*These games are intended to be light-hearted fun, if you have a gambling problem STOP, and seek help
Betting Games
Here’s a selection of betting games that I have played over the years.
Growing up, we always had something on the game, but there was a bit of an unwritten rule that the amount being gambled would never be more than the cost of two rounds of drinks – that way, if you had a terrible day and lost all the bets, it wouldn’t cost you too much.
Oh, and the other unwritten rule – winners bought the first round (or 2 rounds if they were a pair).
Enjoy!
Betting Games
5p PER HOLE, DOUBLING*
Works best with : 2 or 4 players
Format : Strokeplay / Stableford
Handicap Allowance : Full h/c
This is a game usually played individually, but could be played by two teams of 2.
I have never played this game but have met people who claim that they have. *Read all the way to the end before deciding if you want to play it, or just want to see if you can prank someone with the idea of playing it.
It is a form of Skins game but the hole value doubles at every subsequent hole.
As part of the prank, tell your opponent you’re tight for time so you’ll concede the front 9 to them and start on the 10th … it’s only £20 or so anyway, you’re sure you can make that up on the back 9.
Have you worked it out yet?
5p, 10p, 20p, 40p, 80p, £1.60, £3.20, £6.40, £12.80
Now things start to escalate rapidly. Never mind which holes you’ve won or lost along the way, the 18th is worth a cool £6.5k!
“5p a hole, doubling” seems innocent enough but my advice is, stay far away!
BINGO, BANGO, BONGO
Works best with : 2 – 4 players
Format : Strokeplay / Stableford
Handicap Allowance : Full h/c
Bingo, Bango, Bongo is a points-based game that can be played by 2, 3 or 4 golfers.
Before Anyone Tees Off
- Decide if you are competing individually or in teams (decide the teams).
- Decide the value of the points.
- Decide what happens if there is a tie after the 18th hole.
The Play / The Scoring System
Scores are assessed at the end of each hole and points allocated for:
- Bingo – the first golfer to get their ball on the green;
- Bango – the golfer whose ball is closest to the pin once all the balls are on the green;
- Bongo – the golfer that holed his ball first;
On a scorecard, keep track of who won the points on each hole and at the end of the round get the total for each player.
Payouts are made based on the difference between points totals.
BISQUE
Works best with : 2 – 4 players
Format : Strokeplay / Stableford / Matchplay
Handicap Allowance : Full h/c
Bisque can be used in a number of betting games such as Nassau and Skins.
Golfers use handicap strokes, but with a twist.
Before Anyone Tees Off
- Decide if you are competing individually or in teams (decide the teams).
- Decide the bets and side bets.
- Decide what happens if there is a tie after the 18th hole.
The Play / The Scoring System
Instead of getting strokes on holes according to the Stroke Index on the scorecard, players can apply their handicap strokes on any holes they choose.
NB : They must announce their intention to use a stroke / strokes on the tee, before starting that hole.
CRIERS AND WHINERS
aka “No Alibis” or “Play It Again Sam.”
Works best with : 2 – 4 players
Format : Strokeplay / Stableford / Matchplay
Handicap Allowance : Full (although often gets adjusted to 75%)
Before Anyone Tees Off
- Decide if you are competing individually or in teams (decide the teams).
- Decide the bets and side bets.
- Decide what happens if there is a tie after the 18th hole.
The Play / The Scoring System
Instead of using handicaps in the normal fashion, players use their handicaps to determine the number of shots they are allowed to retake during the round.
Conditions that usually apply:
- The first tee shot of the day cannot be replayed;
- No shot can be replayed twice;
- When replaying, the golfer must use the second shot, regardless of where it finishes.
The game is known as “Criers & Whiners” because it’s the ideal game to play with those prone to such behaviour – the sort who always whinge after the round with comments like, “if I could just have that one shot back when the wind came up on the ….. hole”
GRUESOMES
Works best with : 4 players
Format : Strokeplay / Stableford
Handicap Allowance : 50% of combined h/c
Gruesomes is a 2-person team game that is more common as a betting game but is also sometimes used as a club competition format.
