Drive, Chip, Putt - Everything About Golf

The summer season is here and there’s a good chance that you might be visiting the beach soon. Maybe you won’t be able to get a round of golf in when you’re there but don’t forget your sand wedge!

A fun and useful game that you can play alone or with friends at the beach is a bit of a variation on the basketball game H.O.R.S.E.

Pick various targets on the beach (tip: avoid picking people as targets!) and use your sand wedge to hit the target with your golf ball. Alternate turns between the players and the player that hits the target in the fewest strokes gets a point. You can play to as many points as you want but 5 points is usually a good number to use.

This game will give you another fun beach activity while improving your skill for chipping out of the sand.

Acey Ducey (also known as Aces and Deuces or spelled Acey Deucy) is a golf betting game that can get expensive very quickly if you are having an off day at the golf course.  This golf variation is really only suitable for groups of four golfers of equal skill.

Before the round begins, an Ace bet and a Deuce bet are set.  The Ace bet is usually twice the amount of the Deuce bet.  For example, an Ace bet is $2 and a Deuce bet is $1.  One each hole, the player with the best score will be the Ace and the player with the worst score will be the Deuce.

In our example, the golfer that wins the Ace gets $2 from each of the other players and the golfer that gets the Deuce owes $1 to each of the other players.  So, for example, if player 1 wins the hole he wins $7 ($2 from each other player and an extra $1 from the player with the Deuce).  The player with the Deuce will pay out $5 ($1 to each other player and $2 to the Ace player).

If there is a tie for either the Ace or the Deuce, no money is awarded for the hole but you can carry over the wagers from a tie hole.  If you’d like to reduce the amount of money changing hands, you can just ignore ties but if you’d like to keep the game really interesting (and maybe expensive!) carry the wagers over from each hole.

Acey Ducey is a great game that makes for some very interesting rounds and you can see how a player who “wins” the Deuce too often in a round will have quite the expensive day at the golf course!

The old golf adage goes “drive for show, putt for dough” and this golf variation rewards the better putters of the group.  This game can be played with any group that has at least two players.

“Putt for Dough” is a game that is won by accumulating the most points throughout the round.  You will only get points if you one-putt the hole and the amount of points is determined by your distance from the hole.  For example, in a foursome, the player farthest from the hole will get 4 points if he or she one-putts and the person closest to the hole will get 1 point by making a one-putt.

Since this game is about the importance of the short game, poor putters will be punished.  Any time a player three-putts a hole, subtract 1 point from that player’s score.  Likewise, chipping in from off the green rewards a player with 5 bonus points.

Also, any player can get a 10 point bonus at the end of the round if he or she makes a chip in, a 4 point, a 3 point, a 2 point, and a 1 point putt throughout the game (if you have less than 4 players, award the bonus points based on the number of players you have - for a twosome, bonus points will be awarded if you make a chip in, a 2 point, and a 1 point putt).

At the end of the round, the player with the most points wins the game.  You can play this game for bragging rights or you can place a wager on the game. If you do decide to bet on the game, you can wager on the final score or you can assign a dollar amount to each point scored.  Good luck with your putts!

Round Robin is a golf variation that can only be played with a group of four golfers. Some people also refer to this game as Hollywood or Sixes.

In Round Robin, every group member will end up playing against each other player in 2 on 2 team match ups. Here’s the interesting twist - players rotate partners after every six holes so that each member of the foursome partners with every other member throughout the round.

Any scoring format for the 6-hole matches can be used, and each 6-hole segment is a separate round. If at the end of the 18 holes you’ve been on two winning sides and one losing side, you end up the winner. You can turn this format into a betting game or simply play for bragging rights. If you choose to place a wager on this game, you should bet on each of the 3 6-hole matches.

Round Robin only really works well when all of the players are of similar skill levels, or by golfers using full handicaps.

Disaster is another golf variation that I have really enjoyed playing with my golf friends. It is a scoring game where the winner is the player with the fewest points at the end of the round. Points are awarded for bad shots - hit your ball in the bunker and you get a point.

