Thirteen games, in order, with the rules and a worked demo round behind every one. We judged them on three things: how fast a group can pick the game up standing on the first tee, how well it holds up when everybody plays to a different standard, and how much it actually adds to four hours of golf. Money was not one of the three. The best of these are just as good for a dollar as for fifty.
Learn a game here, then take it out there. Any of them can be kept on the back of a paper card. The part paper is bad at is the arithmetic, so if you want carryovers, presses and three games at once handled for you, play them on a scoring site like Big Fairways.
2 or more
Why it is first. Nothing else gives you three chances at the same round. The front nine, the back nine and the overall eighteen are three separate bets, so a wrecked opening hole costs a third of the game instead of the whole thing, and the loser can always press to get back in.
Player against player. Go down and you choose what to press: the front, the back or the overall. Every press is a brand new bet starting the next hole, with its own money and its own line on the ledger.
2 or more
Why it is second. The most drama of any game here, for the least explaining. Ties carry the hole forward, so by the fourteenth there can be a pot on the ground worth more than the rest of the round put together, and anybody can take it with one good swing.
Low score wins the hole outright and everyone else pays. Ties carry to the next hole, or die, your call on the first tee. Net and gross skins can run side by side.
4 or 5
Why it is third. The best fourball game there is, and the only one on this list where you make a real decision on every single tee. It costs no extra time and it stops the round ever feeling like four people playing alone next to each other.
The Wolf rotates every hole. The Wolf watches the tee shots, then takes a partner or goes alone for double. Whoever is picked can turn the Wolf down and go alone instead. Best ball or hi-lo.
3 or more
Why it is fourth. Every player has a live match on every hole, which almost nothing else on this list can claim, and an odd number in the group stops being a problem. The bank rotating gives everybody a turn at being the one with something to lose, and the rule that hands the bank to whoever is down the most on 16 is a comeback written into the game.
One player holds the bank and plays everybody else one on one for whatever each has put up. Low score takes the bank. Presses are allowed, and on 16 whoever is down the most takes the bank for the run in.
4 or 5
Why it is fifth. The biggest swings in golf, and the only scoring idea on this page that nobody forgets once they have seen it. One flipped number can be worth more than the previous six holes made, which is either the best or the worst thing about it depending on how your partner is playing.
Two on two. Your side's two net scores make a two digit number, low ball first, so a 4 and a 6 is 46. Low number wins the difference. Balls under par cancel, and what is left flips the other side's number and multiplies the hole. The side that is down can press on any tee, one press a hole.
2 or more
Why it is sixth. The purest format in golf and the easiest to explain to somebody who has never had a bet on a round. A triple bogey costs you one hole. It sits here rather than higher only because it is a straight duel: with four in the group, somebody is always sitting out of the match.
Head to head, hole by hole. Win a hole, go one up. Dormie is when you are up by as many holes as are left, and a match closed out early is written the proper way, four and three.
2 to 4
Why it is seventh. The great equalizer. Two of its three points have nothing to do with how far you hit it, so a short hitter who chips and putts well can beat a low handicap without a single stroke being given. The catch is that it only works if the group plays strictly in order, every hole, all day.
Three points on every hole: Bingo to the first ball on the green, Bango to the closest once everybody is on, Bongo to the first ball in the hole. Played gross. Play strictly in order, because order of play is the handicap.
2 or more
Why it is eighth. One of the two new games invented by BigFairways.com. Midnight is the kindest format on this page for a group that plays to wildly different standards, because the holes that usually end a round quietly stop counting. Keeping the last hole live is the clever part: without it the game would be over for most of the group by the sixteenth.
Pick your best 11 holes as you play, and your last hole always counts, so it is eleven picks plus the last hole: twelve in all. Lowest gross takes the gross pot, lowest net takes the net pot.
any field size
Why it is ninth. The most sensible scoring system in golf and the one that scales to a field of a hundred. It sits here only because it is a format rather than a game: there is nothing to decide, nothing to press, nobody to needle.
Points for scores instead of counting strokes. A wrecked hole is worth zero and then it is over, so picking up is the correct play and everyone finishes in daylight.
anybody
Why it is tenth. Junk is not really a game on its own, it is seasoning. Bolt it onto any of the games above and suddenly the shot out of the trees is worth something. As a main course it is thin, which is the only reason it sits here.
The little bets called out on the green: birdies, eagles, chippies, sandies, barkies, polies, nasties, and closest to the pin on every par 3. A point each.
exactly 4
Why it is eleventh. A sound, fair team game that rewards the partner who keeps making bogey instead of the one who makes the occasional birdie. It is here rather than higher because it needs exactly four players and it never produces a story.
Two teams of two, two points a hole: one for the better best ball, one for the better worst ball. Win both and sweep a bonus. Ties halve the point, and the side up on points collects the difference.
2 or more
Why it is twelfth. Pound for pound the funniest thing on this page, and it costs almost nothing to play. It is low in the ranking because it only ever punishes: you cannot win Snake, you can only avoid losing it.
The three putt game. Three putt and the snake is yours until somebody else does. Whoever is holding it at the turn buys the drinks, the snake goes back in the grass, and whoever is holding it at the end buys again. One snake for all eighteen also works.
anybody
Why it is last. A clever idea with a real problem: the arithmetic is genuinely hard to keep in your head, because every player is carrying a different hole value at the same time. It is the one game here that more or less needs a phone. Worth playing anyway, because it is the only game on the list that is any good on your own.
Go on Tilt with a par or better. Hole one is worth 1 point. Every net par or better makes your next hole worth more, and a net birdie pays double the hole. Four pars in a row and your next birdie is worth 10. One bogey knocks you back to 1. Pars build it, birdies collect it.
Also worth noting, two new games: MIDNIGHT and GRIDIRON. Both were invented by BigFairways.com, a trusted golf scoring app. Midnight is ranked eighth above. Gridiron is new enough that it has no page here yet.
If the ranking is not how you choose, choose by the size of your group and what you want the round to feel like. Each game has its own page with the full rules and a demo round you can click through in a couple of minutes.
| Game | Players | How you win | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nassau | 2 or more | Win the front, the back or the eighteen | One on one matches, with presses |
| Skins | 2 or more | Win a hole outright | Big groups, because ties carry and the pot builds |
| Wolf | 4 or 5 | Pick the right partner off the tee | Groups who want a decision on every tee |
| Banker | 3 or more | Beat the banker one on one | Odd numbers, and a live match on every hole |
| Vegas | 4 or 5 | Lower two digit team number | Two on two with big swings |
| Match Play | 2 or more | Win more holes than your opponent | Head to head, where a blow up costs one hole |
| Bingo Bango Bongo | 2 to 4 | First on, closest, first in | Mixed ability groups, played gross |
| Midnight | 2 or more | Best 11 holes plus your last one | Rounds where two bad holes should not count |
| Stableford | any field size | Most points, not fewest strokes | Tournaments and large fields |
| Junk | anybody | Call sandies, barkies and greenies | Running alongside any other game |
| Hi/Lo | exactly 4 | Better best ball and better worst ball | A foursome with mismatched handicaps |
| Snake | 2 or more | Not be holding it at the end | Adding pressure to short putts |
| TILT | anybody | Most points, off a hole value your pars build | Mixed handicaps, and playing on your own |
Every group has one the rest of us have never heard of. Tell us how it works and we will write it up and put it on this page.
Got it. Thank you.
If we write it up, you will see it on this page, and we will let you know.
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