Golf side game
How to play Low ball / high ball
For a foursome, in two teams of two.
How it works
Player 1 and the partner picked in setup play the other two, everyone playing their own ball. Each hole has two points: the low ball, each team’s better score against the other team’s better score, and the high ball, each team’s worse score against the other’s worse. The lower score wins each point, and a tie is no point.
The money
On each hole, each player on the team that takes more points wins the difference from a player on the other team ($1 a point to start). Both points is worth 2; a point each is a push.
Extra points
- Third point for the low total (off to start): the team whose two scores add up to less wins another point.
- A birdie doubles the low ball (off to start): a real birdie or better that wins the low ball makes it worth 2.
Handicaps
Net (the default), with full handicaps or off the low player, or gross. A hole counts once all four have scores.
Example
Ann and Bo make 4 and 6, Cy and Di make 5 and 5. Ann’s 4 wins the low ball, but Cy and Di’s 5 beats Bo’s 6 for the high ball: a point each, a push. On the next hole Ann and Bo make 4 and 5 against 5 and 6: both points, $2 each.
This is how Putt for Dough plays it; setup changes the amounts. Free, with no account: one phone keeps score, everyone follows the money live, and settling up is a tap.
More games
- Nassau For 2 to 6 players, one on one, or two teams of two in a foursome.
- Skins For 2 to 6 players.
- Banker For 2 to 6 players.
- Wolf For a foursome.
- Vegas For a foursome, in two teams of two.
- Stroke play For 2 to 6 players.
- Stableford For 2 to 6 players.
- Dots For 2 to 6 players, on top of any game.
- Birdies For 2 to 6 players, on top of any game.
- Sixes For a foursome. Also called Round Robin or Hollywood.
- Bingo Bango Bongo For 2 to 6 players.
- Nines For a threesome. Also called 5-3-1.
- Team skins For a foursome, in two teams of two.
- Team stroke play For a foursome, in two teams of two.