Before Anyone Tees Off
- Decide the teams.
- Decide the bets and side bets.
- Decide what happens if there is a tie after the 18th hole.
The Play / The Scoring System
In Gruesomes, both pairs play their drives and then the members of the opposing side select which drive they want their opponents to play (Team A choose which ball Team B have to play and vice versa). Teams then play out the hole in alternate shot fashion.
Needless to say, when you’re choosing which of two drives your opponents have to play, you’re pretty much always going to make them play the worst – or most gruesome – of the two drives.
Variations
The player who hit the “gruesome” tee ball also plays the second shot for his or her side and then they play alternate shot after that;
HONEST JOHN
Works best with : 2 – 4 players
Format : Strokeplay / Stableford
Handicap Allowance : Full h/c
Before the round starts, competitors each put an agreed-upon monetary amount into the pot.
Each player predicts the score they will shoot for the round, and writes it down.
At the end of the round, they compare their actual score to their predicted score.
The golfer who was closest to his / her predicted score wins the Honest John pot.
NB – This can also be used as a fund raiser item at a Charity Golf Day with the pot shared between the winner/s and the Charity.
LAS VEGAS
Works best with : 4 players
Format : Strokeplay
Handicap Allowance : Full h/c
A (usually) big points game that works best with two teams of 2.
Before Anyone Tees Off
- Decide if you are betting only on which team wins or betting per point.
- Decide what happens if there is a tie at the end of the game.
The Play / The Scoring System
Play the hole as normal – the team score is a combination of the two scores, combining the digits to make the lowest possible number.
For example, you make a 4 and your partner makes a 5, your team score for that hole is 45. If the other team makes two 5s, their score is 55 and your team wins 10 points.
It’s really easy to get way down or way up in this format so be careful what you fix as the bet before you start playing.
Keep track of things on a scorecard and tally the points at the end to decide who’s paying and who’s collecting.
NASSAU
Works best with : 2 – 4 players
Format : Strokeplay / Stableford / Matchplay
Handicap Allowance : Full h/c
Nassau is one of the most popular games to play and is super simple to understand. It is essentially three bets in one: best front-nine, best back-nine, and best 18 hole score.
Before Anyone Tees Off
- Decide the format – Strokeplay / Stableford / Matchplay and whether you’ll be playing Individually / a Better-ball pair / a Scramble pair;
- Decide the bets – usually the 9 hole bets are half of the overall 18 hole bet – and announced as, for example, 5-5-10 or 10-10-20;
- Decide the Pairs if necessary;
The Play / The Scoring System
Play as normal, there’s no real need to evaluate scores hole by hole, just check them after 9 and if you want to, again at various points during the back 9 (whether or not it makes you change your strategy is up to you).
Settle up at the end of the game (and, if you come from where I come from, the winner / winners buy the first round of drinks when you get to the 19th).
Variations
I haven’t heard of any variations to Nassau itself but more the way the bets are handled. Here are some that I’ve played or heard of:
Front 9, back 9, overall game + “units”. The units are for Nearest the Pin on the Par 3s, and the winner is the player or team that had the most NTPs (you could make each NTP count as an individual unit but it potentially becomes worth more than the overall game so possibly best avoided). The units value is equivalent to the 9 hole values. Example bet would be £5-£5-£10 + £5 for the units;
A further variation of Front 9, back 9, overall game + “units” is that units are expanded to include gross birdies or better on holes, and / or other side-bets like ferrets, sandies etc etc. The overall unit count still has a value equivalent to the 9 hole values agreed at the outset;
I have played many a round using the variation above but for extra spice we made the NTPs, birdies, chip-ins for par and sandies individual units and eagles, chip-ins and sandies for birdie or better “double units”. It got a bit squashed up on the scorecard but we figured it out and made it work. It can get expensive as well so be careful!
