & paddleball — assigning matches

For racquet sports there's no such thing as a foursome — players pair off into matches, where one team plays against another. So when your Group Outing is tennis, pickleball, or paddleball, the same panel automatically switches from foursomes to Matches.

How it works. Each confirmed player gets a row with a match-number box and a Team 1 / Team 2 toggle. Put two players in Match 1 / Team 1 and two more in Match 1 / Team 2, and you've built a doubles match — Team 1 vs Team 2. As you assign, the preview cards show the matchup directly:

Match 1 — Team 1: Alice & Bob vs Team 2: Carol & Dave

Singles or doubles. One player per side is a singles match (1 vs 1); two per side is doubles (2 vs 2). Both work — BIA only shows a soft amber warning if a match's sides are uneven or someone's missing a team, never blocking you.

Publish + what players see. Same Save → Publish flow as golf. On publish, each player gets a push ("you're in Match 2, Team 1 — tap to see your partner and opponents") and a Your match card on the game detail showing Team 1 vs Team 2 with their own side highlighted, so they know both their partner and who they're up against.

Printable sheet. Download .xlsx gives you a match sheet (Match | Team 1 | Team 2) instead of the golf Group/Member/Handicap layout — ready for the front desk or court board.

Hosting an outing without playing (stay host, free your seat)

Sometimes you're the one organizing a Group Outing but you're not actually playing in it — you're running the member-guest, not teeing off. You don't have to hand the outing to someone else to make that work: you can host without taking a playing spot, and you stay the host either way. Works for every sport — golf, tennis, pickleball, paddleball.

At posting. On the Post screen, once you've chosen Group Outing, tick "I'm not playing in this outing — just organizing." BIA won't reserve a seat for you, so a 16-player outing fills with a full 16 players instead of 15.

After posting. Plans changed? Open the outing's detail page. A card near the top shows whether you're currently holding a spot, with a one-tap toggle:

Either way you remain the host — you still accept requests, assign foursomes or matches, publish, download the sheet, and can transfer or cancel. This is different from Transfer hosting below: opting out frees your seat but keeps you in charge; transferring hands the whole outing to someone else.

Hosting a game you can no longer play (Transfer hosting)

What happens when you posted the game, three other members confirmed, and then you can't make it after all? Cancelling would torch the game for everyone else. Instead:

  1. Open the game's detail page.
  2. Tap Transfer hosting. (The button only appears when there's at least one other confirmed player to take over.)
  3. A modal lists the other confirmed players. Pick whoever would want to host.
  4. Tap Transfer hosting.

What happens next:

Works for both Standard games and Group Outings. If you posted a 24-person member-guest outing and something comes up, you can hand the keys to any confirmed player — they inherit the full host kit, including the Foursomes panel (assignments you've already drafted stay intact) and the Group Chat thread. Members already in the outing don't have to re-confirm, and any guests you added stay on the roster. The new host can publish foursomes, accept additional requests, download the Excel, even re-transfer if their plans change too.

What if I tap "Cancel game" by habit?

There's a guardrail. If you tap Cancel game while at least one other member is confirmed, BIA pops up the same player-pick modal first — with the Transfer hosting option highlighted and a separate destructive Cancel for everyone button. The idea: most of the time when a host hits Cancel, what they actually mean is "I can't make it" — and the game shouldn't end for the rest of the group. The guardrail makes you see that option before you can actually torch the game.

If you genuinely want to cancel for everyone (weather, conflict for the whole group), tap Cancel for everyone in that modal — it confirms once more, then notifies all confirmed players that the game is off.

If you're the only confirmed player and nobody else can fill in, Cancel game skips the guardrail and goes straight to the simple "Are you sure?" prompt — there's no one to transfer to.

Removing a player from your game (host)

As the host you can take any confirmed player out of your own game — without needing their permission — right from the roster on the game's detail page. Tap Remove next to their name, confirm the prompt, and they're out:

Use it when someone's plans changed and they didn't drop themselves, when a name got added by mistake, or when you just need the seat back.

Two related actions for players who aren't fully in yet:

A request can also disappear on its own: members can cancel their own request while they're waiting on you. You'll get a notification saying they withdrew it, and the name drops off your Requests list. Nothing for you to action — and it means a name still sitting there is genuinely still waiting on your answer.

