Golf games and side bets...

[Smoothie]

Wondering what are some of everyone's most popular games to play in a foursome. I'm playing in a wedding party foursome and wanted to organize some type of game or side bet instead of just playing and scoring our own ball. The only game I know of would be a 2man scamble, what are some other easy games that a foursome can play. We vary in ability from a someone who shoots in the low 80's to the 100-110 range.
Thanks!

[Indio]

Wondering what are some of everyone's most popular games to play in a foursome. I'm playing in a wedding party foursome and wanted to organize some type of game or side bet instead of just playing and scoring our own ball. The only game I know of would be a 2man scamble, what are some other easy games that a foursome can play. We vary in ability from a someone who shoots in the low 80's to the 100-110 range.
Thanks!

Plenty of good games to play.....

Split 6 - Each player plays with a different player against the other 2 for 6 holes.

Wolf - ech player takes a turn teeing off first and picks who his playing partner for that hole will be after each drives (but can't pick a player once another player hits)

Long/Short - the long ball and short ball on each hole play together.

I have a great game that used to play often. It is a deck of golf cards and the aim of the game is not to have any of them at the endo fo the round. There are 8 cards (hit a tree - In Water - Out of bounds - In the woods - 3 Putt - In the sand - not past ladies tee - can't remember the other) at the end of the round, you give each other player $ for each card you have. If you have all of them, it costs you double.

[Txxxxxxx]

I play NASA. Wager for the front nine, wager for the back nine, and one for the overall. You can pretty much set the bets at whatever you want. We used to play $25 for the front, $50 for the back, and $25 for the overall. You use your handicap for this one too so if I am a 3 and play against a 10, I have to give him a stroke on the 7 hardest holes on the course.

[Hacker]

I play NASA. Wager for the front nine, wager for the back nine, and one for the overall. You can pretty much set the bets at whatever you want. We used to play $25 for the front, $50 for the back, and $25 for the overall. You use your handicap for this one too so if I am a 3 and play against a 10, I have to give him a stroke on the 7 hardest holes on the course.

Whatever happened to the days of the $2 NASA??!!??

[faldo]

nassau....Please

[Kilroy]

Golf Games - Individual Games

Golf Games for Twosomes, Threesomes and Foursomes

[mberube]

Bingo Bango Bongo is an exalent game to play when diferent calibers play together. There is no advantage to the better player unless he is a dart thrower on every shot.

Points are earned as follows:
First ball on the green (Bingo): 1 point
Closest to the pin once everyone is on the green (Bango): 1 point (this includes chipping)
First ball in the hole (Bongo): 1 point (Longest putt holed out)
The player that is the furthest away must play first. First on, closest to the pin, and first in, determines who wins on each hole.

Very amusing and takes the edge off the final scores for the high handicap players.

Mike

[jeffc]

Wolf is an excellent game.

http://golf.about.com/cs/chichirodri...hichi_wolf.htm

[4jag]

Best game around.

Played as 3 corners of 6 holes - each player is partnered with one of the other 3 for 6 holes.

Points are won based on score differential as follows... Me and my partner each make 4 and the other team makes a 5 and a 6. We'd win 12 points on the hole (56 - 44).

If we are 3 & 8 and they are 3 & 4 ... they'd win 4 points (38 - 34).

However if a player makes a birdie, the other team must count their high score first e.g. Birdie 3 & 4 vs. 4 & 8 .... 84 - 34 = 50 points.

Each points is a quarter but don't forget that every point lost is to BOTH of the other players so the 50 points above is actually 100 quarters or $25 for one hole! Rare but it happens. Team strategy comes into play - if your partner is 3 off the tee you'd better make par or bogey at worst to minimize the damage.
Or if the other team is looking at birdie, you'd better make that par putt because every stroke will cost you and your partner 10 points or $5.

Can be played with handicaps but only natural birdies flip the score.

["Richard"]

Whatever happened to the days of the $2 NASA??!!??

inflation?

