Elevens

What is the Elevens golf game?

Elevens is a golf side game in which only eleven of your eighteen holes count. You clock your best ten holes as you play them, one decision at a time, and your last hole is always the eleventh whether you like the score or not. The other seven holes are throwaways. The lowest eleven hole net card wins.

Nobody owns this game. It gets called on the first tee, everybody nods, and nobody writes the rules down, which is why the count moves from group to group. Eleven is the number that comes back when you ask around a clubhouse, so that is the version Big Fairways scores. It is the game for the player who is three holes from a good round and one blow up away from a bad one, which is most of us.

Players	Two or more. Everybody plays against the card, so it scales to a whole trip or a season.
Holes that count	Eleven of eighteen: your best ten plus your last hole.
Throwaways	Seven. Once they are gone, every hole left is clocked for you.
When you decide	On the spot, after each hole, before the next tee shot. A clocked hole stays clocked.
Last hole	Always counts. On a shotgun start it is the hole before the one you teed off on.
Handicaps	Yes. Strokes fall by stroke index and holes are compared on net score.
Scored by	The Big Fairways app, free, on any phone, with a live leaderboard for the group.

How do you play Elevens?

You play a normal round, and after every hole you make one call: clock it or pass. Here is the whole game in seven steps.

1. Play the hole and post your score like always.
2. Decide whether that hole counts. You decide on the spot, on the results screen, before the next tee shot.
3. Clock it and it stays clocked. Pass and you have spent one of your seven throwaways.
4. Keep going until you have ten clocked. From there every hole is a throwaway until the last.
5. Run out of throwaways early and every hole left is clocked for you.
6. Play the last hole. It is your eleventh clock, whatever you make on it.
7. Compare cards. Lowest net eleven wins.

Why does the last hole always count in Elevens?

Because otherwise the end of the round goes dead. Every game that lets you throw away your worst holes has the same problem: a player whose card is already full would have nothing to play for coming in. Making the last hole compulsory fixes that in one line of rules, and it produces the moment the game is played for. A player who leads on the best ten can lose the whole thing to a double bogey on the last green.

One thing worth saying plainly: it is your last hole, not the hole numbered eighteen. Start on the seventh in a shotgun and your last hole is the sixth, so the sixth is the one that always counts. Big Fairways works that out for you and says so the whole way round.

Why does a clocked hole stay clocked?

Because a decision you can take back is not a decision. Some groups let you swap a clocked hole out later for a better one. Big Fairways does not, on purpose. If you can always trade up, the choice means nothing until the round is over and the game turns into arithmetic. When the clock is final, a bogey on the third is a real question: is that good enough to keep, or do you trust that better holes are coming? That question, eighteen times, is the game.

What is an example of Elevens scoring?

Say a player goes round in the high eighties with two disasters, an eight on the fourth and a nine on the eleventh. Both go in the bin along with five other poor holes, seven in all. The ten clocked holes add up to a tidy number, the last hole gets added on top whatever it was, and that eleven hole total is the card. The gross score for the day never gets mentioned again. That is the appeal.

How is Elevens different from Midnight?

Elevens is the same game one hole shorter. In Midnight eleven clocked holes plus the last make twelve, so you get six throwaways. In Elevens ten clocked holes plus the last make eleven, so you get seven. Elevens is a little more forgiving, because the round that falls apart on two holes and then finds a third bad one still has somewhere to put it.

There is a catch, and the simulator above shows it. Your card also fills a hole sooner. Fill your ten early and a birdie on the fifteenth has nowhere to go, because a clocked hole stays clocked. Midnight gives you one more slot to be greedy with. Elevens gives you one more hole to throw away. Pick the one that suits the day. Both are exclusive to Big Fairways, both run on the same clocks and colours, and you pick one at setup.

What is the best Elevens strategy?

Clock net par or better without thinking, and treat your seven throwaways like a budget for the whole round, not the front nine. Beyond that, a few things win Elevens more often than good golf does.

• Know your hard holes. If the toughest stretch on the course is coming late, save throwaways for it. Burn them all early and the back nine turns red on you.
• A net bogey is often worth keeping. Passing on a bogey costs a throwaway you may need for a double later. Look at what your Elevens net becomes if you clock it, which the app shows you every time.
• Do not fill up too early. Ten clocked by the thirteenth means nothing you make on fourteen, fifteen, sixteen or seventeen can count. This bites harder in Elevens than in Midnight, because the card is one hole shorter.
• The yellow clock is the real decision. One throwaway left. Pass and everything after it is clocked for you, so spend the last one on a hole you are sure about.
• Play the last hole like it counts, because it does. Nobody is safe until the last putt drops.

What are the wrinkles in Elevens?