You can change the points system to whatever you want to use but this is the points system I’ve used:
• Water ball - 1 point
• Out of bounds - 2 points
• Hitting into a bunker - 1 point
• Hitting from one bunker into another - 3 points
• Failing to get ball out of bunker - 2 points
• Chipping over the green - 1 point
• 3-putt - 2 point
• Every other putt after 3 - 1 point

Another betting option that you can add to this game is to have all of the losing players pay a dollar per point to the winner at the end of the game - this certainly ups the stakes a little bit!

When it comes down to it, good golf is all about hitting fairways and greens. This variation on the rules is a betting system that rewards those players who can hit fairways and greens that is best played with four players.

On each hole, before the players tee off, a bet is set for the fairway and for the green. On par 3 holes though, a bet is only made for the green. To win the bet, you need to be the only player to hit either the fairway or the green. If you are the only player to hit the fairway or the green in regulation, every other player pays you the bet. If more than one player hits the fairway or the green, no money is paid for that bet and that bet carries over to the next hole to be added to that holes bet.

For example, the bet for the fairway is $3 and the bet for the green is $5. Players A, B, and C all hit the fairway but only player A hits the green in regulation. Players B, C, and D all pay $5 to player A for hitting the green. On the next hole, the bet is $6 for hitting the fairway ($3 carries over from the previous hole) and the bet for hitting the green is $5.

As with any gambling game, you need to make sure that your group isn’t turned off by gambling before suggesting this rule. Also, be careful because the bets can add up pretty quickly if they carry over through a few holes!

Three-Putt Poker is another variation on the traditional golf rules that you can play to add some gambling excitement to your friendly golf game. You should only play this game with people that you are familiar with since there is a gambling element and some people frown down on friendly wagers. That being noted, here are the rules.

Before you tee off, each player puts $5 into the pot. This dollar amount can be changed to whatever you’d like but $5 is a good number to start with for a game with your friends. After paying the ante, each player receives one card from a traditional deck of playing cards.

The rules of the actual golf game remain the same but whenever a player three-putts a hole, that player adds more money to the pot ($1 is a good amount to use when the opening bet is $5). If a player one-putts the hole, that player gets another card from the top of the deck.

At the end of the front nine, whichever player has the best poker hand wins the entire pot. The game then repeats for the back nine. This is a great game to play that mixes the fun of poker with the fun of golf.

One of the great things about golf is all of the different variations of the game that you can play. Next time your are golfing with three of your friends, suggest a game of ‘Lone Wolf’ for a change. ‘Lone Wolf’ is a very simple points based game that adds a new twist to a friendly golf game.

Before the game starts, a fixed rotating order is established for teeing off. On each hole, the first player to tee off is designated as the “wolf”. After the “wolf” tees off, he or she can choose to play the hole alone or wait to see how the other players drive and choose one of them as his or her partner.

The “wolf” can’t wait until all players drive to make the decision about who to choose as the partner. For example, Player A is the “wolf”, Player B hits a decent drive but the “wolf” does not decide to take Player B as a partner, and Player C hits an awful drive. The “wolf” can no longer choose Player B as the partner and is forced to choose to take Player C before Player D tees off or to be left with Player D as the partner for the hole.

Each player plays his or her own ball just like in a normal game of golf but the side with the lowest better ball score wins the hole. If it’s 2 on 2, each player on the winning side wins 1 point and if there is a tie, no one earns a point. If it’s 1 on 3, the “wolf” wins 3 points or loses 3 points.

On the next hole, the player who was the “wolf” on the previous hole tees off last and the next player has the chance to be the “wolf”. After playing through all of the holes, the player with the most points at the end wins the game of “Lone Wolf”.

I’ve found that this game is great to play with a group of experienced golfers but also a great game for when a few experienced golfers are playing with a newcomer to the game of golf. This lets the beginner still get involved in the game and compete with the other players even though his or her golf skill may not be up to the level of the other players.

We will feature many different golf variations on this blog but if you have any of your own favorites, we’d love to read about them in the comments!