Closest to the Pin and Long Drive: Running the Contests Properly

Quick answer: Closest to the pin awards a prize to whoever finishes nearest the hole with their tee shot on a designated par 3. Long drive awards the longest tee shot in the fairway on a designated hole. Both are decided on one hole and settled at the end of the round.

How it works

Nominate the holes in advance. One or two par 3s for closest to the pin, one long par 4 or par 5 for long drive.
Put a marker at the hole. Each player who beats the current mark moves it and writes their name.
Closest to the pin normally requires the ball to finish on the green with the tee shot.
Long drive normally requires the ball to finish in the fairway.

Scoring

Nothing accumulates — it is one winner per contest per round. On a multi-round trip, running a fresh contest each day gives you several small prizes rather than one, which spreads the winning around.

The fairway requirement on long drive is the rule that stops the contest being won by a wild slice that bounced down a cart path. Keep it.

When to play it on a golf trip

These are the contests to run when your group is bigger than one foursome, because they work across the whole field without anyone playing together. They are also the easiest thing to sponsor or attach a real prize to.

House rules worth agreeing first

Which holes, decided before anyone tees off.
Whether the tee shot must hold the green or the fairway. It should.
How ties are settled — usually shared, occasionally a putt-off after the round.
Whether every round gets its own contest, or the trip has just one.

FAQ

Does the ball have to stay on the green? For a properly run closest to the pin, yes, and it must be the tee shot. Otherwise it becomes a chipping contest.

Does long drive have to be in the fairway? Almost always. Without that rule the winner is usually whoever missed furthest right.

How do you handle ties? Share the prize, or hold a short putt-off afterwards if there is a single trophy at stake.

Run it without the spreadsheet

GolfTracker Trips scores this format across every round of a trip, alongside whatever
else your group is playing, and rolls it all into one leaderboard for the weekend.
Start free at GolfTracker Trips — up to 8 players and 2 rounds, no card.