Train is a golf points game where you have to be aboard to score. One net par or better puts you on the train. That hole only gets you on. From the next hole every hole pays Stableford points. Two net bogeys in a row throw you off. One net double bogey throws you off on its own.
The part people like is that a wreck never costs you what you already have. Every point you earned aboard stays yours. Coming off just means you stop earning until your next net par gets you back on.
Every man runs his own train, so it works with any number of players and sits happily alongside anything else the group has going.
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. Watch the Train column: it says whether that player is aboard, off, or one bogey away from being thrown off, and the column beside it counts his wrecks.
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.
Play Train Now! Switch it on at setup and every man is in. It works on your own tooTrain is a net points game played by every man on his own card. You start on the platform. A net par or better on any hole puts you aboard. That hole gets you on and pays nothing itself. From the next hole on, every hole pays: 1 for a net bogey, 2 for a net par, 3 for a net birdie, 4 for a net eagle.
The whole game turns on staying aboard. Two net bogeys in a row throw you off. A single net double bogey or worse throws you off on the spot. The hole that throws you off pays nothing, and off the train you earn nothing at all until the next net par puts you back on.
Some groups play a version where a wreck wipes out your whole total. Big Fairways does not score it that way. Every point you earned while aboard is yours for good. Being thrown off is a pause, not a punishment, and the man who wrecks on the fifth is still very much in the game on the sixth if he makes a par.
Stableford pays you on every hole no matter what you did on the one before. Train only pays you while you are aboard, so the same net bogey can be worth 1 point on one day and cost you the next three holes of scoring on another. It rewards the golfer who keeps it in play.
While you are aboard:
Take the demo round above. Dan bogeys the tenth and the eleventh back to back and is thrown off the train on the eleventh, keeping the 13 he had banked. He makes a net par on the twelfth, which gets him back on but pays nothing, and he is scoring again on the thirteenth. Two holes without points is all it cost him.
Alex got on at the second hole and scored on every hole after it until a net double bogey on the thirteenth threw him off on the spot. He kept the 20 he had. A net par on the fourteenth put him back on, and he finished second on 29, one behind Pete.
Neither of those numbers was typed by hand. Both come out of the scoring model this page is generated from, and the model and the page are checked against each other hole by hole before the page ships.
If it is the first time anybody at the table has played it, play a quarter a point and tell everybody one sentence: a par gets you on the train, the next hole starts paying, and never bogey twice in a row. That is enough to play the whole round. Everything else can be read off the app while you walk.
Train is a side game in the scorecard app, so it runs alongside Skins, Vegas, Junk and anything else you have on:
Train is a good game for a group with mixed handicaps, because it is played entirely off net scores and nobody has to partner anybody. The high handicapper making net pars stays aboard exactly as easily as the scratch player, and his stroke holes are where he does it.
It also changes how people play. One bogey is a warning light, and everybody knows the next hole decides whether you stay on. A double bogey is a wreck no matter what, so the lay up short of the water suddenly looks like the smart play.
Keep score automatically and settle up in the app Aboard or off on every row, with the maths shown hole by holeEverybody starts off the train. A net par or better on any hole puts you aboard, and that hole pays nothing. From the next hole, every hole pays Stableford points: 1 for a net bogey, 2 for a net par, 3 for a birdie, 4 for an eagle. Two net bogeys in a row throw you off, and so does one net double bogey or worse. You keep every point you earned. Most points after eighteen holes wins.
Make a net par or better on any hole. That hole only gets you on, it does not score. You score on every hole after it until you are thrown off. After a wreck the same rule gets you back on.
Two net bogeys in a row, or a single net double bogey or worse. The hole that throws you off pays nothing. You keep the points you already have and stop scoring until your next net par puts you back aboard.
No. On Big Fairways every point you earned aboard stays yours. Some groups play a version where a wreck wipes the total, so agree it on the first tee if you are playing without the app.
Net. Handicap strokes count on every hole, which is what makes it work in a group with mixed handicaps. A gross bogey on a hole where you get a stroke is a net par, and it puts you aboard exactly like anybody else's par.
Yes. Train is scored entirely off your own card, so it works as a solo game against your own round the same way it works in a fourball. There is nobody to settle with on your own, so it becomes a way of tracking your own round.
Yes, as a side game in the scorecard app. Switch it on at setup and the app tracks who is aboard, who is one bogey from a wreck, what each hole paid and why, and turns the points into a short list of payments on the settle up card at the end.