[Wilster]

Best game around.

Played as 3 corners of 6 holes - each player is partnered with one of the other 3 for 6 holes.

Points are won based on score differential as follows... Me and my partner each make 4 and the other team makes a 5 and a 6. We'd win 12 points on the hole (56 - 44).

If we are 3 & 8 and they are 3 & 4 ... they'd win 4 points (38 - 34).

However if a player makes a birdie, the other team must count their high score first e.g. Birdie 3 & 4 vs. 4 & 8 .... 84 - 34 = 50 points.

Each points is a quarter but don't forget that every point lost is to BOTH of the other players so the 50 points above is actually 100 quarters or $25 for one hole! Rare but it happens. Team strategy comes into play - if your partner is 3 off the tee you'd better make par or bogey at worst to minimize the damage.
Or if the other team is looking at birdie, you'd better make that par putt because every stroke will cost you and your partner 10 points or $5.

Can be played with handicaps but only natural birdies flip the score.

Man , i've enough to concentrate on with out all these extras, like tryin gto find my ball in the trees and stuff. It sounds fun but it might take a few rounds to figure out what the scores are for each team.
Bingo , bango , bongo sounds like it would be a blast.

["Richard"]

I just give dan and geoff my money, no point doing these side bets

[Hacker]

A buddy of mine and I always play my father and one of his golfing buddies in a 2 man best ball match every summer. We've come up on the short end of the stick 7 years in a row. This year my buddy drives to PEI, knock on the ol' man's door, hand him $75 bucks and says "See ya next year" and then leaves........true story.

We did play that match and ended up owing them $80 each - you couldn't have wiped the grin of my father's face with a 2x4

[Shivas Irons]

Bingo Bango Bongo is an exalent game to play when diferent calibers play together.

I second this - if you have a wide range of playing abilities, it keeps the weaker players in the game.

[Hacker]

I second this - if you have a wide range of playing abilities, it keeps the weaker players in the game.

Only if everyone is playing their ball seriously....I've seen guys basically tap their ball up to the fringe so that they could hit a short chip for the Bango point......I've seen the same guys nudge putts until they are just further out than the secord farthest ball to have the best chance at the Bongo point.

Talk about messing up a round of golf

[Kilroy]

Playing that way could (should?) be considered cheating.

[Hacker]

I agree Dan it should be considered cheating

[Txxxxxxx]

inflation?

LOL! It depends on who you play with I guess. I play with guys who make over $100,000 a year so $100 here and there is nothing.

[4jag]

Man , i've enough to concentrate on with out all these extras, like tryin gto find my ball in the trees and stuff. It sounds fun but it might take a few rounds to figure out what the scores are for each team.
Bingo , bango , bongo sounds like it would be a blast.

It's not hard to score but it involves some math skill after the round to calculate the final amounts owing. Each player will end up with a different number of points won so you have to calulate all the differences to figure who is up and who is down and then hope it balances.

We usually play vegas corners as well as a $5 nassau and lately we've added a poker game:

$5 ante gets you your first card.
Each 1 putt gets you another card.
Each 3 putt and you pay $2 to the pot.
Best poker hand after 18 wins the pot.

The last two winners have been a full house and a straight to the Q.

[4jag]

Anyone know of any good 3 player games?

We usually play the 9 point game. Low score on the hole gets 5, second gets 3 and high gets 1 (or other combinations adding to 9 depending on the net scores ... 4, 4, 1 or 5, 2, 2 or 3,3,3 ).

I heard you can play a variation of wolf only 3 players. Any other games for threesomes (golf games ).

[mberube]

In this months edition of Golf Digest I read about a new game. It’s called Chicago. It’s a game of 39 point minus your handicap. Lets say you have a 5 HDCP and your playing partners have 7, 10, and 15 HDCP. Each player subtracts their HDCP from 39. That gives me 34 points and 32, 29 and 24 points for may playing partners.