Another variation I played but didn’t particularly enjoy, was stepping up the bets, so for example front 9 was worth $5 (I wasn’t living in the UK at the time), back 9 was worth $10 and the game was worth $15. Maybe I was bitter because I won the front 9 and lost the back 9 and it cost me money, I don’t know…
One last variation of the bet, and I fell foul of this plenty of times so am definitely not a fan – front 9, back 9, the game + “Presses”. I’m sure they’re called different things in different parts of the world but “presses” are basically “double or quits” so if the game gets to that point where the player / team that are losing cannot see a way that they can win, they “press”, which concedes the bet and starts a new one – doubling the bet for the remaining holes. In the Matchplay variant you could play “automatic presses” which kick in when the losing player / team are more holes down than there are remaining to be played.
NINES
Works best with : 3 players
Format : Strokeplay
Handicap Allowance : Full h/c
Nines is an ideal game for 3-balls.
Before Anyone Tees Off
- Decide the value of each point.
- Decide what happens if there is a tie at the end of the game.
The Play / The Scoring System
- Each hole is worth 9 points, and they are allocated as 5 points for the lowest score, 3 points for the second lowest score and 1 point for the worst score among the three of you.
- If 2 players tie for the best score points are given as 4, 4 and 1.
- If 2 players tie for the worst score points are given as 5, 2 and 2.
- If all three players make the same score points are given as 3, 3 and 3. It always adds up to nine.
Nines is a good, fun game that very often ends with all the scores being quite close together – it is my experience that someone finishing way behind the others is more the exception than the rule – and so the bets, typically, do not get too out of hand.
N.O.S.E. COMPETITION
Works best with : 2 – 4 players
Format : Strokeplay / Stableford
Handicap Allowance : Full h/c
Before Anyone Tees Off
- Decide if you are competing individually or in teams (decide the teams).
- Decide if you are betting only on which team wins or betting per point (decide the value of the points / the win).
- Decide what happens if there is a tie after the 18th hole.
The Play / The Scoring System
Golfers count their scores only on holes that begin with those letters – N, O, S, E. That means holes one, six, seven, eight, nine, eleven, sixteen, seventeen and eighteen (you still play the full course, but only count scores on those holes for your “NOSE” bet / score).
As a tiebreaker, least number of putts on the N.O.S.E. holes is commonly used.
Variations
N.O.S.E. can be used as a side bet, doesn’t have to be the main competition.
T.E.N.T. or F.O.O.T. also work
PICK UP STICKS
aka “Bag Raid”
Works best with : 2 or 4 players
Format : Matchplay
Handicap Allowance : 50% of Full h/c
Pick Up Sticks requires some strategy other than just playing good golf. It’s also quite entertaining.
Before Anyone Tees Off
- Decide if you are competing individually or in teams (decide the teams).
- Decide the bets and side bets.
- Decide what happens if there is a tie after the 18th hole.
The Play / The Scoring System
- For each hole a player / pair loses, they can nominate one club in the winning player’s / pair’s bags to be taken out of play.
- Players can get clubs back into play when they lose a hole, so they gain / regain a club and the winners lose one.
- Clubs can be gained / regained in any order (doesn’t have to be the order the clubs were taken out), and can only be one club at a time.
- Players should decide before the match whether they can take away putters (often the putter is given immunity, because it’s too much of a handicap not to have one).
Variations
Don’t use “stroke” handicaps at all, but instead implement a “club” handicap right from the start – the higher-handicapped player is allowed to remove one club from his opponent’s bag for every two strokes difference in their handicaps.
So if player A has an 8 handicap, and player B has a 14, player B can remove three clubs from player A’s bag.
The game then progresses in the same manner described above, with clubs coming in and out of play with holes won and lost.
SKINS
Works best with : 2 – 4 players
Format : Strokeplay / Stableford
Handicap Allowance : Full h/c
Skins is similar to Matchplay in that players compete for holes (each hole has a monetary value called a “Skin”) rather than counting the total strokes taken, and in Skins, there are no halves or ties. If there is a tie on one hole, the money is carried over to the next hole.
