Favorite Golf Formats??

[ryanson]

I know about Skins, bestball, and texas scramble...but what are your guys's favourite games?  Also a little about myself my name is Ryan and as you can guess from the way I spell favourite ( with a "u" ) I am Canadian.

Thanks Fellas and and Gals.

Ryan

[ryanson]

Also....a bit more about myself:  I started golfing two years ago (at 28 years old).  Went to the driving range a tonne and tried so many methods I saw on Youtube.  I found with my larger shoulders I am different from most average golfers (or the ones that I saw at the range, at courses, or on youtube vids)....So for awhile I was not sure if everything about the swing I heard about would relate to my frame...but things did work at times...and things did not.  For example I used that Mo Norman technique a bunch at the beginning with some luck but I couldn't keep it up...I would try to copy Tiger's form, Bubba's form, and a bunch of others....Things worked well during that time, however, still not consistently.  The best piece of advice I got is just make sure your club hits through the ball ( no matter your strength) and I thinkn that's the best advice I have received....

[trickyputt]

Welcome, eh? That advice certainly works well when the ground under your feet changes on the course. Its best to play that way and definetly different than the flat lie you fibd on a practice range.

[ryanson]

Thank-you for the welcome!

And it is true about the ground changes...I played at Eagle Ranch golf club in Invermere, B.C., Canada and the terrain was so hill-y that it proved it to be very challenging.

BTW, I love your avatar picture!

Oh, and did you have a favourite golf format?

Thanks

Ryan

[trickyputt]

A dollar per winning hole, dollar birdie, 5 dollar eagles. It usually either wins you lunch or you buy theirs.

[David in FL]

Welcome to the forum!

We usually play a simple 4-ball match play Nassau.  If you're unfamiliar, a Nassau is comprised of 3 bets.  One for the front nine, one for the back, and one for the overall 18.  So in a $5 Nassau, you'd have a maximum of $15 on the line.

With a larger group, we'll play an individual and blind-draw partner stableford.  Usually as a Nassau as well.  Maybe throw $10 a man into a gross skins pot too.

[BrrrrMan78]

Hey Ryan, here's a couple easy games that are fun and easy to manage: 1. Left/Right - every hole the 2 people who drive the ball furthest left of center are partners, and 2 who drive it furthest right are partners. Make each hole worth, say $1. Lowest score on hole wins, you get potentially different partners every hole. Very fun, and you get to play with everyone in the group. There is a more complicated way to play this game if you would like it, raises the stakes :) 2. Pig and Wolf - this is another changing partner game. On the first tee determine an order. Let's say you choose- Ryan, Jim, Peter, Brian. Ryan tees off on the first hole first, Jim tees off next and Ryan has the choice to pick Jim as his partner after he sees his tee shot, if he likes it, they will be partners for this hole. If he doesn't pick Jim at this point he can never pick him again on this hole. The format continues until either Ryan has picked a partner, or decides to play alone against the other 3 players for that hole. Each hole is a separate bet for again say $1. On hole 2 Jim will go first, and he will have the option to choose Peter, then Brian, then Ryan or go alone. The rotation continues making you the Wolf every 4 holes. Very fun, with many variations of pressing and such if you choose. Hope this helps, I have plenty more if you'd like!!

[ryanson]

RE: "A dollar per winning hole, dollar birdie, 5 dollar eagles. It usually either wins you lunch or you buy theirs." Might need to adjust your rules for someone like me hehe. I don't usually achieve birdies. My best are usually par's and bogies. But I can see it working.

[ryanson]

With a larger group, we'll play an individual and blind-draw partner stableford.  Usually as a Nassau as well.  Maybe throw $10 a man into a gross skins pot too.

I like this. The game sounds nice and simple and "breezy", like what I imagine the real Nassau is like hehe. Thanks! I am going to play this format for sure.

[ryanson]

RE: " Hey Ryan, here's a couple easy games that are fun and easy to manage: 1. Left/Right - every hole the 2 people who drive the ball furthest left of center are partners, and 2 who drive it furthest right are partners. Make each hole worth, say $1. Lowest score on hole wins, you get potentially different partners every hole. Very fun, and you get to play with everyone in the group. There is a more complicated way to play this game if you would like it, raises the stakes :) 2. Pig and Wolf - this is another changing partner game. On the first tee determine an order. Let's say you choose- Ryan, Jim, Peter, Brian. Ryan tees off on the first hole first, Jim tees off next and Ryan has the choice to pick Jim as his partner after he sees his tee shot, if he likes it, they will be partners for this hole. If he doesn't pick Jim at this point he can never pick him again on this hole. The format continues until either Ryan has picked a partner, or decides to play alone against the other 3 players for that hole. Each hole is a separate bet for again say $1. On hole 2 Jim will go first, and he will have the option to choose Peter, then Brian, then Ryan or go alone. The rotation continues making you the Wolf every 4 holes. Very fun, with many variations of pressing and such if you choose. Hope this helps, I have plenty more if you'd like!! " Wow, these sound reallllly fun!! Where did you hear about Left/Right? That's an in-genius game! Wolf also makes total sense. What did you mean by variations of pressing? And yes I would love to hear more games from you!