• Full at ten. Once you have ten clocked, the clock on your row goes dead. Every hole from there is a throwaway until the last, and a good hole made late has nowhere to go.
• Out of throwaways. Spend all seven before the last hole and the clock turns red. The app clocks every remaining hole for you and all you do is post the score.
• Shotgun starts. Elevens follows your own eighteen. Start on the sixteenth tee and the fifteenth is your last hole and your eleventh clock. The app works this out from where your group started.
• Handicaps. Strokes fall by stroke index in the normal way. Every time you decide, the app shows you what your Elevens net becomes if you clock the hole, because the decision is worth a number.
• Not a points game. Elevens is a score against par, so it never lands in the Points column on the leaderboard. It sits beside your other side games and gets settled at the end like everything else.

How does Elevens compare with other golf side games?

Elevens is a card game: you play against your own scorecard and the lowest card wins. Most other side games are match games, where you win or lose points against the people in your group hole by hole. Here is how they line up. Every one of them is scored in the app, and you can run several at once on one card.

Game	Players	In one line
Elevens	Any	Eleven holes count, your best ten plus the last. Seven throwaways.
Midnight	Any	Twelve holes count, your best eleven plus the last. Lowest card wins.
Skins	Any	Win the hole outright to take the skin. Ties carry over or die, your call.
Nassau	2 or 4	Three matches in one: front nine, back nine and the full eighteen, with presses.
Wolf	4	The Wolf picks a partner after the tee shots or goes alone for double.
Vegas	4	Two teams, scores paired into a number, low number wins the difference.
Banker	3 or more	One player takes on everybody else each hole. Presses allowed.
Junk	Any	Points for the little things: sandies, greenies, woodies and more.
Match Play	2	Head to head, hole by hole, up or down.
TILT	Any	Points on the net score with a multiplier that climbs on birdies and resets on a par.
Train	Any	A net par puts you aboard and every hole after it pays until two bogeys in a row.
Mulligans	Any	Your handicap strokes become do overs, then everybody plays gross.
Gridiron Golf	4	Two on two played like football. Win the hole to march the ball, reach the end zone to score.
Hammer	2 or 4	Either side can double the hole while it is being played.
Nines	3	Three players, nine points a hole, split five, three and one.
Hi Lo	4	Two on two. A point for the best ball and a point for the worst.
Snake	Any	Three putt and the snake is yours until somebody else does. No points.
Bingo Bango Bongo	Any	First on, closest, first in. Three points a hole, played gross.
Stableford	Any	Points for every hole, most points wins, a blow up costs you nothing.

Looking for the full list? Every side game the app scores, each with rules and a demo round, is on the golf side games page.

What do the Elevens words mean?

Clock

To count a hole on your Elevens card. You clock a hole or you pass on it. A clocked hole stays clocked.

Throwaway

A hole you pass on. You have seven, and they do not come back.

Must clock hole

A hole the app clocks for you because you have no throwaways left. The clock turns red.

The last hole

Your final hole of the round. Always your eleventh clock, always automatic.

Full at ten

Ten clocked before the last hole. Every hole from there is a throwaway until the last.

What should a group agree on before playing Elevens?

• Whether you are comparing gross, net or both.
• What happens if two cards tie. Most groups go to the best last hole, then the best back nine.
• Whether a picked up hole can be clocked at a maximum score.
• Whether the ninth counts as well as the last on a two nine day.

The one that changes the game most is deciding as you go. Choosing at the end makes it arithmetic. Choosing as you play makes it a decision, and decisions are more fun to argue about. That is why Big Fairways asks you on every hole.

A simple version for a first time group

• Play all eighteen holes and post everything.
• Clock as you go. When in doubt, clock net par or better and pass on anything worse.
• Add the last hole, whatever it was.
• Lowest net eleven wins. One winner, no arguments.

Why do golfers love Elevens?

Elevens is the friendliest way into this family of games, because the number is the one people already know. It forgives the two holes that ruin most rounds, it keeps the player who is out of it by the seventh in the game right up to the last green, and it hands everybody in the group a live decision on every hole. Do you burn a throwaway on the hard par four early, or save it for the closing stretch?

How does Big Fairways score Elevens for you?

Pick Elevens when you set up the round, choose who is in, and start playing. After every hole the app shows each player their clock, how many are clocked, how many throwaways are left, and what their net becomes if they take it. Must clock holes are clocked automatically, and the app tells you which hole is your last one even on a shotgun start. Nobody keeps a tally on a napkin and nobody argues about whose ten are whose.

Run other side games at the same time and the totals never get tangled. At the end you get one clean Elevens card per player, one Settle Up list, and every round posts to your own lifetime scorecard, which only you can see. Send one link and the whole group follows the leaderboard live from their own phones.

Common questions

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