Skins can be played individually within your group or by splitting into two teams.
Before Anyone Tees Off
- Decide the Skin value.
- Decide if you are competing individually or in teams (decide the teams).
- Decide what happens if there is a tie after the 18th hole.
The Play / The Scoring System
Scores are assessed at the end of each hole and the Skin allocated to the player with the lowest score. As mentioned above, if a hole is tied then the Skin is carried over to the next hole and competed for on top of the Skin already in place for that hole. It is not unusual for a number of carry overs of this nature so you could find yourselves competing on a hole for as much as 4 or 5 skins (or more) if two people keep halving holes.
NB : if you are in a 3-ball or a 4-ball a hole does NOT require all of you to tie for it to be treated as halved, it only requires the best 2 scores to be equal.
On a scorecard, keep track of the Skins won by each player and at the end of the round get the total for each player. The player with the lowest total drops to zero, and everyone else by the amount of Skins he had, and then payments are decided from there.
For example:
Player A has 7 Skins, Player B has 3 Skins and Player C has 8 Skins at the end of the game;
Player B has the lowest total so wins nothing. To calculate payouts he drops from 3 Skins to 0, Player A drops by 3 Skins to 4 and Player C drops to 5 Skins;
Player B has to pay Player A and Player C, 4 and 5 Skins respectively, and Player A has to pay Player C, 1 Skin (drinks are on Player C!);
Variations
I haven’t heard of any variations in the Skins game, other than the hole values changing similar to the 6-6-6 format. The amount the Skin was worth for the first 6 holes increased for the next 6 holes and increased again for the final 6 holes.
TROUBLE
aka “Disaster”
Works best with : 1 – 4 players
Format : n/a
Handicap Allowance : n/a
Trouble is a point game in which your actual score isn’t the main focus.
It is also a very good game to play to hone your course management skills.
Before Anyone Tees Off
- Decide if you are competing individually or in teams (decide the teams).
- Decide if you are betting only on which team wins or betting per point (decide the value of the points / the win).
- Decide what happens if there is a tie after the 18th hole.
The Play / The Scoring System
The goal is to avoid the accumulation of “Trouble Points” during your round.
When betting, golfers typically set a price of around £1 per point.
Points are assigned as follows:
- Out of Bounds – 1
- Penalty Areas (Water Hazards etc) – 1
- Bunker – 1
- Leaving ball in Bunker – 2*
- Hitting from one Bunker to another – 2
- 3 putt – 1
- 4 putt – 3
- Air shot – 4
*Take an additional two points each time you leave the ball in.
A player can erase all the points accumulated on a given hole by making a par or better on that hole.
At the end of the round, simply tally each player’s points and settle up accordingly.
Trouble encourages smart golf and might just produce some surprisingly low rounds when you do take a look at your strokes taken.
WOLF / WOLFMAN
Works best with : 4 players (can work with 3)
Format : Strokeplay / Stableford / Matchplay
Handicap Allowance : Full h/c
A really good game to play if you are in a 4-ball because it keeps everyone involved and doesn’t favour a particular handicap level. It can seem a bit confusing at first, but hang in there.
Before Anyone Tees Off
2 things to be agreed :
- the playing order for the first tee shots; and
- the value of each point for this game (typically 50p or £1 a point is plenty).
You need to remember the playing order because it is going to rotate through the group at each subsequent tee. You could go in order of handicap or age or who got to the tee first … it doesn’t matter, just decide the order before anyone tees off.
The person who is due to tee off last is the “Wolf.”
The Play
He, the Wolf, watches the first person tee off and announces whether or not he wants to team up with that player. If he does, then the pairs for that hole are decided. If he doesn’t, however, then the next person tees off and the Wolf gets to decide if he wants to team up with them. If it is still a “no” then the 3rd player tees off and the Wolf decides after seeing where that shot has gone.
