Our skins variant for high-handicappers

[johnclayton1982]

Hi,

Me and my play group put together a custom variant for skins that has evolved over the years.  We really like it, and it makes play very fun for high-handicappers.  Yes, these are not "real" rules, but we like them alot.  We also found that it helps our play in other areas, and helps teach us about the game and critical skills that are required for the game.

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Special rules:

You can only score a skin if you get double-bogey or better.  No more winning holes 11 to 9.  If both are worse than double-bogey, you split the hole, no matter who is ahead.

You can only triple-putt to win a skin if you hit the green in regulation.  Otherwise, you can't triple putt and win a skin.  No chipping / pitching then triple-putting.

You cannot win a skin on any hole if you four putt.

You must hit one out of every four fairways off the tee (exempting par 3s).  If you do not hit the fairway for four straight tee shots, you cannot win a skin until you hit the fairway off the tee.  You do not have to use driver to do this, obviously, and people have gone to 8 and 9 irons to make sure they hit.  This is good, as it stops the beginner from doing the usual 8 straight tee shots into the woods thing.  Slow down and hit the fairway.

If you make a sand save for double or better, you cannot lose a skin unless your opponent parred the hole.

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The real purpose behind this is that once beginners get into the high 90s low 100s their focus starts to go and they start just bombing off the tee and not taking their time on putts.  The three-put rule really helps make some of the putts really pressure-packed at the end, which you do not get a chance to have when you shoot 104.  The four in a row fairway rule makes some tee shots very pressure-packed, which, again, you do not have if you are at 109 and your last 10 tee shots have found the woods.

These rules have led to some incredibly exciting finishes where in stroke we would have shot 110 or 108 each.  Also, we get the feeling of holing a huge putt to avoid triple-putting and grabbing a critical skin.

These rules have made me a much better golfer, as I take much longer on putts and off the tee, and in bunkers, then when i would just go out and shoot 100.  I recently shot my best round, an 86, so I might ditch these rules, but they have helped me and my playing partners, are great fun, and help your game by adding some pressure where there usually isn't any.

I'd be interested to hear if you guys have any other variants that make the game more exciting.  Sorry in advance to purists who find these rules horrible. :)

Best,

John

[Tomboys]

Originally Posted by johnclayton1982

I'd be interested to hear if you guys have any other variants that make the game more exciting.  Sorry in advance to purists who find these rules horrible. :)

Best,

John

IMO, no need to apologize.  As long as you're having a good time and respectful of your fellow golfers on the course, then as far as I'm concerned, have at it.

[NEOHMark]

Originally Posted by Tomboys

IMO, no need to apologize.  As long as you're having a good time and respectful of your fellow golfers on the course, then as far as I'm concerned, have at it.

Agreed.  Actually, those are some pretty good qualifiers to put on a skins game for an all-high-handicapper group of players, IMHO.

[ochmude]

That sounds like a ton of fun.  I wish I could find games like that in my area.

[zeg]

Sounds awesome, and while I'm all in favor of golf by "THE" rules, at the end of the day we're out there to have fun.  These sound like a great variant that's 100% compatible with sharing the course with capital-G Golfers.

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by zeg

Sounds awesome, and while I'm all in favor of golf by "THE" rules, at the end of the day we're out there to have fun.  These sound like a great variant that's 100% compatible with sharing the course with capital-G Golfers.

Actually everything he posted has nothing to do with "THE" rules.  It only has to do with how members of his group qualify to win a skin.  You could play their skins rules and still play every shot by the Rules of Golf.

I like the idea of giving players the incentive to strive for a better game.  It sounds to me like this would be a fun group of guys to play with.

[meenman]

Sounds like you guys are having fun, but I have to ask - even at your groups skill level - has anyone ever lost a skin for putting more than 3 times?

[johnclayton1982]

Quote:

I like the idea of giving players the incentive to strive for a better game.

Yeah, we evolved these rules over about a year and a half of once a week skins game on Saturday afternoons.  The first rule was the double bogey rule after we realized that we were playing really defensive golf waiting for others to make mistakes.  We will probably add something new soon.  When we first started, people would be pumped to get a few skins by the end, and now usually the winner has six or seven.  Our first scores were in the 130s, and now we routinely shoot low-100s, and a 90 round isn't something to celebrate anymore.  A few times members of our group have broken 90, but that is rare.