The goal is to finish the round with the least amount of points possible.

Points go like this:

Dbl Bogey = 0 point
Bogey = 1 point
Par = 2 points
Bird = 3 points
Eagle = 4 points

Every point you make, you subtract from your total.

At the end, $1 per point is paid to the player that finished in front of you:

Player1 = -1 points (makes $25)
Player2 = 3 points (owes $4 to player1)
Player3 = 7 points (owes $8 to player1 and $4 to player2)
Player4 = 12 points (owes $13 to player1, $9 to player2 and $5 to player3)

HDCP are in play so this makes it fair for everyone.

Side game: BMW (*, whine and moan) If the player complains about a shot but the result was good, you can yell BMW. The shot does not count and the player must re-hit his shot. This is especially interesting if the player blades his chip, hits the pin and drops in the hole. Makes the game a little more interesting.

Mike

[Hank Hill]

In this months edition of Golf Digest I read about a new game. It’s called Chicago. It’s a game of 39 point minus your handicap. Lets say you have a 5 HDCP and your playing partners have 7, 10, and 15 HDCP. Each player subtracts their HDCP from 39. That gives me 34 points and 32, 29 and 24 points for may playing partners.

The goal is to finish the round with the least amount of points possible.

Points go like this:

Dbl Bogey = 0 point
Bogey = 1 point
Par = 2 points
Bird = 3 points
Eagle = 4 points

Every point you make, you subtract from your total.

At the end, $1 per point is paid to the player that finished in front of you:

Player1 = -1 points (makes $25)
Player2 = 3 points (owes $4 to player1)
Player3 = 7 points (owes $8 to player1 and $4 to player2)
Player4 = 12 points (owes $13 to player1, $9 to player2 and $5 to player3)

HDCP are in play so this makes it fair for everyone.

Side game: BMW (*, whine and moan) If the player complains about a shot but the result was good, you can yell BMW. The shot does not count and the player must re-hit his shot. This is especially interesting if the player blades his chip, hits the pin and drops in the hole. Makes the game a little more interesting.

Mike

I tried that (just with my own HCP and score) just for fun and managed a final score of 1, so I was pretty pleased.

[Hank Hill]

Played a side game in a round with my mother-in-law and her brother.

A very simple putting skins game (25c from each player per skin).

Same as a regular skins game but only for putts, so if I one putt and my 3 FCs two putt or worse they all owe me 25c, if 2 players tie the low putt total for a hole it gets carried over until someone wins. A good game as players of all levels can play each other. My mother-in-law usually chips on so is usually quite close therefore putting a bit of pressure on me to one or two putt from where my approach shot lands on the green.

25c is a good amount that the most anyone can win is only $4.50 from each player so it stays fun.

[Golfbum]

Played a side game in a round with my mother-in-law and her brother.

A very simple putting skins game (25c from each player per skin).

Same as a regular skins game but only for putts, so if I one putt and my 3 FCs two putt or worse they all owe me 25c, if 2 players tie the low putt total for a hole it gets carried over until someone wins. A good game as players of all levels can play each other. My mother-in-law usually chips on so is usually quite close therefore putting a bit of pressure on me to one or two putt from where my approach shot lands on the green.

25c is a good amount that the most anyone can win is only $4.50 from each player so it stays fun.

What a great game, this one gives every handicap a chance to win some coin!

[priorlad]

We've been playing a lot of 6420 in our group lately. Low score wins 6 points each hole. 2nd low score wins 4 points each hole. 3rd low score wins 2 points each hole. high score gets 0 points each hole. 12 points awarded each hole. If all tie, 3 points each. If two tie for low, 5 points each. If 3 tie for low 4 points each. If two tie low and two tie high 5 / 5 / 1 / 1 points. We have found this to be a good game that rewards good play on a hole, and punishes bad play on a hole.

If you are in a threesome, you can play 420, with 6 points awarded each hole.