Your profile

Tap Profile to manage:

Subscription

BIA is currently in beta testing and completely free to use. Every feature in this guide — posting games, joining games, calendar invites, notifications, groups — is open to all members during the beta period.

We're keeping it free while we listen to early members about what works, what's missing, and what should change. When the beta wraps up, we'll let everyone know what's next well in advance.

For now: enjoy.

Frequently asked

What if my club isn't in BIA?

Right now BIA is rolling out club-by-club. If you don't see yours, contact support and we'll add it.

Can I host games for someone else?

No. Each member posts their own games. But you can directly invite anyone, so the practical effect is the same. And if you posted a game and then can't play, you can transfer hosting to a confirmed player so the game continues without you — see "Hosting a game you can no longer play" under My Games.

What if my friend doesn't want to use the app?

Add them as a Guest on a game (name + optional email). They take a slot, but don't have a BIA account. Use this sparingly — the app works best when everyone's on it.

Can I see games at other clubs?

Only at clubs where you're a member. If you belong to more than one club, BIA shows you the merged feed for all of them in a single Looking page (each card chipped with its club name). You can have up to three memberships per account — see "Belonging to more than one club" above. Beyond your own clubs, each club's network is private; you won't see a game at a club you don't belong to.

What if I forget to post a game and decide to play last minute?

Post anyway — even 30 minutes before. Some members keep an eye on the feed for spontaneous opportunities. Worth a try.

Does "Maybe play" reserve me a spot?

No. Maybe Play is a soft signal to the host that you're on the fence — they're not holding a seat for you, and other members can still claim it. When you're ready to commit, tap Request to join. If you decide it's a no, tap Can't play instead (or just leave Maybe as-is — the host will follow up if they need to know).

I asked to join a game and now I can't make it. What do I do?

Open My Games, find it under Requested, tap it, and tap Cancel request. The host is notified that you've withdrawn your request, and you're out of the queue. You can request again later if your plans change back.

You don't need to wait for the host to decline you, and you don't need to text them.

Where do I see games I've asked to join but haven't been approved for?

The Requested section at the top of My Games. It only appears when you have a request outstanding, and it shows how many you're waiting on.

They're kept out of your Week and Month calendars on purpose — until a host says yes, it isn't a commitment, and it shouldn't make your week look busier than it is.

Will the host get a push notification every time someone taps Maybe or Can't play?

No. Those soft replies don't push — they show up in the host's view of the game roster the next time they open the app. The whole point is to make declines cheap to send AND cheap to receive: closing the loop without lighting up phones.

Will the app text me?

Not currently. All notifications are push (to your phone) or email. Texts may come in the future.

Can I post a game for next month?

Yes. BIA doesn't care how far in advance you post.

What about tournaments or club events?

Use the Group Outing format for anything bigger than a foursome. You set a minimum and a maximum, and BIA handles the sign-up list.

I play golf AND tennis at my club. How does that work?

Pick both sports in your profile (Profile → Sports I play). Your Looking feed will show games for either sport. When you post a game, the Destination dropdown shows your golf courses and "Tennis" — pick whichever one this game is for. Members who only play golf won't see your tennis post, and vice versa.

Can I change which sports I play later?

Yes — Profile → Sports I play. Tick or untick anytime. Changes take effect immediately for your Looking feed and the Destination dropdown.

Why don't I see any games?

Three things to check, in order:

  1. Sports — Have you picked at least one sport in Profile → Sports I play? If not, nothing will show.
  2. Audience — A men's-only game won't show in a woman's feed and vice versa. Open the Looking feed and check the filter.
  3. Quiet hours / muting — Push notifications stop during your quiet-hours window, and games from muted members are hidden entirely. Both are in Profile → Notifications.

Why aren't push notifications working on my iPhone?

On iPhone, BIA must be installed to your home screen and launched from that icon for push to work — Safari tabs can't receive notifications. iOS 16.4 or later is also required. See "Add the BIA icon to your home screen" earlier in this manual.

For members — what the Staff Dashboard means for you

Some clubs have asked us for a read-only operations dashboard for their professional staff — head pro, assistants, starter, outside ops, superintendent, and grounds crew. This section explains what staff can see, what they can't, and what shows up in your app when staff is enabled at your club.

