Russ

The voice of FOREPAID — how he works, who controls him, and how to dial him in.

1. Who Russ is

Russ is the live commentary running through every FOREPAID round. He calls birdies and snowmen, announces each player onto the tee, runs the post-round recap, and reacts to skins, presses, and match closeouts in real time.

The voice is a fully synthetic AI voice — no real person was cloned — designed to feel like that one buddy who narrates everything from the cart. He's part of the product, not a feature you tack on. Most of what makes a FOREPAID round different from just typing scores in a spreadsheet runs through Russ.

2. The four trash-talk levels

How spicy Russ gets is configurable. There are four levels:

3. Setting the level

Before the round

The host picks the level on the Pick Your Russ screen during round setup. The default is L1 (Friendly).

L4 (Uncensored) is available on the same picker — the host just selects it. Because L4 unlocks the full vocabulary, the host has to make that choice consciously for the group every time.

Mid-round

Only the host can change the level once the round is underway. From Score Entry, tap the Russ icon in the toolbar to open the level picker and pick a new level. The new level applies immediately — every phone in the round hears the change on the next chirp.

4. Muting Russ

Each player mutes Russ on their own phone, and the mute is independent of everyone else's. Your mute doesn't affect anyone else, and theirs don't affect you.

From Score Entry, tap the speaker icon to toggle. By default Russ is on for every player at round start. If you want silence, mute at hole 1 — that mute setting sticks for the rest of the round.

5. What triggers Russ

Russ fires on two kinds of events.

Score events (per player)

Triggered when an individual player records a notable score: birdie, eagle, hole-in-one, bogey, double bogey, snowman, double par (the disaster bucket).

These chirps play on the score-owner's phone first and broadcast to everyone in the round. Your good shot, your chirp.

Round-wide events

Triggered by events that affect the whole round: a skin won, a Nassau segment closed out, the turn report after hole 9, the round wrap after hole 18, the Russ Says button when anyone taps it, and his rail on the GPS map — CLUB and STANDINGS.

These play on the host's phone first and broadcast to the other players. The host's phone is the single source so the chirp doesn't fire twice from multiple devices on the same event.

Caddie moments (GPS)

Russ also carries the bag. At every tee he previews the hole — par, doglegs, which side the water lives on — and he calls the green when you walk onto it. These play from your phone as you move, so pocket it and he rides along. Tap CLUB on his rail any time for a club call — set your carries in Profile → My bag and he names your actual club.

6. Russ’s Picks

Before a ball is struck, Russ calls his shot — his pick for who’s most likely to walk off with the group’s money. Tap the info icon next to the pick to open the comparison sheet and see how the field stacks up behind his call.

It’s Russ putting his own reputation on the line before the round, and one more thing for the group to argue about on the first tee.

7. Why Russ said that

Every Russ chirp has a trigger. If something feels off, it's usually one of two things:

• Russ called you out for a "snowman" but you scored a 6. A snowman is an 8 (gross). Russ chirps based on your gross score against par — check the par on that hole.
• Russ called your handicap-adjusted score, not your gross. Russ uses your net score for celebrating birdies and eagles when handicaps are on. If you scored a 5 on a par 4 but received a stroke, Russ counts that as a par — not a bogey.

If you hear something that feels impossible — Russ said you carry over for 6 holes on hole 3, or fires a chirp twice in a row — that's a bug, not a feature. Email support@forepaid.app with the round details (course, hole, what he said) and we'll trace it.