Golf Side Games & Money Games, Explained

The classic golf money games are skins (win a hole outright to win the pot, with ties carrying over), the Nassau (three bets: front nine, back nine, overall), wolf (a rotating captain picks a partner — or goes alone for a bigger payout), and Vegas (team scores combined into two-digit numbers). Around them orbit the junk games — greenies, sandies, snake, bingo bango bongo — that keep every shot worth something. Here's how each works, what it costs, and how to keep the books straight on a multi-round trip.

A note before the fun: these are social games between friends. Keep stakes friendly, settle in cash or a payment app between players, and know your local rules on wagering. (When we track games in GolfTracker, we tally results and who-owes-whom — the money itself always stays between players.)

Skins

Each hole is worth one "skin." Win the hole outright — no ties — and you take it. Tie, and the skin carries to the next hole, so pots snowball: three carried holes make the fourth worth four skins. Play it gross for tight groups or net for mixed handicaps, and either price skins per unit ($1–$5) or divide a fixed pot by skins won.

• Best for: any group size; the default trip game.
• The drama: carryovers. A four-skin par-3 with the whole group watching is the moment trips are made of.
• Trip variant: run one skins pool per round, or one monster pool across the whole trip.

Nassau

Three matches in one: the front nine, the back nine, and the overall 18 — classically "$5-$5-$5." Play it individually or between two-man teams, gross or net.

• Presses: the trailing side may "press" — open a new bet on the remaining holes — traditionally when 2 down. Cap presses (say, two per nine) unless your group enjoys arithmetic more than golf.
• Best for: foursomes who like a match within the match.

Wolf

The signature chaos game. Set a fixed rotation on the first tee; the "wolf" tees off last each hole, watches the drives, and either picks a partner for a 2v2 hole — or declares lone wolf and plays 1v3 for double (some groups triple) stakes. Declare blind wolf before anyone hits for the biggest multiplier.

• Best for: exactly four players who talk trash.
• House rule to set early: whether the wolf can pick after the last drive lands or must call it in the air.

Vegas

Two-man teams; each hole, pair the team's two scores into one number, low digit first — a 4 and a 5 makes 45, against the other side's 46, and the difference in points changes hands. The famous flip: a natural birdie reverses the opponents' number (a 4-8 becomes 84). Swings are enormous; price the point low.

• Best for: four players who can stomach volatility and want a calculator — or an app — doing the math.

Bingo Bango Bongo

Three points per hole: first ball on the green (bingo), closest to the pin once everyone's on (bango), first in the hole (bongo). Because the points reward order of play, not score, it's the rare money game where handicaps barely matter — ideal for mixed-ability groups and total beginners.

Snake

Three-putt and you're holding the snake. It passes to every subsequent three-putter, and whoever holds it when the round (or trip) ends pays the pot. Announce it on the first green, not after someone's third putt lips out — that's the etiquette line between funny and felony.

Dots, junk and the pots

The per-shot achievements, tallied as "dots" at a fixed value:

• Greenie — on the green in one at a par 3 (and two-putt or better, in most groups).
• Sandie — up and down out of a bunker for par or better.
• Barkie — hit a tree on the hole and still make par.
• Polie — hole a putt longer than the flagstick.
• Arnie — par without ever touching the fairway.
• Closest-to-pin and long-drive pots — everyone antes, marker on the designated holes, winner takes the pot at dinner.

Keeping the books on a trip

One round of skins is easy. A three-round trip running skins, a Nassau with presses, snake, and a wall of dots — across 12 players — is a bookkeeping job, and it's why every trip has one exhausted accountant reading Venmo requests at the airport. Three rules help:

• Appoint one banker per game, and record results the moment the round ends — at the scorer's table, not the second beer.
• Net everything at the end of the trip. Nobody should pay anybody twice; one settle-up sheet, one round of payments.
• Put game results on the trip leaderboard next to the golf — half the fun of winning the skins pool is everyone knowing.

That end-of-trip settle-up sheet — every game, every pot, netted into one who-owes-whom list — is a core feature we're building into GolfTracker Trips, alongside every team and individual format a trip plays. It's in development now — join the waitlist.