Gross vs Net skins

I play in a league that has weekly tournaments, and there are 2 side Skins games in most of the tournaments we play: Gross Skins and Net Skins.

My question is: should I enter the Gross Skins or Net skins side games (or even perhaps BOTH)?

Obviously the Net Skins game takes handicaps into account ... so someone with a 30 handicap still has the same chance at winning a skin as much as someone with a 2 handicap.

Gross skins doesn't take handicaps into account, so it would seem only the better golfers would have a chance at winning a skin. I don't really know the number of golfers that are entering each of the 2 different types of skins games though.

My handicap is about an 8, so I'm probably lower than the majority of the rest of the league members ... but there are definitely lower handicapped players than me.

Maybe by my rational, I have a better chance of winning gross skins more than net because the gross skin playing field is smaller?

Please help

Ya, that's exactly what I was thinking Thrdroc. Although my rounds usually consist of pars & a few bogeys ... the chances of me winning a skin by getting a natural birdie is probably alot better than me winning a skin from a 30 handicapper that got a bogey on a hole that he gets 2 strokes on.

Thanks for the input!

so how would you guys recommend playing a skins game. In a foursome I play with we are starting to play skins but we decided to use handicaps. We have a guy who shoots about 75-77 usually who doesnt get any strokes, I get 3-4 strokes depending how I played the week before, a guy whos playing horrible this year gets like 10 strokes or something and another guy who gets quite a few.

We played yesterday and me and the 76 capper didnt win any money. I even made a birdie on a hole and didnt win,lol. The high handicappers took our money. Im just trying to find a better way to go about this. Our guy who doesnt get any strokes shot a 40 and lost 8 bucks to the two guys who shot in the 50's.

Ya motteler, that's precisely the problem ... the high handicappers get all the skins money because once in a great while they shoot well on a hole that they get a bunch of strokes on.  It's all I can do to keep the skins carrying over to the next hole by matching their scores.  But once they par a hole while getting 2 strokes, it's all over.

Our league only does gross & net skins, so at the moment I just keep dumping my money into the gross skins games & let the 0-4 handicappers take it all :-(

First, it's hard to play skins with only 4 people.  Double hard to play fair when guys are getting strokes.  If it is just 4 guys I would say ditch the skins and play some sort of best ball/4-ball team game and rotate the partners every 6 holes.  That way everyone will have a chance to win something if they play well.

If you insist on playing skins and giving strokes one suggestions is to let the better players pick the stroke holes for the other competitors rather than just choosing the holes based on the scorecard.  That way the better players can take advantage of the other holes.  For instance, if there is an easier par 5 that normally doesn't give a stroke, I would want to give someone a stroke there instead of the harder par 4.  The lesser player will be fortunate to par the hole, while I still have a good chance to birdie to tie.  Whereas the hard par 4, I would have the advantage going in that a birdie or par will be tough to tie.  It is a process that still gives out the strokes, but it lets someone try and take advantage, that doesn't have any advantage going in.

yea Im thinking of having like a rule where you cant have more than 5 strokes no matter your handicap. If your handicap is more than needing 5, you still only get the max strokes at 5.

yea so one of our playing partners whos been shooting in the 100's lately, we play our skins game and he gets like 9 strokes. Guess what he shoots on the front 9 straight up no handicap strokes, a 38 on par 36. Needless to say he won every skin. yea so that makes his score a 29 with his handicap strokes

I have to really question that handicap unless he was making outrageous shots (i.e. chipping in from off the green, holing 30 footers,...)  where you can tell he is having a career day.  The odds of a 50 shooting a 38 is one of those 1 in 10000+ occurences that seem to happen every week in handicapped games when money is at stake.

Net golf should be reserved for Women.

yea, hes a really long player when he hits the ball right. He did this last year too, shot a 39 i believe out of nowhere.He usually shoots mid 40s or so but all this season has been in the 50's. He was just hitting everything where he wanted, hit most of the greens in regulation and had great up and downs when he did miss. I almost won a skin by getting a birdie on a hole but he got up and down for par and with his handicap i think he won it or it went to the next hole,lol.

Last hole yesterday he reached the green, par 5 in 2. He hit the green with a 4 iron, hit the 4 iron about 230 to pin high and missed the eagle putt by an inch short

Is there anyone who knows the correct answer to this nagging question. I'm quite interested to know what the USGA handicap and rules people have to say. I don't know how to get this question to them. Has anyone pursued this question. Thanks.

Not sure if your first post is sarcastic or not. If it was serious, welcome to the forum. What nagging question? I'll assume you want answers and I'll answer the questions in this thread:

1. There are no right answers. There are opinions and mine follow.

2. As an 8 handicap in a large skins game with caps from 0 to 20, IMHO an 8 is a "pot contributor." Too high to win the gross and too low to win the net. I'm sure they thank you for your contribution.

3. I only play skins when we are a 3-some. I don't like skins even with four guys much less 20. If that's what everyone wants to play, I'm a willing contributor.

4. We always play net. Sure the high cap guy wins a few holes, but there is a reason they earned all those strokes.

5. I'm not sure the USGA would have an "answer" to the question even if you asked.

6. As ND Fan makes clear, golden dome fans, with + 1.7 handicaps, who make sexist golf comments, prove what the rest of us suspected about them all along. They don't give any strokes and they likely don't get any.

My opinion is there is a reason they call it gambling.  If you're playing skins in a league or men's club where there are many golfers it is luck to win a skin in either the net or gross game.  whether you should play gross or net depends upon your game I suppose but it is still a gamble.  I used to play with a league and I played both several times because my game tends to be erratic, e.g. I can shoot 100 or 80 on any given day.  Actually won both ways once by making an eagle on a par 5.  So it is a gamble and no way to calculate the odds.