Skins

What is the Skins golf game?

Skins is a golf side game in which the lowest score on a hole wins that hole outright and takes the skin. If two or more players tie the low score, nobody wins the skin. The group decides before the round whether a tied skin carries to the next hole, making that hole worth two, or simply dies. Most skins at the end wins.

It is the easiest side game to explain on the first tee and the hardest to stop watching. Three holes tied in a row and the short par three everybody ignored is suddenly the biggest hole of the day. Nobody is ever out of it, because every hole starts fresh.

Players	Two or more. More players means more ties, which is why big groups see one enormous hole late in the round.
What wins a hole	The low score on its own. Net, gross or both, the app keeps them side by side.
Ties	Two tie, all tie. Nobody wins the skin. Carries on, the next hole is worth one more. Carries off, the skin dies.
Points	A skin is points for the player who took it and nothing off anybody else. Skins only ever add.
Handicaps	Yes. Strokes fall by stroke index and net skins are decided on net score.
Scored by	The Big Fairways app, free, on any phone, with a live leaderboard for the group.

How do you play Skins?

You play a normal round and every hole is its own little contest. Here is the whole game in six steps.

1. Before the round, agree whether you are playing net, gross or both, and whether tied skins carry or die.
2. Play the hole and post every score like always.
3. The low score on the hole, on its own, takes the skin.
4. If two or more tie the low score, nobody takes it. With carries on, the next hole is worth two. With carries off, that skin is gone.
5. Keep going. Carries stack, so a hole late in the round can be worth four or five at once.
6. At the end, count the skins. Most skins wins, and every skin is worth the points the group set.

Why does a tie carry over in Skins?

Because a tie with nothing riding on it is a dead hole. Letting the skin roll forward puts the whole group on the next tee knowing the hole is worth two, and if that one ties too, three. That is where Skins gets its drama. The player who has been quiet all day can take four skins in one swing, and everybody knows it walking to the tee.

Not every group wants that swing, which is why Big Fairways lets you turn carries off at setup. With carries off every skin is worth exactly one, a tie simply dies, and the player with the most skins wins. Trips and tournaments often play it that way so a running tally of skins across the whole event stays fair.

Why do skins only ever add?

Because a skin is a prize, not a penalty. When you take a skin you earn points and nobody else loses any. That sounds like a small thing until you are scoring Skins next to three other games on one card, where a game that subtracts from the others makes the totals impossible to follow. In Big Fairways a skin is points for the player who took it, on the card, on the recap and on the tournament total, and never a minus for anybody. Settle Up works out at the end who owes what.

What is an example of Skins scoring?

Four players, carries on. The first hole is tied, so the second is worth two. The second is tied as well, so the third is worth three. On the third one player makes a net birdie on their own and takes all three skins in one go. The other three players took nothing and lost nothing. Hole four starts fresh at one skin. With carries off, the same two ties would simply have died and the birdie on the third would have been worth one.

What is the difference between net and gross skins?

Gross skins are decided on the raw score. Net skins take handicap strokes off first, by stroke index, so a bogey with a stroke on it is a net par and can beat a real par. Big Fairways keeps both side by side on every round, so a mixed group can play net while the low handicaps still argue over gross. You choose at setup, and you can run both.

What is the best Skins strategy?

Skins rewards the player who wins holes outright, not the one who avoids losing them. A few things win Skins more often than steady golf does.

• Play for the win, not the tie. A safe par that ties the hole wins nothing. Skins pays the player who takes the risk that comes off, so when the hole is worth three, go at the flag.
• Know when the hole is big. With carries on, the tee box after two ties is where the round is decided. Everybody should know what the hole is worth before the first swing, and the app tells you.
• Watch the strokes. In net skins, a player with a stroke on a hard hole is the favourite there. Do not be surprised when the eighteen handicap takes the hardest hole on the course with a net par.
• Nobody is ever out of it. Every hole starts fresh, so the player who has taken nothing through fourteen can still win the day on a late carry.

What are the wrinkles in Skins?

• Two tie, all tie. If any two players share the low score, nobody wins it, even if the other two made eights. There is no half skin.
• A tied last hole. With carries on, a tie on the last hole means those skins were carried and never won. Nobody gets them and nobody pays for them.
• Net and gross at once. A player can take the gross skin while somebody else takes the net skin on the same hole. The app keeps two tallies.
• Big groups. Five or six players means more ties and longer carries. The last few holes can be worth a lot, which is either the best part or the reason to turn carries off.
• Skins on a trip. Turn carries off and the app keeps a running count of every skin each player has taken across the whole event, gross and net separately.

How does Skins compare with other golf side games?

Skins is a hole by hole prize game: every hole stands on its own and the winner of the hole collects. Here is how it lines up against the other side games. Every one of them is scored in the app, and you can run several at once on one card.

Game	Players	In one line
Skins	Any	Win the hole outright to take the skin. Ties carry over or die, your call.
Midnight	Any	Twelve holes count, your best eleven plus the last. Lowest card wins.
Elevens	Any	Eleven holes count, your best ten plus the last. Seven throwaways.
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 Skins words mean?

Skin

The prize for winning a hole outright. Worth whatever points the group set.

Carry

A tied skin rolling forward to the next hole, which is then worth one more.

Dies

What a tied skin does when carries are off. Nobody gets it and it is gone.

Two tie, all tie

If any two players share the low score, nobody wins the hole.

Net skin

A skin decided on net score, after handicap strokes come off by stroke index.

Gross skin

A skin decided on the raw score, no strokes.

What should a group agree on before playing Skins?

• Net, gross or both.
• Whether tied skins carry to the next hole or die.
• How many points a skin is worth.
• Whether a carried skin still standing after the last hole is played off or simply goes unwon.

Carries are the big one. On, the round can turn on one late hole. Off, every skin is worth the same and the steadiest player usually wins. Big Fairways asks at setup and shows what every hole is worth on the tee.

Why do golfers love Skins?

Skins is the game that keeps a whole group talking for eighteen holes. The hole in front of you is always the only hole that matters, a bad stretch costs you nothing, and one great swing on a hole that has carried three times is a story you tell for a month.

How does Big Fairways score Skins for you?

Pick Skins when you set up the round, choose who is in, say whether carries are on, and start playing. After every hole the app says who took the skin or that it carried, shows what the next hole is worth, and keeps net and gross skins side by side. Nobody argues about who tied whom.

Run other side games at the same time and the totals never get tangled, because a skin only ever adds to the player who took it. At the end you get one clean total 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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