Fun bets

[Carl Spackler3]

Anyone have fun $1 bets for a group beyond : closet to pin, long drive, straight drive?

[bekgolf]

1 minute ago, Carl Spackler3 said:

Anyone have fun $1 bets for a group beyond : closet to pin, long drive, straight drive?

 

Skins.  Every hole is a new game and a blow up hole doesn't ruin the day.

[Carl Spackler3]

1 minute ago, bekgolf said:

 

Skins.  Every hole is a new game and a blow up hole doesn't ruin the day.

Thanks I should have included that

[MelloYello]

52 minutes ago, Carl Spackler3 said:

Anyone have fun $1 bets for a group beyond : closet to pin, long drive, straight drive?

 

How big is the group?

 

Are we talking 8-10 people or just a single tee time or 4 or fewer? 

[Carl Spackler3]

1 minute ago, MelloYello said:

 

How big is the group?

 

Are we talking 8-10 people or just a single tee time or 4 or fewer? 

12

[MelloYello]

26 minutes ago, Carl Spackler3 said:

12

 

Oh, nice!

 

The group(s) I often play with will regularly play 3-4x per week and always bet so there's a good game that keeps it competitive but doesn't result in a lot of lost money.

 

We pair into 3-somes or 4-somes (depending on how many we have) and we all play our own ball so it's basically normal golf as you'd expect it.

 

You tee off with your teammates. Let's assume you have a 4some. The gist of the scoring is easy >> the best score on a given hole from your group (perhaps a birdie) goes on the 1-ball score, the 2nd best score (perhaps a par) goes on the 2-ball, etc. The worst score on a hole (perhaps a double bogey) goes on the 4-ball score. 

 

You end up with a 1-ball that's under par and a 4-ball score that's real ugly but you've got 4 balls in play all day. Then you can play dots as well for sandies, greenies, closest to the pin, etc. That way you have 5 total bets going on. You can do it across 18 or even break it up to do front, back and overall separately if you want more bets. 

 

And from there it's simple. You and your teammates just try to win as many of those bets/balls as you can. If you don't go low and win the 1-ball maybe you can minimize the damage and win the 4-ball or something in-between. 

 

If each man throws in $25 total ($5 for each of the 5 bets) the pot quickly grows to $300 or $400 among 12 or 16 guys. So there's a lot of money at stake but it's rarely going to just 1 team. 

 

If you can get 16 guys that's $400 in the pot. If your team wins just a single bet that's 1/5th the pot ($80) which when split 4 ways gives each guy $20 back out of his original $25 so it's pretty easy to nearly break even. It's rare that you lose all $25. 

 

This is a good system that allows for a lot of betting with some big upside every now and then but isn't likely to cost very much over the long haul. We do this week after week and no one wins or loses more than $300 across the year. We keep track of that. 

 

If you've got a regular group of guys this is a very popular way to bet. Another advantage is that everyone gets to play their own ball. And of course, screw-ups and blow-ups are easy to absorb, too. 

 

You just have to sort teams based on A-player, B-player, etc. to make sure they're balanced. As I always say, there's 3-ways to win and 1 way to lose:

 

Play well >> you're happy.

Play well & win money >> you're very happy. 

Play poorly & get bailed out by your teammates to win money >> you're still happy. 

 

You all play poorly and you donate $25....well, thanks for trying! 😉

 

.

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by MelloYello

[MattM97]

My friends and I have been betting on par 3s a bit this year and this is how it goes: 

 

- Closest to the pin 

- Whoever is closest and makes par wins the pot. 

- Bogey carries over pot unless someone else birdies. 

- Chip in birdie off the green auto wins pot. 

 

Kind of a wild stipulation but it kinda keeps it open for anyone to win money or push a carry over. 

[deadsolid...shank]

On 11/6/2023 at 1:32 PM, MelloYello said:

 

Oh, nice!

 

The group(s) I often play with will regularly play 3-4x per week and always bet so there's a good game that keeps it competitive but doesn't result in a lot of lost money.

 

We pair into 3-somes or 4-somes (depending on how many we have) and we all play our own ball so it's basically normal golf as you'd expect it.

 

You tee off with your teammates. Let's assume you have a 4some. The gist of the scoring is easy >> the best score on a given hole from your group (perhaps a birdie) goes on the 1-ball score, the 2nd best score (perhaps a par) goes on the 2-ball, etc. The worst score on a hole (perhaps a double bogey) goes on the 4-ball score. 

 

You end up with a 1-ball that's under par and a 4-ball score that's real ugly but you've got 4 balls in play all day. Then you can play dots as well for sandies, greenies, closest to the pin, etc. That way you have 5 total bets going on. You can do it across 18 or even break it up to do front, back and overall separately if you want more bets. 

 

And from there it's simple. You and your teammates just try to win as many of those bets/balls as you can. If you don't go low and win the 1-ball maybe you can minimize the damage and win the 4-ball or something in-between. 

 

If each man throws in $25 total ($5 for each of the 5 bets) the pot quickly grows to $300 or $400 among 12 or 16 guys. So there's a lot of money at stake but it's rarely going to just 1 team. 

 

If you can get 16 guys that's $400 in the pot. If your team wins just a single bet that's 1/5th the pot ($80) which when split 4 ways gives each guy $20 back out of his original $25 so it's pretty easy to nearly break even. It's rare that you lose all $25. 

 

This is a good system that allows for a lot of betting with some big upside every now and then but isn't likely to cost very much over the long haul. We do this week after week and no one wins or loses more than $300 across the year. We keep track of that. 

 

If you've got a regular group of guys this is a very popular way to bet. Another advantage is that everyone gets to play their own ball. And of course, screw-ups and blow-ups are easy to absorb, too. 

 

You just have to sort teams based on A-player, B-player, etc. to make sure they're balanced. As I always say, there's 3-ways to win and 1 way to lose:

 

Play well >> you're happy.

Play well & win money >> you're very happy. 

Play poorly & get bailed out by your teammates to win money >> you're still happy. 

 

You all play poorly and you donate $25....well, thanks for trying! 😉

 

.

 

That sounds pretty interesting. What do you do if you’re off a player. Like you have 11? 

[J_Tizzle]

With 12 people, we used to always play a draft with the 4 lowest handicappers and draft teams, play 2 scores for a predetermined bet amount.

 

3 people we play 9's, where there are 9 points on every hole.  If there is a bogey par birdie, the points go 1-3-5.  If there is a par par birdie, the points go 2-2-5, all pars 3-3-3.  It's my favorite game for just a single group.

[larrybud]

Nothing for a group, but my buddy and I have a year-long birdie bet. It's really a "best ball" bet for holes 1 thru 18 for ANY course when we play together.  I keep it on a spreadsheet. We played 17 times together this year of full 18 hole rounds, then we play a 9 hole league each week for 18 weeks.

 

For example, if you birdie hole 3, then hole 3 is checked off for the season, regardless of course or par. Since it's a "best ball", an eagle would supercede a birdie, so I keep a tally of amount under par. Here's this year's that we just finished today. He finally beat me with a birdie on 7:

 

We play just for a beer (so bragging rights), but just something fun to track. This year we decided to end the bet at the end of October but we were tied, so we extended it "sudden death" style.

It really gets tough (and frustrating!) when you get to about 11 or 12 birdies, and you roll off 2 or 3 and realize those holes were already checked off. We also realized that so many of the courses we play have difficult 17th holes. It also puts some pressure on you when you know you need to make that putt.