What staff can see

When your club provisions the Staff Dashboard, the staff members listed below see a read-only view of every game posted at the club — regardless of whether the game is set to Club, Private, or Group:

Staff sees the same data on the same dashboard — there is no "ops mode" with more detail or a "lite mode" with less.

What staff cannot see

Who counts as "staff"

Two categories, capped at three total people per club:

Staff are notified that they've been granted access; you (the member) see a one-time in-app banner when staff is first enabled at your club so you know who can see what.

Staff accounts are separate from member accounts

Staff are not BIA members. They have a separate account with a single purpose: the dashboard. They don't appear in member rosters, don't show up in invite autocompletes, can't be added to groups, and don't count toward club member totals. If a pro who happens to also be a BIA member at the club becomes staff, they get a separate staff account with a different email — the two accounts never merge.

When staff is enabled at your club

You'll see a one-time disclosure banner at the top of the app. The wording:

Heads up — professional staff and grounds crew at [Club Name] can now see games posted at the club so they can prepare the course and plan maintenance. They cannot see your in-game chat messages.

Tap Got it to dismiss. If a second club you belong to later enables staff, the banner returns once with the new club's name.

Staff broadcasts

Staff can send a one-time message to every host of a game on a given day. You'll receive it as an in-app notification + push, with the sender's name and club:

Mark Stenson (Whispering Pines): Aeration on the back nine starts at 1pm — plan tee times to finish 9 by then.

There is no reply mechanism — broadcasts are one-way, operational. Talk to the staff directly if you need to respond.

For staff — using the dashboard

This section is for the head pro / GM / superintendent who has been granted dashboard access by BIA admin.

Getting in the first time

  1. The BIA admin emails you a welcome link. Click it within 7 days.
  2. Set your password. You'll land on the Staff tab.
  3. Your account is staff-only: you'll see Staff, Notifications, and Profile in the nav. You're not a BIA member; you can't post or join games.

The dashboard layout

Three views

CSV export

Click Export Day / Week / Month as CSV on the Actions bar. Downloads a CSV named with your club slug and date range. Columns: Date, Tee Time, Sport, Course, Host, Status, Type, Recurring, Confirmed, Total Slots, Guests, Players, Guest Names. Use it for offline analysis or sharing with whoever doesn't have a BIA staff account.

Broadcast to hosts

Click Broadcast to hosts… to open the broadcast panel. Pick a date, type up to 1000 characters, hit Send. Every host of a non-cancelled game that day gets an in-app notification + push, prefixed with your name and the club name. You'll see "Sent to N hosts" when it lands.

Use it for course conditions, maintenance windows, frost delays, F&B reminders ("kitchen's busy after 10:30 — order ahead"), or anything else operational.

Notifications you'll receive

Staff accounts get a small, focused set of pushes — no chatter, only what's actionable:

That's it. No spam from individual game posts, joins, cancellations, or chat messages. The dashboard is for browsing; notifications are for the things you'd actually act on.

Staff lifecycle

What you cannot do

For members — booking a lesson

If your club has teaching pros using BIA, you'll see every open lesson slot they've published in the Lessons tab in your nav (between Looking and Post). No phone tag with the pro shop, no voicemail, no "I'll call you back."

How it works

  1. Open the Lessons tab. You'll see two views at the top: All and Month.
    • All lists every open lesson at your club, sorted by date and time.
    • Month shows a calendar grid color-coded by availability — dates with open slots are green (darker green = more slots), dates with nothing are white. Tap any date to filter the list below to just that day's slots.
  2. Browse the slots. Each card shows the pro's name, the date and time, the sport, and a Request button. Group lessons (clinics) show how many spots are still open.
  3. Tap Request. The pro gets a notification on their end and either confirms or declines.
  4. You're confirmed. Once the pro confirms, a calendar invite lands on your phone (Apple / Google / Outlook), a 24-hour reminder fires the day before, and the lesson shows up in your My Games list alongside your regular games.

What you don't need to do

Cancelling or changing a lesson

My pro shop isn't using BIA

If you don't see any lessons posted, your pros likely haven't signed up yet. Mention BIA to them — there's a focused guide for teaching pros at learn.ballsinair.com/pro that walks through setup and what they get out of it. The more pros at your club use it, the easier booking gets for everyone.

