A regular Thursday round can get a little pointless by the seventh hole if nothing is at stake. Add a small game on top, and suddenly every putt means something. It does not have to be about money. It is about giving the round an edge, keeping everyone in it the whole way around, and making sure the person playing terribly on the front nine still has something to fight for. Here are the rules for the classic golf games, so you can pick one for the next round.
What they all have in common: agree the rules on the first tee, before anyone hits a shot. Arguments about who owed what are rarely fun, and they are even less fun standing on the green at hole 18.
Skins: every hole is its own little battle
Skins is probably the easiest game to pick up. You put a value on each hole, a skin, and the player with the lowest score on that hole wins it. The clever part is what happens when two or more players tie for the lowest score: nobody wins the hole, and that skin rolls over to the next one. Now there are two skins on the next hole, and the tension builds. A hole that has rolled three or four times can end up deciding the whole round in the final stretch, which is exactly why the game is so addictive.
Skins works best in a group of three or four. If you are playing across different levels, use handicap strokes so the person who normally loses every hole still has a real chance. The point is to keep everyone on their toes the whole way around.
Nassau: three games in one
Nassau sounds more complicated than it is. In reality it is just three separate bets rolled into one round: one for the front nine, one for the back nine, and one for the round overall. That means a horrible front nine does not ruin the whole day. You can lose the first nine badly, shake it off, and still win both the back nine and the overall game.
Each of the three bets carries the same value, so there are genuinely three things to play for. Many people add a presses rule: if you are two holes down in one of the games, you can open a new side bet for the remaining holes. That is where it can get both fun and slightly hard to follow, so keep it simple the first time you try it.
Wolf: changing team picks on every tee
Wolf is the game for groups of four, and this is where the tactics come in. On each hole one player is the wolf, and the role rotates so everyone gets a turn. The order of who tees off is fixed for the whole round.
- The wolf tees off last on the hole. After each of the other three has hit a tee shot, the wolf decides whether to take that player as a partner for the hole.
- The decision has to be made immediately. If the wolf wants a partner, it has to happen right after their tee shot, before the next player hits. If the wolf turns down all three, they play the hole alone against the other three.
- Lone wolf is worth more. Playing the hole entirely alone and winning counts double, and some groups even let the wolf declare lone wolf before anyone has hit at all, which is worth even more. High risk, high reward.
Wolf is the most social of the games, because the partnerships keep changing and because there is always a small negotiation going on at the tee. The player who plays sensibly and picks their partners well usually comes out on top.
Pick the game to suit the group
- Mixed levels: skins with handicap strokes, so everyone has a real chance on every hole.
- Two pairs or four evenly matched: wolf, where the rotating teams keep the round alive.
- Someone who often starts slowly: nassau, so a bad front nine does not decide the whole day.
- Just a quick bit of spice: closest-to-pin or longest drive on a single hole.
The easy ones: closest-to-pin, longest drive and Stableford points
If you do not feel like keeping track of a game the whole way around, you can stick to a single side bet. Closest-to-pin is the classic: pick a par 3, and whoever lands their tee shot nearest the flag wins. Drop a ball by the green as a marker so you can see who is leading. Longest drive is the same idea on an open par 4 or par 5: the longest drive on the fairway takes the point. The ball has to be on the fairway to count, otherwise it quickly turns into a contest of who can hit it crooked and far.
If you want something that runs across the whole round without taking over, Stableford points are a good shout. Instead of strokes you collect points per hole, and the most points wins. It is nice because a single nightmare hole does not sink the whole contest, and because it works across different levels. We have written a full guide to how the points are awarded in Stableford explained.
Keep the stakes small and the social side big
The most important advice is probably the most overlooked: keep the amounts small enough that nobody walks away with a bad taste. A game of golf with your friends should be about a fun round and a bit of mutual teasing afterwards, not about someone driving home in a sulk because they lost too much. A low stake, or no money at all and just the bragging rights, keeps the mood good and the round light. It is still more than enough to make it matter when you are standing over a putt to win the hole.
Let Golfsocial keep track of the game
The boring part of a good golf game is keeping score along the way. Who won hole 4, how many skins are on the line now, and what did the front nine actually come to. In Golfsocial you record the score hole by hole, so you can settle the game afterwards without any doubt, and the whole group can see how the round played out. Agree the game on the first tee, play the round, and let the numbers do the talking when you are done. That leaves more time for playing and less for arguing about who owed what.
