Golf side game
How to play Team skins
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. On each hole the team with the better ball wins the skin: its better score has to beat the other team’s better score, and be par or better.
Ties carry over
A tie carries the skin to the next hole, and so does a hole where the better ball is worse than par, so the next skin won is worth two, and so on. Skins still carrying after the last hole aren’t won by anyone.
The money
Each player on the team that wins a skin gets what it’s worth from a player on the other team ($2 a skin to start). A real birdie adds $2 to each skin it wins, and an eagle or better adds $5 to each: a birdie that wins 3 skins at $2 is 3 × $4 = $12 each.
Choices
- Ties carry over (on to start). Off, a tie and nobody wins that skin.
- Par or better to win (on to start). Off, the better ball wins whatever it is.
- What a birdie and an eagle add. $0 adds nothing.
- Birdie and eagle money on each skin (to start) or once, however many skins it wins.
Handicaps
Net (the default), with full handicaps or off the low player, or gross. Played net, a net par or better wins, but the birdie and eagle money is for real birdies and eagles. A hole counts once all four have scores and the holes before it are decided.
Example
Hole 1: everyone makes par, a tie, and the skin carries. Hole 2: Ann birdies, and her 3 beats Cy and Di’s 4: Ann and Bo win 2 skins with a birdie, 2 × ($2 + $2) = $8 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.
- Low ball / high ball For a foursome, in two teams of two.
- Nines For a threesome. Also called 5-3-1.
- Team stroke play For a foursome, in two teams of two.