Typical/Common "Games" Played

[darom86]

Waiting for the season here (this snow every few days needs to stop for starters) - just joined a club.  Curious what to expect if I've been told there's always "a good game" to be found on weekend mornings in terms of format - skins, nassau, etc.?  I guess what are common game formats (and wagering amounts) you've seen at clubs with a regular group of players?  The weekday men's league group gets together one day after work for a skins game ($20 buy in) organized by the shop - I am sure there are additional side games . . .   

[philleeeeep]

The standard game amongst my golf buddies is nassau ($10 on front, $10 on back, $20 overall). We just team up and play 2v2 matchplay.

 

 

[RichieHunt]

Orange Tree in Florida has a very fun 'Scratch Game.'  Lots of rules go into it, but it's wildly popular as it's been around since 1972 and they play it every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

 

Some basic rules:

 

-  They use all of the tee boxes for the variety of golfers and you're more likely to be moved up a tee box or two than what you normally play.  This helps keep the scores low (Orange Tree is difficult) and gives even higher handicaps the chance of shooting 75 or better.  The tee boxes are dependent firstly on age and secondly by handicap.

 

- They typically do 4-man teams (sometimes they'll have a 5-man team if they have too many players).  They keep track of scores of each player and then they divide the players into A (best players) group, B group, C group and D group.  About 30 minutes before teeing off, the A players go into the conference room which has a TV hooked up to a computer to show the players and they pick the players.  The worst A player picks first in the first round of picks and then picks first again in the 2nd round.  Then the best A player picks first in the final round.

 

- So, 4 man teams with the 2 ball best score.  However, you keep score with relation to par for each hole.  The reason being is that ALL birdies and eagles count.  There's no handicaps involved here.  But the tees are moved so far up for players that even D players can make quite a few birdies.  So if you go birdie, par, bogey, double...that's -1 under for the hole.  But if you go birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie, the team has played the hole at -4 under par.

 

-  There is also a game called 'whip outs' where if a player makes a birdie on a hole, the rest of the players on his team owe him $1 a piece (eagles do not count more).  So if you make a birdie on a hole and the rest of your team does not, you get $3 for that hole.  However, if you and one other teammate make a birdie, you and that teammate each get $2 that is paid out by the other team members.  Some people don't like the whip outs, but it's a fair way to the better players who often have to carry the lesser players, particularly some of the old guys that won't play in the individual skins game.

 

-  From there, there's money for the following:

1)  Low team score on front 9

2)  Low team score on back 9

3)  Low team score total

4)  Greenies on each of the par-3's

5)  Team skins (your team score on a hole)

 

Then there's individual skins game that is $5 that is not mandatory to play.  However, you basically have to declare that you're not playing in the skins *ever* to encourage people to play in skins.

 

I think the most one can lose is $38/person (so $152 per team).  But if you do not score any points, you and your team basically played horrendous.  Very tough to lose all of your $38.  

 

And you'd be surprised how some teams win despite having a weak looking roster compared to some teams that look unbeatable.

 

 

 

 

 

RH