Skins golf: how the game works

Format type: A popular social side game rather than a form of play in the Rules of Golf. The holes are played under the normal rules; the skins conventions are the group's own.

Free tool: Skins payout calculator with carryovers and who pays whom →

How skins works

• One skin per hole. Before play, give each hole one skin and agree what a skin is worth. Most groups make every hole equal; some make the back nine or the last few holes worth more.
• Everyone plays their own ball. Skins works for two players or a whole group. Each player plays the hole out, gross or net as agreed.
• Sole lowest score wins. A player wins the skin only if their score is lower than everyone else's. Second place gets nothing; a tie for lowest wins nothing.
• Tied holes carry over. When two or more players tie for the lowest score, nobody wins the skin and it usually rides to the next hole, which is then worth two skins, then three, until someone wins a hole outright.
• Count and settle at the end. Add up each player's skins, multiply by the agreed value and net off what each player owes. Agree beforehand what happens to skins still unclaimed after the last hole.

Because every hole is a fresh contest, skins keeps every player in the game all day. A player who is ten shots behind on the card can still win the biggest skin of the round on the 17th.

Rules source: USGA — Golf History FAQ: Skins, which describes skins as a golf gambling format that has been played for decades, also known regionally as cats, scats, skats or syndicates. The carryover and sole-low-score conventions are the common group convention rather than an official rule.

Carryovers, validation and the other variants

Carryover skins (the default)

A tied hole carries its skin forward. This is how almost every group plays, and it is what makes skins exciting: three tied holes in a row put four skins on the next tee, and whoever wins that hole alone takes the lot. It is also why skins can swing late. A round in which nothing is won until the 16th can be decided by one par.

No carryover

Some groups void a tied hole instead, so each hole is only ever worth one skin. The game is flatter but the money is more predictable, and it suits large groups where ties are frequent. The skins calculator has a toggle for either rule.

Validation

Under validation, a player who wins a skin has to confirm it by at least tying the lowest score on the next hole. Fail, and the skin is lost. Groups differ on whether a lost skin is void or goes into the carryover, so settle that detail too. Validation stops a single lucky hole deciding the day, and it is common when the group plays for larger skins.

Gross or net

Gross skins uses the actual scores. Net skins applies handicap strokes first, so a player receiving a stroke on a hole wins the skin with a gross 5 against three gross 4s. Mixed-ability groups almost always play net; see handicaps below.

Whole-round, nines and birdie skins

Most groups run one pot over all 18 holes. Others settle the front nine and back nine separately so a bad start can be forgotten, or play "birdie skins", where a hole can only be won with a birdie or better and everything else carries over. Any of these works with the same counting rule.

A worked round

Alex, Ben, Chris and Dana play nine holes of skins at $5 a skin per player, with carryovers. Scores are listed in that order on each hole.

Six skins were awarded over the nine holes: Alex 2, Ben 3, Chris 1, Dana 0. Ben's 3 on the 4th was worth three skins because holes 2 and 3 had carried over. Holes 7, 8 and 9 were all tied, so three skins were still unclaimed when the group walked off, and the group applied its agreed rule for those: void in this example.

Notice that Dana was never alone on the lowest score, even though Dana tied for low on the 3rd, the 7th and the 9th. In skins a tie is worth nothing. Being joint best on a hole is the same as being last.

Settling up: who pays whom

The common convention is that each skin is worth the agreed stake from every other player. With four players at $5 a skin, a skin is worth $15 to its winner, and every player pays $5 for each skin somebody else won. The round above settles like this:

The nets always add up to zero (+10 +30 −10 −30 = 0), which is the quick check that the count is right. Reduced to the fewest payments, Dana pays Ben $30 and Chris pays Alex $10, and the game is square. The skins calculator does the whole thing from the hole winners, carryovers included, and has this exact round loaded as its worked example.

Two other ways groups settle, both fine as long as everyone agreed in advance:

• Fixed pot per skin. Each skin is worth a flat amount, say $10, paid from a pot everyone put into on the first tee. Simpler arithmetic, but the pot has to be sized so it covers every skin.
• Pot split by skins. Everyone puts in a fixed buy-in and the whole pot is divided in proportion to skins won. Unclaimed skins change nothing because the pot is already full.

Skins with handicaps

Net skins keeps a mixed-ability group honest, but the Rules of Handicapping, Appendix C, which sets the recommended allowances for singles, four-ball and foursomes, does not list skins, because it is not a formal format. Groups borrow the match-play method instead:

• Play off the lowest. The player with the lowest Course Handicap plays off scratch and the others receive the difference, taken on the holes with the lowest stroke index. Course Handicaps of 8, 12, 18 and 24 give 0, 4, 10 and 16 strokes.
• Reduce the allowance if you like. Because a high handicapper receiving a stroke on an easy hole wins a lot of skins outright, some groups apply a percentage first, commonly the four-ball figure of 90%. At 90% the same four handicaps become 7, 11, 16 and 22, so the strokes are 0, 4, 9 and 15.
• Strokes on the stroke index. A player receiving 4 strokes gets one on each of stroke index 1 to 4; a player receiving 16 gets one on stroke index 1 to 16. On a hole where you have a stroke, your net score is your gross score minus one.

The match play handicap calculator works out the strokes for any group and, if you enter the course's stroke index, lists exactly which holes each player gets one on. Once the net scores are known, skins is scored exactly as before: sole lowest net score wins, ties carry.

Skins for two, three, four or more players

• Two players. Works, but every halved hole carries, so the pots build quickly and the loser of one hole can be a long way behind. Many pairs prefer a Nassau or straight match play and keep skins for groups.
• Three players. The natural three-ball game. Every hole is contested by all three, nobody sits out, and a tie between any two of them carries the skin.
• Four players. The classic. Ties are more frequent, so carryovers matter more and the big holes are bigger.
• Larger groups and team skins. With six or eight players the outright-low rule gets hard to satisfy, so groups often play team skins instead: in four-ball skins each side's better ball competes for the hole, and in a scramble each team's single score does. The calculator handles team skins by treating each team as one player.

Agree these before the first tee

• The value of a skin, and whether it is per player, a fixed pot or a buy-in split.
• Carryover or no carryover on tied holes.
• Validation, and if so what happens to a skin that is not validated.
• Gross or net, and if net, the allowance and where the strokes fall.
• Unclaimed skins after the last hole: void, a sudden-death hole, or carried to the next round.
• Who keeps the count. One shared record during the round beats four memories at the bar.

Keep it social: the stake should be one the whole group is comfortable with. More ideas for the group in the golf betting games guide.

Related golf formats

Explore the complete golf match-play format library, or compare Nassau (three matches in one round, with presses), four-ball, foursomes, better ball, individual match play and scramble. The Nassau calculator settles the other big money game.

Common questions