NB : the Wolf must announce his decision before the following player tees off or it is deemed to be a “no”, and he cannot change his decision once it is announced.
If the Wolf decides NOT to team up with anyone he becomes the “Lone Wolf” (cue the howling from the rest of the 4-ball … and, no, it never gets old!) and the teams will be 3 against 1 for that hole.
At the next tee, the order of play rotates so that the Wolf from the previous hole goes first, the person who tee’d off first on the last hole drops back to second, second drops to third and the person who was third on the last hole becomes the Wolf for this hole. Repeat all the way round so that everyone gets a turn at being the Wolf.
The Scoring System
The team with the lowest score on the hole wins 1 point each, and the losing team gets 1 point each taken away. It’s important to keep track of the plus points and minus points for each person because the teams change on every hole, remember.
Here’s the gamble if someone decides to go Lone Wolf – he plays the hole against the other three golfers in the group and if he wins, then he receives 3 points (and the others lose 1 point each), BUT if he loses then he gives up 3 points (one to each golfer).
Points are added up at the end of the round and payouts are made.
Variations
- If the Wolf decides to go it alone then the bet for that hole is doubled;
- If the Wolf calls “Lone Wolf” before any shots have been played the bet is tripled for that hole (this usually happens near the end of a round when a player is desperate to get even, but my goodness, I’ve seen it backfire horribly!);
- Play with the Wolf teeing off first which adds a different sort of spice to the decisions that have to be made;
- Allow the Wolf to choose after all the tee shots have been played, but I think it works best when the Wolf decides before the next person plays – it forces the gamble on whether or not the remaining player(s) will hit a good tee shot. This gets particularly interesting on par 3s!;
Side Bets
Air Presses
An “air press” is a bet that a golfer calls against an opponent when the opponent’s tee shot is still in the air and the golfer calling the bet has not played their own drive yet.
Groups that play air presses typically make them automatic so when one is called, it can’t be declined.
For an added twist, “re-presses” (which doubles the bet for that hole) can be allowed as well.
This means, for example Player 2 calls an air press after Player 1 tees off … then when Player 2 tees off Player 1 can call the re-press.
Remember the call must be made while the ball is in the air.
Arnies
Won by scoring a par and never once touching the fairway.
Also called “Seves” (pronounced Sevies, and named after Severiano Ballesteros).
Barkies
Hitting a tree and still making par.
Leaves don’t count : everyone must hear good, solid wood!
The rare “Double Barkie”, worth two points, involves hitting two trees and still making par.
Also called “Woodies”.
Bits / Units
Nearest the Pins on the par 3’s and gross birdies earn you a unit.
There is also a variation which is units as described above, but 3 putts cost you a unit.
Ferrets
A chip-in / hole out from off the green (must be for a par or better).
Hogies / Hogans
To win a Hogie, a golfer must :
- Hit the fairway with his drive;
- Hit the green with his approach shot; and
- 2-putt for par on a hole.
*Hogies can’t be won on par-3s because there is no fairway to hit.
On par-5 holes, a Hogie is earned if the green is hit on either the second or third stroke.
Some players stipulate that Hogies only count when par is made, but I think you should count pars or better as having earned a Hogie.
Murphys
A player off the green (and off the fringe as well) may declare a “Murphy”, whereby he must get up-and-down in 2 shots or less, to win units from each of the other players.
Sandys / Sandies
Getting up-and-down from a bunker and scoring a par or better.
Fairway bunkers are included.
Scruffies
A player hitting an awful tee shot may call a “Scruffy,” which lets him bet a unit against all the other players that he can make a par (gross or net) or better on that hole.
The other players must agree to the bet.
Snakes
Whoever has the most recent 3 putt is deemed to be “holding the Snake.”
The player who is holding the snake at the end of the round has to pay the pre-arranged forfeit (could be an amount of money / they buy the first round of drinks / lunch etc etc).
Splashies
Making par or better after hitting into the water (whether the ball was lost or not).