[Hardballs]

Me too! I like these!

[ryanson]

Share more with us Brrman!

[dufferdavid]

We play a game called captains that is similar to the pig and wolf game.  A rotation is set for each hole to have a captain.  After everyone drives that can either elect to go on their own against everyone else or pick a partner for the hole.  Its then just team best ball for the hole.  We just add up points or holes one by person and usually play for a 50 cents a point.  No one usually ever loses more than a couple dollars.  It plays best with a group of five if your course allows that so its always 2 vs 3.  We make people pick up when they are out of the hole so we keep up the pace.  It works good for a group with a lot of differing levels of play since you end up playing as teams and you always have at least three shots as picking a partner with the best drive.

[BrrrrMan78]

Glad you enjoyed them! My favorite game is called The Wheel, but it's for a large group and is quite complicated to explain. I will give it to you if you guys wish, but I figured I'd keep them straight forward for now. If you want the info on that one let me know and I'll post it here, and then field the follow up questions :) Another really fun game, is Red/White/Blue. The big downside here is you can't count this round in handicap calculations cause you will be playing from multiple tees, but if you're looking to have fun and to play the course different than you ever have, this game is great. Also, a big plus for this game is you can play teams or individuals. The concept is simple, you are going to play 6 holes from the blue (back) tees, 6 holes from white tees, and 6 holes from red tees (front). The beauty of this game is the flexibility. You can choose the holes that you will play from each tee or you can have your opponents do it. Try it both ways and see what you like better. Here is the way we play it. Play a match play team Nassau. Choose your own holes, but you have to play from a different tee than your partner on each hole! You will hit different shots than you have ever hit before, you will be able to drive short par 4's, all kinds of fun shots!! It will make the course you've played hundreds of times quite different. This is prob the most FUN game we play

[ryanson]

Hey guys.  Here are some more games me and Brrrrman78 talked about :

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Brrrrman78: We play left/right a ton when we can't agree on partners. The big variation to that game is in the way you keep score. Instead of making each hole worth a fixed amount, you make each stroke worth something, again let's say $1. Then let's say you make a 4 and your partner makes a 5, your score would be 45. If the other team goes 5 and 6, their score would be 56, and would be down 11 units each. That gets really fun because it keeps everyone interested even if your partner is going to beat you on the hole. Just be careful on the amount of each stroke. I recommend starting with .10-.25.

Another slight tweak is called left/right Vegas. In this scenario you keep score the same as above 45 v 56 but if someone makes a birdie on the hole it reverses the order of the other teams score. So if you were playing a par 5 in the above example, the second teams score would be 65, and they would be down 20 units on that hole. Just some options to grow into.

In Pig and Wolf the pressing options are really fun. We play if you decide to go alone because you don't like anyone's shot, that instantly doubles the bet, very useful on par 3's when you stick it, but dicey cause you're still 1 v 3. The other option is that the 2 players that aren't chosen have the option to press the bet after all tee shots have been hit.

Sorry for the delay was out of town this weekend. I'll post some more games in a few. These are my favorites for foursomes

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Ryanson:

Hey BrrMan78,

So in your first situation then the team that got 56 would owe the team that got 45

11 x (amount per point)?

You got me interested in this game so I just did some reading (googled) about the game you recommended here and just FYI the game you described in your first paragraph is also Las Vegas and that the birdie rule (from your second paragraph) is an option.  That birdie rule is called "flipping the bird" and Vegas is also known as Daytona!  So many synonyms in golf game formats I noticed hehe

If you wanted to see the source: http://golf.about.com/od/golfterms/g/bldef_lasvegas.htm

I like that pig and wolf game too!  Such good options as well!

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[ryanson]

Thanks dufferdavid!

[SwampfireR1]

Here's one me and my partner do often when it's just the 2 of us. We both tee off from the whites (middle tees) It you par the hole you stay at the whites If you birdie you move back a tee on the next hole It you boggy you move forward. Basically y

[ryanson]

That's a great idea!