Something the Wolf can also do is blindly bet on themselves before a tee shot is even struck on a hole, which doubles the bet or point total. The Wolf golf game is a format for four golfers. The golfers are arranged into a different team for each hole. On one side is the Wolf. A classic betting game played in a foursome, Wolf is all about strategy. Before golf betting games wolf starts, players must determine a permanent driving order. In our game of Three Man Wolf, every hole is worth six points. On every hole, the game is a 2-vs-1 Best Ball competition where if the Wolf, or.
If Player 1 and either Player 2 or Player 3 tie for the best score on the hole, they all get two points for that hole. Scenario 2: Player 1 hits his shot and does not declare Lone Wolf, which means he is committed to accepting a teammate, and can, at best, win three points for that hole. After Player 2 hits his shot, but before Player 3 hits his shot, Player 1 must decide if he wants Player 2 as his teammate against yet-to-hit Player 3.
If Player 1 chooses Player 2, then they are teammates, eligible of splitting the 6 points three per person, against a solo Player 3, who will have the opportunity to win all 6 possible points. Scenario 3: Player 1 hits his shot and does not declare Lone Wolf, and after Player 2 hits his shot, Player 1 rejects Player 2 as a teammate.
They are teammates, eligible of splitting the 6 points three per person, against a solo Player 2, who will have the opportunity to win all 6 possible points. Thus, we played Three Man Wolf as a net game only. I might not make Three Man Wolf a winner-take-all game next time around. The allocation of strokes to the lesser skilled players adds an additional factor to the selection of teammates, as a higher handicap player receiving strokes against one or two of the other players is certainly an attractive theoretical option on any hole, but especially so on a par 3 hole.
The order on the tee remains on a fixed rotation in a normal Wolf game, with players changing the order of who tees off first, second, third and last on each successive hole in a consistent rotation. One issue we found was that any given routing could produce an inequitable distribution of holes on any given nine or 18 holes.
For instance, we played this game on the back nine at Pine Needles G. Player 2 was the hole captain on three par fours, while Player 3 got two par fours and a par five on which to be the decision maker. In the future, I would consider arbitrarily assigning hole captains irrespective of the sequential order to try to mix up the distribution of hole types to create more equity and interest, i.
The greatest variation of them all was something I added to specifically encourage reckless risk-taking and additional excitement: the Blind Wolf option. On each hole, the hole captain Player 1 had the election to go Wolf, playing his own ball against the team of his two competitors before hitting his own shot, a move known as going Blind Wolf for players of the Spades card game, this is essentially going blind nil.
Why would anyone engage in this kind of insanity. Because it was worth triple points. The allure of accumulating 18 points in one fell swoop was too exciting for some golf degenerates to pass up, adding an extra layer of intrigue to the decision making, allowing for wild swings in scoring, strategy, and momentum.
However, if you think through the base statistical probabilities, if a player were to successfully pull off the Blind Wolf challenge one out of three times or two out of six is playing a full 18 hole match , they would break even with their competitors. Thus, if can win a Blind Wolf option two of three times for nine holes, or simply 3 times of 6 possible in an hole match, he will have gain a significant point advantage over the other two competitors, assuming they have not engaged in the same all-or-nothing strategy.
Especially if playing a net game with accurate stroke allocations, the opportunity costs of NOT going Blind Wolf are pretty high. Part of the beauty of our Three Man Wolf match was playing it later in the week within a larger team competition. Golf betting games wolf By the time we engaged in the Wolf matches, we knew roughly that our three-team competition had become a two-team race.
That kind of secondary motivation, the constant, fluid score-keeping calculus is the real joy, for me, of this Wolf game. So, no lay ups in Wolf, go for broke, ahem, well you know what we mean. At the end of the round, the points are totaled and the differences are paid out. Four players teeing off on set holes means two holes Nos.
So who should tee off first. Well, the answer is really up to you, but typically the final two holes are reserved for the golfer in last place to be the Wolf. The divorce rule gives the player selected by the Wolf the option to divorce the team; meaning they would rather go it alone than partner with the Wolf. When a divorce is called, the hole is set as a 1-vs-3 match and double points are on the line.
Wolf is a game of self-confidence as much as it is a game of strategy. The biggest winners in Wolf are usually the ones who take the most risk and go it alone as often as possible. So why not go big. Because Wolf is played using full handicaps, partnering with a player who gets a stroke on a hole is an easy way to earn points.
For instance, we played this game on the back nine at Pine Needles G. Player 2 was the hole captain on three par fours, while Player 3 got two par fours and a par five on which to be the decision maker. In the future, I would consider arbitrarily assigning hole captains irrespective of the sequential order to try to mix up the distribution of hole types to create more equity and interest, i.
The greatest variation of them all was something I added to specifically encourage reckless risk-taking and additional excitement: the Blind Wolf option. On each hole, the hole captain Player 1 had the election to go Wolf, playing his own ball against the team of his two competitors before hitting his own shot, a move known as going Blind Wolf for players of the Spades card game, this is essentially going blind nil.
Why would anyone engage in this kind of insanity. Because it was worth triple points. The allure of accumulating 18 points in one fell swoop was too exciting for some golf degenerates to pass up, adding an extra layer of intrigue to the decision making, allowing for wild swings in scoring, strategy, and momentum.
However, if you think through the base statistical probabilities, if a player were to successfully pull off the Blind Wolf challenge one out of three times or two out of six is playing a full 18 hole match , they would break even with their competitors. Thus, if can win a Blind Wolf option two of three times for nine holes, or simply 3 times of 6 possible in an hole match, he will have gain a significant point advantage over the other two competitors, assuming they have not engaged in the same all-or-nothing strategy.
Especially if playing a net game with accurate stroke allocations, the opportunity costs of NOT going Blind Wolf are pretty high. Part of the beauty of our Three Man Wolf match was playing it later in the week within a larger team competition. By the time we engaged in the Wolf matches, we knew roughly that our three-team competition had become a two-team race.
That kind of secondary motivation, the constant, fluid score-keeping calculus is the real joy, for me, of this Wolf game. There was an added level of pressure created within the game because of what the results meant to the larger competition outcome. For example, had I been able to amass a small lead within our match, I could have chosen to play defense with partner selections.
Three Man Wolf also adds intrigue to whomever ends up being eliminated from winning first. Though that player might be out of the money for the overall competition or within the Wolf match, his play could very well determine the winner. As a group, we went through dozens of hypothetical situations that put players to uncomfortable decisions, where loyalties would have been questioned, integrity tested, and significant pressure applied to simply do the right thing.
Therein lies the beauty of the game, for me. Putting pressure on players not only to play and score well on each hole, but to make the correct structural decisions within the confines of the overall match, and perhaps even a larger competition. It will remain a mainstay of our trips for however as long as we continue to have a number of players that threesomes continue to make sense.
What we found, in practice, is that once someone attempts to go Blind Wolf, if they are successful, they basically force their competitors to try to keep up. The triple points are almost too much to make up through normal scoring means. Unfortunately, that takes a little bit of the strategy and drama out of the decision making, because the math is pretty simple: go big or go home.