Fun golf games

My buddy and I occasionally play a game we call 'second-shot golf'. What happens is if you don't like the shot you played you can play it again with a new ball. If you choose to do this, you must live with the choice and cannot play the first ball again. It can be a drive, an iron shot, a bunker shot or even a putt. You can only do it once in one hole though. When we play this game often we shoot 10 shots better than using one ball. Do you people have any other interesting ways to play?

I sometimes play a game where the score on the hole is irrelevant, but the total of Fairways hit and Greens in Regulation is what does count. Certainly helps your accuracy and course management when you have money on it.

A game me and a few of the guys play regularly when we go away is Gruesomes. Think greensomes with a twist, instead of both driving off and then between you selecting the best drive and playing out from there, what you do is both drive of as usual but you playing partners(opponents) get to choose the worst of your 2 drives and make you play from there!

So its for example if you play a par 3 and you hit your tee shot to 3feet but your partner hits his buried into the face of a pot bunker you know which shot your opponents will make you play!

super_realist wrote:I sometimes play a game where the score on the hole is irrelevant, but the total of Fairways hit and Greens in Regulation is what does count. Certainly helps your accuracy and course management when you have money on it.

I like this idea. May give that a go

Do you bother to putt out?

Mav - one of our group mooted that a couple of months ago to us, Bloodsomes i think he called it!

Of course George, it's just that the number of strokes on each hole is irrelevant, however clearly the player who has the best Fairways and GIR stats is likely to have a lower score.

what i've found is that you hit a lot more greens because you are aiming for the middle of the green, and not chasing silly pins.

how do you score it super - is it just a point for each f'way and a point for each GIR?

Exactly Ban, keeps it nice and simple. You could award more for tricky greens etc, but it's less to do with a winning score, and more to do with looking at a golf hole from a different point of view and putting yourself in a position where you are in control of the ball, rather than struggling for par.

If you think about it, most people as an absolute maximum will hit somewhere between 12-14 greens a round. That leaves a lot of room for improvement. Most people also don't three putt very often, so if you could hit two more greens a round, it takes a lot of pressure off your short game and gives you two more birdie opportunities.
Such an improvement would have me down to scratch in a season. Course management is so overlooked, and it's a free way to become a golfer who scores better more often.

Sounds like a good game that one SR will give it a crack very soon

Sounds interesting as a sundries or extra or bits game.

Maverick's reverse greensomes is quite good. It's called yellowsomes in quite a lot of clubs.

Another interesting winter fourball game is to have mulligans and reverse mulligans. Usually on the front nine, players in receipt of mulligans can choose to play a shot again. On the back nine their opponents can ask them to play a shot again. So a 300 yard drive, or an iron next to the pin, or a tricky 3 footer holed under pressure - do it again.

George1507 wrote:Sounds interesting as a sundries or extra or bits game.

Maverick's reverse greensomes is quite good. It's called yellowsomes in quite a lot of clubs.

Another interesting winter fourball game is to have mulligans and reverse mulligans. Usually on the front nine, players in receipt of mulligans can choose to play a shot again. On the back nine their opponents can ask them to play a shot again. So a 300 yard drive, or an iron next to the pin, or a tricky 3 footer holed under pressure - do it again.

on holidays we usually play this one of the days.we call it a reverse scramble for what its worth!
it really puts the pressure on the 3 foot putt when you both have to make it! the round usually take about 5 and a half hours!

A practice game I've played with mates in the past is good for accuracy and short game.

The idea is to hit the fairway from the tee then to deliberately miss the green with your approach shot but you then have to get up and down to save par. You award points for each but deduct points for missing fairways or not getting up and down.

Quite often there are 3 of us playing and we play a good points based game.

If you win the hole outright you get 4 points. You get 2 points for coming second and 0 for third. If the two players tie for second its 1 point each. If you all tie the hole - 2 points for all three people.
If two people tie - its 3 points each and 0 for the third. Its quite simple and 6 points are always shared every hole. You can then set a monetary amount for each hole.

A great option if you don't have a fourball as it makes you fight for every point.

You can then set a monetary amount for each point

spaceman

That is quite a common game, known by several different names. We call it a Calcutta, no idea where that name came from.

i dont get the chance to play bounce games so its always a comp.

if we have a three ball we play 2 v 1 matchplay everyone takes 6 holes and the single player starts 2 up. keeps things interesting when youve NRd

Calcutta is pretty popular.

It does have a fundamental flaw though - if you win a hole outright, the difference may be 3 points (assuming the other two guys tie, ie 4-1-1) or it may be 2 points (4-2-0).

So your final total is affected by how the other two do, not by your own effort.

Not if you keep winning holes George! Always liked that idea that your opponent could snatch/lose that extra point. It could be you the next hole and it keeps everyone trying.

Never knew it was called Calcutta, there you go, cheers.

Yes, not if you keep winning holes.

I remember it cost me a quid once, as a guy deliberately missed a putt on the last that had the effect of tying everything up!

Love the idea of bloodsome/gruesome. Ill suggest it next time we're out for a friendly 4ball. A game me and my best mate played a few times when it's just the 2 of us, when you win a hole you get to take any club from the other players bag, and put it in your own so he cant use, u can then use their clubs if you so wish, like skins it carries over so if 3 holes halved then next one is a win, then you get to take 4 clubs. If win one back you can choose to take one of your own back or one of theirs. Its good fun. Once we halved the first 6 holes and my mate won7th so he took 7 my clubs. The downside was he had to carry them! Its a bit of fun and you kind of think strategically what clubs do i need to take from him or get back.

jeff

Pretty brutal game! he more you lose, the harder it is to win a hole back

Still as you say, less clubs to carry round

drive4show wrote:jeff

Pretty brutal game! he more you lose, the harder it is to win a hole back

Still as you say, less clubs to carry round

that's the beauty of it, i enjoyed my walk on the back 9 that particular day I mentioned and managed to claw a couple of holes back as he got tired!!!

"Perch", which is played by 3 or more players, usually for cash. A sum of money "per perch" is agreed, usually a few quid or even a fiver (you're not going to lose much because winning is very hard!).

Each player plays their own ball. At the start, no-one is on "the perch". Once a player wins a hole outright (by nett score), he/she is elevated to "the perch" (but no money is won just yet). From there, that player can only be knocked off the perch if another player wins a hole outright, at which point that hole-winner assumes the perch position. Any tie on a hole, even if it does not involve the "perched" player, means that the person on the perch retains their position. If the player on the perch wins a hole outright, they are awarded the agreed sum of money by each and every other player.

So to win cash, you need to win a hole outright (get on the perch), and then win another while you're still there, which is hard, especially when you're playing with 3 opponents. Not much money changes hands at the end, and sometimes no money at all is exchanged. But if you get on the perch and find a nice little run, you can earn a nice few quid!