For teaching pros — booking lessons in BIA

This section is for the golf, tennis, or pickleball pro who wants to publish lesson availability through BIA so members can book on their calendar instead of phoning the pro shop.

Becoming a teacher in BIA

  1. Sign up at play.ballsinair.com like any other member.
  2. Open Profile → Teaching and tick "I'm a teaching pro at my club."
  3. That's it. The lesson sport types — Golf Lesson, Tennis Lesson, Pickleball Lesson — now appear in your Post menu's sport picker, and in your per-club sport opt-ins. Choose which apply based on the lessons you give.

You can flip the toggle back off at any time. If you do, the lesson sport options disappear from your Post menu, but any lessons you'd already posted stay live until they pass or you cancel them.

Already have a staff dashboard account?

If your club's BIA admin previously provisioned you as a Staff Dashboard contact and you'd like to also teach lessons, you don't need a second account. Use the same email to sign up at play.ballsinair.com — your existing Dashboard access carries over, you become a regular paying member, and you can flip the Teaching toggle in Profile to publish lesson slots. One login, one email, both surfaces.

Posting a lesson slot

Same flow as posting a game:

  1. Tap Post in the nav.
  2. Pick the date and time.
  3. From the Sport + Destination dropdown, choose Golf Lesson / Tennis Lesson / Pickleball Lesson.
  4. Set Total players to 1 for a private lesson, or higher for a clinic or group.
  5. Add notes if you want (e.g., "Short game focus — bring wedges").
  6. Submit.

Posting recurring availability

Publishing every Monday at 9am for 26 weeks? Use the Recurring option on the post form: pick the frequency (weekly, every other week, etc.) and how many occurrences to create. BIA generates all the slots in one shot. Each slot is its own independent post — members book them individually, you can edit or cancel any one without affecting the others.

How members find your slots

Members at your club see your slots in their Lessons tab. The list is sorted by date and time. They tap a slot to request it.

Important: posting a lesson does NOT broadcast a notification to every member at the club. The Lessons tab is a passive browse surface — members go look when they want a lesson. This is deliberate. You don't need to worry about spamming the membership every time you publish a slot.

When a member requests a slot

You get an in-app notification + push:

Sarah Chen wants to join your Golf Lesson on Saturday at 10:00 AM.

Tap it to open the lesson detail, then tap Confirm or Decline. On confirm:

Group lessons and clinics

Posting a clinic for 4 kids? Set Total players to 4 on your post. Members book individually — each one takes one of the four spots. The slot fills as bookings come in and disappears from the Lessons tab when full.

Cancelling or rescheduling

Payment

BIA handles the scheduling. BIA does not handle the payment. Members pay you the same way they always have — club charge, cash, Venmo, Zelle, whatever your club uses. BIA never sees the money. There are no fees taken out of your lesson revenue.

What members can and can't see

Notifications you'll get as a teaching pro

Same as any other host of a BIA game:

Posted slots that no one books are silent — no nags, no escalating reminders. They sit in the Lessons tab until booked, until you cancel them, or until the date passes.

Why it matters at scale

The more members on the app, the more opportunities for club pros to have a booked teaching schedule. As your club's membership shows up on BIA, lesson demand surfaces in one place instead of scattering across voicemail, texts, and the pro shop counter.

Tips

In closing

If your typical Saturday morning starts with five group texts and ends with three players, give BIA a try for one weekend. Post once. See who's in by Friday. Show up to your tee time.

That's the whole pitch. Welcome to BIA.

One ask: help us grow the network

BIA only becomes powerful when the people you actually want to play with are on it too. An app with you and two strangers from your club is useful. An app with you, your foursome, and your group of regulars is transformative — because every time someone in your circle is looking for a game, you'll know about it.

So if you like what you see:

  1. Tell other members at your club. The more members at your club who use BIA, the more games you'll see in your feed.
  2. Tell your friends and family at other clubs. Each club's network is private to that club, but the more clubs we have on the platform, the better BIA gets for everyone. Your buddy at another club benefits from his club joining the same way you benefit from yours.
  3. Send them this manual. A 5-minute read is all it takes for them to get the idea.

The faster the network grows, the less time anyone spends in group-text purgatory. Pay it forward.

Questions? Email Ballsinairsupport@gmail.com.

📄 Download this manual as a PDF

Open the app: play.ballsinair.com
Questions: Ballsinairsupport@gmail.com