Golf Trip Gambling Games

Hey fellas, our big golf trip is coming up in May and the organizer asked me to help out with the gambling side of it. We are looking for ideas/games/bets that we can play. I'm really just brainstorming ideas here. We are not talking large dollar amounts here, just a little extra to keep some interest.

We play 5 rounds of golf, over 3 days. 18 on Sunday, 36 on Monday, 36 on Tuesday. The handicaps range from 5 to 38. We have 16 golfers.

Last year we had a skins game during one of the rounds, closet to the pin and long drives for another, and a 4 man scramble (winner take all).

Any ideas for me?

We've done $5 a stroke for each you get beat by to the player in front of you. That gets everyone into it, and the best players won't always win, its almost r 2random. Cap the amount though, or go $1 or $2

You can do a blind draw two man best ball, or combined score. You can make your groups and blind draw for teams when you get finished. Put 20 into the pot and winner take all or 70/30 split.

Another idea is make fair teams and play 3 balls for each group, and skins.

Quota is also a good game. The quota starts at 36 and you try to make your points. Scoring is as follows. Eagle 5 points, birdie 3 points, par two points, bogey, 1 point, double bogey or worse 0 points. You subtract your handicap from 36 to find how many points you have to make. If you are a 10, then you have to make 26 points. If you score 30 points for the day, then you +4 over your quota. The winner is the person that scored the most points over their quota.

Have fun

Quota is a good game, I will have to look into that one.

Any others?

The group of 15 or so guys i play off and on with took a trip together in february. We do this thing we call "the junk" where everyone throws in 10 bucks (or whatever amount you want) before the start of the round. We then play what amounts to a 15 man skins game. Only pars or better can stand. at the end of the round, somebody computes all of the scores, and it you had the lowest score on one particular hole - you win a skin.

The pot is evenly divided amoung all of the skins won. We had an entire pot go to one skin and one guy last year (like 170 bucks i think) last year, so you can get a really big payoff if you have one great hole.

Bingle, Bangle, Bongle - Point system = one point for the first player to reach the green, one point for the closest approach shot to the hole, one point for the first player in the cup. Player with most points wins.

Flag Tournament - with handicaps in force, players play golf until they've exceeded the number over par per their handicap. The player who plays the most holes wins.

Low ball/Low Total - One point for the low individual score per hole, one point for the low team score per hole. Individual with most points wins, Team with most points wins.

(Handicapped) Blind 9-hole Tournament - Play all 18, then take the scores from only 9 of those holes - use the same 9 for all players. Any nine, doesn't have to be in order. Two winners -Low net wins, Low gross wins.

Scotch Foursome - Stroke play - Team members play ONE ball, alternating shots. Low net wins.

A word of warning. Quota, 36 points, etc is a tough game with someone near 36. A few good holes for them and they have a good shot at winning. I was +17 once when I was a 36 handicap. We didn't play that game for a while.

Some decent games we play for 4-man teams. Make 4 flights based on handicap. Place an A, B, C & D player on each team. Randomly draw teams each day. Keep teams for an end of day scramble. A/C B/D net (or scratch) better ball - take best score between the a/c player and add it to the best score for b/d player. This equals team score for the hole. 2, 3 or 4 man net (or scratch) points - subtract strokes as they lay and assign point value to them. 1 point for bogie, 2 for par, 4 for birdie, etc. 1 scratch, 2 handicap - lowest score of the 4-some is the scratch score. Then take the next 2 lowest net.

For a foursome that wants to play two against two for each hole, the game called Dayton is hard to beat for tension.

First decide on a point value. Don't get suckered into $5 Dayton or even $1 Dayton unless you don't mind playing for some sizeable amount of money. Here's why:

Dayton takes each hole as a bet. You hit your drive and the two to the left play the two to the right. Every hole determines the 2 man teams for that hole. You use the flag stick to sight which two are playing the other two. If it gets difficult to determine left and right sight from the flag stick back to the tee box. You play the hole medal, counting individual strokes. Then you use the formula of putting the two person team's score together so that the low score comes first if you are par or better, but if you don't have a par, the high score goes first. Example: Par is 4. One team scores a 4 and a 6, the other team has a 5 and a 6. Concatenating the scores gives a 46 and a 65 (remember the low score comes first if you have a par or better.) You substract the difference and that is the points for each member of the team. 65-46 = 19. So each member of the 46 team gets 19 points and each member of the 65 team gets -19 points.

You play all eighteen holes and add the point totals for each person, and because you wind up being paired with a different person on any given hole, the totals are all different but should add to zero.

