The side games
Every game Big Fairways keeps score for. Turn any of them on when you set up a round; the app does the maths on every hole and settles the money at the end.
Every game Big Fairways scores
Skins
2 or more
Low score wins the hole outright, and every other player pays you. Ties carry to the next hole (or die, your call). Net and gross skins are kept side by side.
Vegas
4 or 5
Two on two. Your two net scores make a two digit number, low ball first (a 4 and a 6 is 46). Low number wins the difference. Under par balls cancel and whatever is left over flips the other side’s number and multiplies the hole. The side that is down can press on any tee, one press a hole, which doubles the run in. Optional Mercy Strokes, off by default, give a side that falls more than 100 behind one extra stroke a hole on top of the handicap strokes everybody already gets. Five men play 2 v 3: the three count their best and their worst.
Hi/Lo new
exactly 4
Two teams of two. Two points a hole, one for the best ball and one for the worst. Win both and sweep a bonus. Ties halve the point, and it settles like a match: the side up on points collects the difference.
Snake new
2 or more
The three putt game. Three putt and the snake is yours, and it stays yours until somebody else three putts. Whoever is holding it at the turn buys the round of drinks, the snake goes back in the grass, and whoever is holding it at the end buys again. Prefer one snake for all eighteen? Play it that way instead. Putts off the stat strip mark it for you, or tap it in on the hole results.
Wolf
4 or 5
The Wolf rotates every hole. He watches the tee shots and takes a partner, or goes it alone for double. The man he picks can turn him down and go alone himself. Best ball or hi-lo.
Nassau
2 or more
Man to man. Three separate bets against each opponent: the Front 9, the Back 9 and the Overall 18, at $5 / $5 / $5 or whatever you play. Go 1 down and you choose what you are pressing: press the front, press the back or press the overall. Every press is a brand new bet starting on the next hole, with its own money and its own line on the ledger.
Banker
3 or more
One man holds the bank and plays everybody else one on one for whatever each of you put up. Low score takes the bank. Press him if you fancy it, and on 16 the man down the most takes the bank for the run in.
Junk
anybody
The little bets you call out on the green: birdies, eagles, chippies, sandies, barkies, polies, nasties, and closest to the pin on every par 3. A point each. Tap them in on the hole results.
Match Play new
2 or more
Head to head, hole by hole. Win the hole, go 1 up. The app tracks the match, calls dormie the moment it happens (up by as many as are left), and closes it out the proper way: Alex wins 4&3. Halved on the 18th is a halved match.
Midnight new
2 or more
Pick your best 11 holes as you play. After every hole is scored you decide on the results screen whether it counts. Your last hole always counts, so it is your 11 picks plus the last hole you play: twelve holes. Start on 7 for a shotgun and your last hole is hole 6, so hole 6 is the one that always counts. Lowest gross wins the gross pot, lowest net wins the net pot.
TILT new
2 or more
Every hole has a value and it starts at 1. A net par pays the hole and makes the next one worth 1 more. A net birdie pays double the hole and adds 2. A bogey costs you the hole and takes you off Tilt until you make another par. Pars build it, birdies collect it.
Train new
2 or more
One net par or better and you are on the train. From the next hole on, every hole pays Stableford points. Two net bogeys in a row throw you off, and so does one net double bogey. You keep every point you earned. Make another par and you are back on.
Mulligans new
2 or more
Your handicap strokes stop being net scores and turn into do overs. Wherever the card gives you a stroke you get to replay any shot on that hole, and two strokes on the hole is two replays. Nothing carries to the next tee. Your gross score is your score, so every game running that day goes gross with it. Turn it on at setup and it rides along with Train, TILT, Banker or Vegas.
Bingo Bango Bongo new
2 or more
Three points on every hole and not one of them cares what you shot. Bingo to the first ball on the green, Bango to the closest once everybody is on, Bongo to the first ball in the hole. Play it in order, hole everything out, and the man who hits first all day gets first crack at the Bingo. Played gross. The order of play is the handicap.
Which golf game should you play?
Pick by the size of your group and what you want the round to feel like. Every game below is scored automatically by Big Fairways, and each one has its own page with the full rules and a demo round you can click through.
| Game | Players | How you win | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skins | 2 or more | Win a hole outright | Big groups, because ties carry and the pot builds |
| Vegas | 4 or 5 | Lower two digit team number | Two on two with big swings |
| Hi/Lo | exactly 4 | Better best ball and better worst ball | A foursome with mismatched handicaps |
| Snake | 2 or more | Not be holding it at the end | Adding pressure to short putts |
| Wolf | 4 or 5 | Pick the right partner off the tee | Groups who want a decision on every tee |
| Nassau | 2 or more | Win the front, the back or the eighteen | Man to man matches, with presses |
| Banker | 3 or more | Beat the banker one on one | One man against the field, hole by hole |
| Junk | anybody | Call sandies, barkies and greenies | Running alongside any other game |
| Match Play | 2 or more | Win more holes than your opponent | Head to head, where a blow up costs one hole |
| Midnight | 2 or more | Best 11 holes plus your last one | Rounds where two bad holes should not count |
| Mulligans | 2 or more | Spend your strokes as do overs, then win on gross | Mixed handicaps who would rather hit it again than do the arithmetic |
| TILT | 2 or more | String pars together, then cash a birdie | Mixed handicaps, no partners needed |
| Train | 2 or more | Get aboard and never bogey twice | Rewarding the man who keeps it in play |
| Bingo Bango Bongo | 2 to 4 | First on, closest, first in | Mixed ability groups, played gross |
| Stableford | any field size | Most points, not fewest strokes | Tournaments and large fields |
Running an event rather than a fourball? The tournament side also scores Stableford, quota, scramble and best ball.
Set up a round and play oneTell us your game
Every group has one the rest of us have never heard of. Tell us how it works and we will build it into the app and put it on this page.
Got it. Thank you.
If we build it, you will see it on this page, and we will let you know.
Back to the games