Golf course side bets

An alternate way to play is to select new teams on each hole based on the two left-most vs two right-most drives. Then, give each point a dollar. We also had a prop bets, like during the final round, the player with the most two-putts for the round won $1 from each other player. Not most. Golf course side games are games you and your partner or team can play for either points, bragging rights, or money, while you are playing your regular game of. How it works: The group first has to determine on all the side bets to track. Each player that achieves a golf course side bets bet, gets one point. When.

Side Games

Angus wins one Skin. Hole 2 nett scores: Angus: 4, Ben: 4, Charlie: 5, Dan: 7. No Skin awarded, carry-over thus Hole 3 is worth two Skins to the outright winner, and so on. To Play : Set the value for the Rabbit there are only two available to be won in the round. Similar to Skins, it is based on a player winning a hole outright.

The goal is to be holding the Rabbit on either the 9 th or the 18 th hole. Angus captures the Rabbit with the best outright nett score. Hole 2 nett scores: Angus: 4, Ben: 4, Charlie: 5, Dan: 8. Angus retains the Rabbit i. Hole 3 nett scores: Angus: 5, Ben: 4, Charlie: 4, Dan: 6. Angus still retains the rabbit still no outright winner — even though Ben and Charlie beat Angus.

He immediately captures the rabbit. A new Rabbit is available for the back 9. It can then be won starting on the following hole. This introduces the possibility of the Rabbit being loose on the 9 th , in which case, it is lost. Players then have the option of doubling the value of the Rabbit on the back 9. A great game, full of twists and excitement.

Thus, every hole can have different partners. Golf course side bets The player teeing off first is the Wolf. He then watches as each of the other players hit their tee shots. The Wolf has the option to pick one of them as his partner on the hole — but he must choose the player immediately after that player has hit i. If the Wolf decides that none of the other 3 shots were to his liking, he may play the hole alone, against the other three.

If so, then both the Wolf and his partner score 1 point each If they lose, then the Hunters get 1 point each. Ties may be carried over, or erased. A Wolf playing alone receives double the points if he wins, or loses double points to each of the other three players if he loses. In Lone Wolf, the winnings are worth triple but so are losses.

For those truly adventurous or foolhardy , the Lone Wolf may declare his intentions to go it alone before his own tee shot. In this case, all bets are quadrupled. Note: The player in last place after the 16 th hole is usually given the courtesy of being the Wolf on the 17 th and 18 th holes. This game can be played by any number of players, and is based on points.

The beauty of this game is that it puts hackers on an equal footing with scratch players — without handicaps being needed. To Play: There are three points available on each hole. The first player to get his ball on the green gets a point Bingo. Once all balls are on the green, the player whose ball is closest to the pin gets a point Bango.

And the player who is first to hole out gets a point Bongo. Example : Our foursome tees off on a par-4, and everyone outdrives Dan. Angus and Ben both hit their approach shots safely onto the green, but Charlie leaves it just short, on the fringe. We started the Trip playing a Daytona or Las Vegas during the first round.

On each hole, two golfers pair their scores as opposed to add the scores together. Teams rotated every hole, so it over 18 holes there were basically three six-hole matches. Perhaps most importantly, the hole gross scores were foundational scores upon which we could start calculating handicaps for the rest of the trip. The beauty of simultaneously having a gross and net game is that there basically two competitions going on: a gross skins game, basically for the Players, and a net skins game for the larger handicaps, so everyone has something to play for beyond camaraderie.

Plus, it gave the group another 18 holes of individual scores upon which to further refine the handicaps. On a personal note, I may only play Skins Games going forward, because I won 19 of the 36 total skins. Though, there was a lot of pure luck and fortuitous timing on my behalf.

Going into Day Two, we had a pretty good handle on how guys were playing and what were appropriate handicaps for our 3-inning Baseball game at the Brickyard. This game shared similar scoring to a traditional Wolf game, except that partners were predetermined and rotated every 3 holes. Adding a net component meant more complicated math when it came time to tally up the winners and losers, but it also made for a more interesting result where really good play was rewarded.

For the final leg of the golf trip, we decided to set aside our egos and take pity on our weary bodies by playing a two-versus-two rotating Shamble, meaning partners shared their best drive and played their own ball in from there. Given that our drivers were getting more inaccurate as time went on instead of less wayward, this was definitely a strategic victory.

For an added twist during the final round, I unleashed the 3-Putt Challenge: if you 3-putted on a hole, you had to putt left-handed on the subsequent hole s until you no longer 3-putted. Deservedly, my mad genius bit me right in the hind-end, as I was the only one who 3-putted with Billy Barroo, which meant I got to repeat the experience on the next hole, too!

To set this game up properly, I borrowed an old Northwestern J. Snead double-sided putter, which we aptly named Billy Baroo for the trip, to allow truly painful left-handed putting. The gimmick, which was designed to keep the guys interested and focused at the end of two long days, was definitely a hit with the guys. Billy Baroo provided a bit of comic relief too, as on several occasions, someone would hit a good drive and a good approach, only to be reminded that the impending birdie putt would be made with antique equipment from the wrong side of the ball on the fastest greens we played all week.

For all the planning and worrying about the gambling games and making sure things were fair across the skill spectrum, things pretty much magically worked out. Not most two or fewer putts, but the most actual two-putts. Definitely lead to some interesting strategery. Luckily, no one had to pull out the large bills to pay any gambling losses this year.

Fittingly, the best player in our group won the Inaugural Cup Challenge, but it came down to the final hole, where instead of applying pressure, I choked by wasting the best drive of the day with a flared 6-iron into a greenside bunker. Overall, I firmly believe the variety of bets and games worked. I hope this little recap will help you, Dear Readers, should you ever need to come up with ideas on how to make or keep golf competitive between players of very different skill levels while being fair to the better golfers of the group.

It made for a fantastic trip for our gang, and raised the bar for fun on our annual golf excursions. Those are some great ideas for a group of players with a wide spread of handicaps. Thanks Josh.