Golf Side Game

Step right up.
Pick a booth.

A golf side game is a bet that runs inside the round. The common ones are Skins, Wolf, Vegas, Snake, Banker, Bingo Bango Bongo and Hi Lo, and each gets a booth below. For four players, try Skins or Wolf. For two against two, try Vegas or Hi Lo.

Walk the midway Just tell me which one

Seven booths

Each one is a whole game. Read the sign, check who it suits, keep walking.

Scroll to move along the midway.

Booth one

Skins

Every hole is worth a skin. Lowest score wins it outright. A tie carries the skin to the next hole, so one hole can be worth five.

Suits a foursome with one streaky player.

Booth two

Wolf

The order rotates. The Wolf tees off first, watches the others hit, then picks a partner for the hole or goes alone for double.

Suits four players who like to talk.

Booth three

Vegas

Two teams. Each pair's scores become one number, low digit first. A four and a five is forty five. Low number wins the difference.

Suits pairs who can survive a six and an eight becoming sixty eight.

Booth four

Snake

Three putt and you're holding the snake. It stays with you until somebody else three putts. Whoever holds it on eighteen pays.

Suits a group that laughs at putting.

Booth five

Banker

One player is the Banker each hole and plays a separate bet against every other player. The job rotates.

Suits five or six players in one group.

Booth six

Bingo Bango Bongo

Three points a hole: first on the green, closest to the pin once everyone is on, and first in the cup.

Suits mixed abilities. The high handicap can win every point.

Booth seven

Hi Lo

Two teams. Each hole, the low ball plays the low ball and the high ball plays the high ball. Two points a hole.

Suits two versus two, all day.

Which booth

Four players, no teams

Skins or Wolf. Skins if you want simple. Wolf if you want to negotiate on every tee.

Two against two

Vegas or Hi Lo. Vegas hurts more. Hi Lo is fairer.

Mixed abilities

Bingo Bango Bongo. Then add Snake for everyone.

Closing time

The midway closes on the eighteenth green. Skins carried. Wolf went alone twice. Somebody held the snake.

Total it up before anyone leaves. Then net it: if two players owe each other, that's one number, not two. Players settle between themselves.

Every booth open at once

Big Fairways runs Skins, Wolf, Vegas, Snake, Banker, Bingo Bango Bongo and Hi Lo in the same round, several at once, across teams and groups that overlap, with clean math. One card covers the whole group while the games run. At closing time, SettleUp shows the totals and breaks them into simple netted payments between players. It's free, and the account takes about twenty seconds. Open the whole midway on Big Fairways.

Pitch a game

Your group plays something with a name nobody else has heard. Tell us the rules. Good ones get a booth.