TILT Golf Game: Rules, Scoring and How to Play

By the Big Fairways team · · We build the scorecard app that keeps score for this game.

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TILT is a points game where a good hole makes the next one worth more. String two or three together and one putt can be worth four times what it was on the first tee. Give one back and you are at the bottom of the ladder again.

There are two versions in common play and they are different games. The original comes from No Laying Up. Ours is the DeucePot version. You can score either one, and the demo below plays the same round both ways so you can see what changes.

Play a demo round

Saturday morning · four players · net scoring · one round, two sets of rules

This is a simulation, not a live round. Tap the green Start Simulation button to learn the game and watch this made up match unfold one hole at a time. Just like in our app, you'll see a summary of the drama below the holes and a leaderboard. Flip the switch at any point and the same card is scored the other way, without losing your place.

No Laying Up rules. Fixed points, and a multiplier that climbs on birdies and drops the moment you make a par.

First tee

Live leaderboard, TILT points, No Laying Up rules

    Through 0 holes

    The scores above are invented, but the scoring is not: this is the same card and the same live leaderboard your group sees on Big Fairways while you play. Same eighteen holes, same four cards, two different winners.

    Play TILT Now! Big Fairways carries the ladder for you so nobody has to remember it

    What Is TILT in Golf?

    TILT is a solo points game that everybody in the group plays at the same time against everybody else. No teams, no partners. Each player rides his own ladder, and the only thing that moves it is his own net score.

    The idea both versions share is that holes are not worth the same amount. Play well and the next hole is worth more than the last one. Play badly and you are back where you started. It rewards a run, and it makes a two footer on the ninth worth more than the same putt on the first.

    Where the two versions differ is in what climbs, and in what knocks it down.

    The No Laying Up Version

    The original, from the No Laying Up golf site. Points come off a fixed table on your net score:

    On top of that sits a multiplier. It starts at one. Make a net birdie and your next hole is worth double. Make another and the one after that is worth triple. A net eagle counts as two birdies at once, so it puts you on triple for your next hole even if you were not on tilt at all.

    What takes you off is a net par. The moment you make one, the next hole is back to normal. A bogey pays you nothing but leaves the ladder exactly where it was, which is the part most groups get wrong the first time.

    Every hole is paid at the multiplier you walked onto the tee with, never the one you walk off with. There is no cap.

    The DeucePot Version

    Ours does away with the fixed table. Every hole carries a value instead, and it starts at one.

    The bottom is one until you make your first net par or better. After that it is two, for the rest of the round.

    The difference this makes is that pars build the number instead of resetting it. A man who grinds out fourteen straight pars is playing for a fortune by the fifteenth, and the only thing that can take it off him is a big number.

    How to Play TILT

    1. Pick your version before the first tee, and say it out loud so nobody is playing a different game.
    2. Agree what a point is worth. The two versions score on wildly different scales, so the rate is not the same for both.
    3. Decide gross or net. Net is the usual, and it is what the demo above plays.
    4. Everybody starts at the bottom of the ladder.
    5. Play the hole and post a score. Work out what it pays at the value or multiplier you started the hole on.
    6. Then move the ladder for the next hole, up or down, according to the version you are playing.
    7. Add the points up at the end. Most points wins.

    TILT Scoring, Worked Through

    Take the same six holes and run them both ways. A player makes a net par, a net bogey, a net birdie, a net bogey, a net birdie and then a net double bogey.

    On the No Laying Up rules he is paid 2 for the par, nothing for the bogey, 4 for the birdie, nothing for the second bogey, then 8 for the second birdie because he was already on double, and then the double bogey costs him 12 because by then he is on triple. Two points for the six holes, and he walks to the seventh still on triple. That is the example No Laying Up publishes, and it is what our engine reproduces.

    On the DeucePot rules the same six holes look nothing like that. He is paid 1 for the par, which lifts the next hole to 2. The bogey pays nothing and leaves it on 2. The birdie pays 4 and lifts it to 4. The second bogey pays nothing again. The second birdie pays 8 and lifts it to 6. Then the double bogey costs him the 6 and puts him back to the bottom. Seven points, and he starts the seventh at the bottom of the ladder.

    Two different games out of one scorecard. That is the whole point of the switch on the demo.

    Rules to Agree Before You Play

    The Beginner Version

    Play the No Laying Up rules first. The fixed table is easier to hold in your head, and the multiplier only ever goes to two or three in a normal round. Move to the DeucePot rules when the group wants pars to be worth something.

    Final Thoughts

    TILT is the game for a group where somebody always says the round is over after a bad start, because in both versions it is not. On the No Laying Up rules two birdies put you right back in it. On ours a long clean stretch builds a number that nobody can see coming until it lands.

    Play the demo above both ways and watch what happens to Pete. He finishes last on one set of rules and wins on the other, off exactly the same eighteen holes.

    Keep score automatically and settle up in the app The whole ladder tracked hole by hole, on every phone in the group

    TILT Golf Game FAQs

    How does TILT work in golf?

    Holes are not worth the same amount. Play a good hole and the next one is worth more, play a bad one and you drop back down. In the No Laying Up version a net birdie doubles your next hole and a net par takes you back off tilt. In the DeucePot version every hole carries a value that climbs on pars and birdies and only comes off on a net double bogey or worse.

    What is the difference between the two TILT versions?

    In the No Laying Up version points come off a fixed table, a birdie is worth 4 and a par is worth 2, and a multiplier climbs on birdies and resets on a par. In the DeucePot version there is no table: every hole has a value, a par pays that value and adds one to the next hole, and only a net double bogey or worse knocks you back down. Pars reset the ladder in one and build it in the other.

    Does a bogey take you off tilt?

    No, in either version. On the No Laying Up rules a bogey pays you nothing and leaves the multiplier exactly where it was, and it is a net par that takes you off. On the DeucePot rules a bogey pays nothing and leaves the hole value alone, and it takes a net double bogey or worse to knock you back to the bottom.

    Is TILT played gross or net?

    Either, but net is the usual choice and it is what the demo round above plays. Net keeps a mixed group in it, because a higher handicap climbs the ladder on the holes where his stroke falls. Gross turns it into a contest between the two best players in the group.

    Can Big Fairways score TILT?

    Not yet. Both sets of rules are built and checked, and the demo round on this page runs the real engine, but TILT is not switched on in the app. Skins, Vegas, Wolf, Nassau, Banker, Junk, Match Play, Midnight, Bingo Bango Bongo, Hi/Lo and Snake all are.

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