At $1 per point the hole above would win $19 for each person on the 46 team, and each person on the losing team loses $19. In $5 Dayton, the single hole would result in team one winning 5x19 = $95 and each on the other team losing $95.

To try Dayton, you might want to play for 10 cents a point, making the hole worth $1.90, or heck, even a penny a point can result in winning or losing a few dollars for 18 holes.

Dayton adds great pressure on those 3 foot putts that could make a 65 turn into a 46 if you make it. Some play where the maximum high score is limited to a double bogey -- to keep it a bit more friendly. It is an exciting format and mixes people up well for a fun afternoon, and by choosing the point value you can keep the game from getting "out of hand."

Dayton is the most "interesting" game I know... try it sometime -- but maybe agee ahead of time what your maximum losing amount might be.

p.s. you can play it with or without handicaps (but make sure the handicaps are correct if you use them.)

What you call dayton we call 1,2,3,4. Each hole partners change based on where tee shots end up. From left to right, first hole, 1,3 and 2,4 are partners. furthest left is 1 and furthest right is 4. Second hole, 1,4 and 2,3 are partners. on the third hole, 1,2 and 3,4 are partners. We also take turns and call what numbers are partners each hole, so sometimes 1,2 and 3,4 can be partners on several holes. We play .25 points and 1.00 skins. Par skins pay 2.00. Add another twist... if the hole is won with a birdie, the losing team flip-flops their score. So if they had a 46 and we won with a birdie, their score becomes 64. It's a fun, mean game.

Lowest accumulative score on the par 3's.

The Invisible 18 - Everyone throws in $5-10. Put all course holes in a hat (if you are playing a single course more than once, put those holes in that many times).

You will pick 18 holes out of the hat to create your invisible 18. At the end of the trip, get everyone's scores for the holes, and low gross score wins, or factor in handicaps if you would like.

Sometimes we will pick a par 72 course, so separate the par 5s, par 4s and par 3s. Pick 4 par 5s, 4 par 3s and 10 par 4s. That will give you a Par of 72.

Best foursome game ever: WOLF

For those that have never played this or don't know how it works let me explain.

Hole 1 is a par 4.

Player A tees off on hole 1. If Player A bombs his drive straight down the middle and thinks he has a good chance to beat the other players...he calls WOLF and plays the other 3 guys in match play. If he hits a bad shot...he waits for player B to hit his shot. Once player B hits he has the choice to pick him or wait for C. Once player C has hit, player A can't go back and choose player B. He must either take C or wait for D. But if he waits for D to hit and player D hits the worst shot of the bunch...well tough cookies. After you choose your partner or go WOLF the hole becomes match play with dots. Holes carry over obviously and on the second hole it's player B's turn to tee off first and choose. Extremely fun game.

I made the mistake of playing with a 3some and I was having a terrible day so I was basically playing against 2 people the whole day. NOT FUN! Needless to say I lost my ass.

Best ball of two. Rotating every nine. Tad cumbersome between nines but you play many and partner with many. 11 point system. one per hole ties get 1/2 point. 2 points for winning match. so 11 points every nine holes. Aggregate total prize payout. All on net basis. with your diverse caps limit to 90%. 38 plays 34...10 plays 9. Great group game.

I too take on the dubious task of running a weekend trip for 24 guys, and am looking for some new ideas for gaming this this year.

We play 18 on Friday, 36 on Saturday, and 18 on Sunday. The afternoon 18 on Saturday is a 4 man scramble.
In years past we have done the usual: skins, and greenies, for each round as well as a "Calloway Low Total" for the 3 regular rounds for a tourney winner.
To figure the Calloway score you need a chart that can easily be found on the internet, but it is a lot of work calulating 24 scores for each round!!!
It is a very fair way to play when you have a wide range of handicappers, as our group does. The Calloway scoring levels the playing field right out, but as I said, it is a lot of work to re-calc all the scores.

When I play, I like to incorporate a game of Poker into my round. It's an easy game to play on the course and keeps everyone in the foresome in the game.
Best 5 card poker hand at the end of the round wins the pot.
Usually $5 per golfer.

You need a deck of playing cards.
There are 3 cards up for grabs on all par 4's & par 5's
There are only 2 cards up for grabs on par 3's

You win a card by doing any or all of the following on each par 4 or 5:

Longest Drive In The Fairway - If nobody lands in the fairway, then no card is awarded
1st on the green - from farthest approach
Least amount of putts - In the case of a tie there is no card awarded.

You win a card by doing any or all of the following on each par 3:
Closest To The Pin
Least amount of putts - In the case of a tie there is no card awarded.