Quote:

Sounds like you guys are having fun, but I have to ask - even at your groups skill level - has anyone ever lost a skin for putting more than 3 times?

Yes. That rule was added for one specific hole on the course we always play on, the 2nd, which is a par 3.  The green is a half-moon shape with the crescent points to either side of the tee box (like a half circle facing inward to you).  On the left and right wings are very steep inclines, and the flag sits at the middle (usually) on a little plateau.  It is very easy to hit it too hard and roll up to the plateau and then down the other side (again and again).  Sometimes, the fear of that happening makes you pull off and not get it up the incline you are on!  Its a devilish green and very easy for people at our level to four putt.  Even if you are on the plateau, you can very easily overcook it and end up down the bottom of one of the sides again.  Once, a guy got a skin for hitting his tee shot on the green and then putting four times, which we didn't like.  Its a really tricky hole.

Really, we were looking for a way to make it fun and interesting / exciting over 18 holes.  We found your concentration starts to go because who cares about the difference between a 103 and a 104 at the end of the day?  However, these rules make you concentrate.  We've had some exciting finishes - this past saturday, two guys were tied on 18.  The 18 at our club is a long par 5 which is pretty open but has water up the right and a relatively square green is protected by four bunkers at each corner.  Two guys tied with five skins each, and two guys not in the running.  The first of the two not in the running missed the fairway with a 5 wood, and so couldn't score a skin (he was on a missed-4 streak).  The second guy (me) not in the running ended up in a bunker for shot 4.  Both the guys in the running missed the green in regulation with third shots, and had short pitch shots from behind the green for their fours.  They both pitched on.

Now, if I can sand save, neither can win (thats up out of the bunker and down in one putt) because if anyone makes a sand save nobody can win a skin without a par.  If either one of those guys can two putt, that guy will take the skin and the round.  I can bet you $100 that if I had just shot a 102 (which is what I had), I wouldn't have looked at that bunker shot very long - just thought "get it out", let my mind wander.  But I looked at that thing for a few minutes to decide where to put it on the green, etc... to try to ruin their skin, and really thought about where to hit the bunker shot, and where on the green I wanted to put the ball, how it roll out of the bunker when it would land, etc...  I missed the putt,and one of the guys won, but that was pretty exciting for a finish of a round where all four players shot 100+.

We play on Saturday afternoons around 2 pm, so we are usually the only ones out there.  Once, we tied skins, so we did a playoff on the 18th hole (nobody else was out there).   I've never seen anyone with a 100+ score nervous on a tee box.  :)

Anyone have any variants like this they like to play?

[zeg]

Originally Posted by Fourputt

Actually everything he posted has nothing to do with "THE" rules.  It only has to do with how members of his group qualify to win a skin.  You could play their skins rules and still play every shot by the Rules of Golf.

I like the idea of giving players the incentive to strive for a better game.  It sounds to me like this would be a fun group of guys to play with.

Yeah, thanks for pointing this out.  This afternoon after posting I was thinking about that, but wasn't sure.

[Dabbler]

Interesting to know that someone else out there is doing something similar to my weekly midweek 9 holes skins game. We were playing normal skins but it got stale with focus only on winning the skin and not trying your best when others were not playing well. Our handicaps are 11, 15, 17 and 17. The rules were changed to: 1. Skin is won by the player nearest to the pin in net regulation, (i.e. 3 shots on a par 4 where you get a shot); 2. 0.5 skin is lost with a three putt by any player and goes to the player winning under rule 1 above, or second closest player and so on if the ntp player 3 putts; 3. 0.5 skin is lost for any net triple bogey on any hole, it goes to ntp skin winner; 4. Skin for a birdie, double skin for an eagle and so on; 5. Skin for a sand save (even from a fairway bunker); and, 6. On any hole, before the tee shots, any player can declare "Double Skins!". All skins on that hole, won or lost will count as double. It makes for a very tense and fun affair. You can see players trembling over second putts if they've left the first too short or too long. If you are well down in skins, you target your favorite hole as "double skins" and hope to win it with others losing skins from 3 putts or net triple bogeys. The real fun is when two or more players declare double skins on the same hole! We end up on a quadruple skin hole and the concentration is intense! You play the most effective shot to get your ball where it needs to go in order to win the ntp.