EXTRA KICKERS:
**You do not have to draw a card if you do not want too.
**You can only have a maximum of 5 cards in your hand at once. If you already have 5 cards, and are due a card, and wish to draw a card, you MUST discard 1 before drawing the new card.
**We do not count putts from the fringe as putts, so we can actually win a card on a hole with a 0# of putts if we hole it out from the fringe...tough to do, but tougher to beat!

I organize a trip for 12 of my friends, and we simply split up into 3 teams of 4 for the weekend.  Here's our format  (4 rounds in 3 days) ----- we have each person put in $50 at beginning, team with lowest strokes at end of weekend wins.  Most guys are between 10-15 handicap, so we don't play with any handicaps in order to make it simple.

We do different formats, but not really crazy betting schemes.  Keeps things simple.

You play with your whole team together the first round, then the rest of the weekend is 2-man format where you play 1 time with each teammate, playing with another 2-man group for another team.

Fri Morning : Lone Ranger.  Playing with your team as a 4-some.  Alphabetically, player A is the "Lone Ranger" on hole 1, B on hole 2, etc.  Take the Lone Ranger score on each hole as your team score.  Puts lots of pressure on 1 guy every hole.

Fri Afternoon: 2-man best ball, low ball  (take best drive and play your own ball in, take lowest score for team score)

Saturday: "Anti-Christ" or 6-6-6.  2-man format where you change the game-style every six holes.  Holes 1-6 = best ball, lowball.....Hole 7-12 = Alternate shot....Holes 13-18 = 2 man scramble.

Sunday : Usually a 2-man scramble.

Other bets going on during the tourney ....each round, you can pay $5 for 2 mulligans.  That goes to pay for prizes like Closest to the Pin, Longest Drive, Longest Putt.  Obvi can't use a mulligan on those contests though.

"Water ball"  ---- Everyone puts in $5 at beginning of trip.  Once you hit a ball into water, you're out.  Last man standing at end of trip wins the pot.

"Ultimate 18" ---- Choose 18 holes before the weekend starts and take your score on those holes, lowest person wins pot.

Other formats we've tried:

2-man Pinehurst Alternate - Each of you tees off, choose best drive.  Player whose drive isn't used, has to hit 2nd shot. Alternate until holed.  Perfect for 2nd round of day when guys are tired.

Evens/Odds ---- Players A&B; take low score on even holes for team score, Players C&D; take low score on odd holes.  (Puts pressure on guys on every other hole, but not too much since it's lowball)

Break down into 10 9 hole matches.  Play off of low handicap at 80% of difference.  Play point per hole with 2 point bonus winning match. So 11 point system.  Aggregate for the total and have a payout based on that.   Best ball of 2 format. Rotate around and you'll play with most and against everybody.  Our group has done this set up for a long time....If ya wanna include a scramble play an extra 9 on the first day....4 groups winners get dinner paid for. And if the scramble is late enough course will probably not be concerned if ya play 2 8somes of scramble.Best of Luck.

We have this side card game that is usually a fun side bet to any round but can affect your strategy at times. There are 12 cards and the object is to get rid of your cards by the end of each nine. On the 1st and 10th tee everyone draws 3 cards and when another player does what's on your card you can give it to them, in many cases adding insult to injury. We usually just play for $1 to $5 a card but my dad's buddies play for a $100.

CARDS:

Water Ball

Tree Ball

Sandman

Condo Ball (Any man made structure)

3-Putt

Big Divot

Wimp Ball

Lost Ball

Missed Double Bogey

"I can't believe you missed that Putt"

Just Because (Wild card to be given away on 9 or 18)

Free Pass (Deducts one card from your hand)

Some of the cards are open to interpretation, usually someone argues they hit a bush not a tree or about the size of a divot but it's all good fun. We had a bunch of these decks laminated and passed them out at a big charity scramble. Its a fun game that usually starts out slow but can get really competitive once the cards start shuffling around!

We play wolf a lot but also have "Lone Wolf" were you call it before you tee off and get 3 dots if you win but loose 9 dots if the other players win the hole. There is also the option to "PIG" the wolf if the Wolf hit a bad shot and you crush it down the middle then you are going wolf for 2 dots but again can loose 6.

Just played a new game that appeared kinda dumb but as the game continued was pretty fun and caused some errant teeballs....Left/Right....Two on left vs two on right.  Rotation of play is predetermined and rotates thru 18.  Each hole the predetermined captain hits first.  Then based on position of balls to pin teams are determined. Plays a lot like WOLF just isn't chosen teams its based on ball position. When first guy blows it OB left.....You'd be amazed how far right guys will go....Was good fun.