Format type: A golf side game, not a form of play in the Rules of Golf. Each hole is played as stroke play under the Rules of Golf and everyone holes out; the pairing, the flip and the points are the group's own conventions.
Free tools: match play handicap calculator → for the strokes if you play net, and the skins calculator if you run skins alongside.
How Vegas works
- Two teams of two. Four players split into pairs. Every player plays their own ball and holes out on every hole; there is no picking up, because both scores count.
- Pair the scores, do not add them. On each hole, the two partners' scores are written side by side with the lower score first. A 4 and a 5 make 45, a 5 and a 5 make 55, a 3 and a 7 make 37.
- The lower number wins the difference. Compare the two team numbers. The team with the lower number wins the difference in points: 45 against 55 is 10 points to the team on 45, 44 against 45 is 1 point.
- A birdie flips the other team. If one team makes a birdie and the other does not, the other team's number is reversed so the higher score goes first. A 4 and a 7 that would have been 47 becomes 74. If both teams birdie, nothing flips.
- Two birdies or an eagle flip and double. If both partners birdie the same hole, or one of them makes an eagle, the opponents' number is flipped and the difference on the hole is doubled.
- A 10 or more goes first. A score of 10 or higher is written first whatever the partner made, so a 4 and an 11 make 114 rather than 411. It is a cap on the damage from one blow-up hole.
- Points go on the card, not money. Keep a running points difference. The points are converted to money once, at the end.
Sources: there is no official rule for Vegas, so this page follows the conventions described by Australian Golf Digest (lower score first, the difference in points, the birdie flip, two birdies flip and double, handicaps at 100% off the low handicap in the group), the SwingU clubhouse guide (double-digit scores are recorded first, so a 5 and an 11 make 115), the 18Birdies Vegas rules (an eagle flips and doubles, the three-player version counts the single player's score twice, fixed or rotating teams) and golf.com (the 10-or-more cap, the doubling proposal). Play on each hole follows the Rules of Golf.
The birdie flip: why one 3 changes everything
The flip is what makes Vegas a different game from a better-ball bet. On a plain hole the gap between two teams is usually a handful of points. Once one team has a birdie and the other does not, the opponents' number is reversed, and the gap jumps.
- A lone birdie flips. Team one makes a 3 and a 4 on a par 4 for 34. Team two makes a 4 and a 7, which would have been 47. Because team one birdied, team two's number becomes 74, and the hole is worth 40 points instead of 13.
- A birdie by each side cancels. If both teams have a birdie on the hole, both numbers stay in the normal order. In the worked round below, the 7th is 23 against 24 even though both Alex and Chris made 2.
- Two birdies by one team, or an eagle, flip and double. The opponents' number is reversed and the difference is doubled. On the 12th below, Alex and Ben both make 3 on a par 4: their 33 against a flipped 54 is 21 points, doubled to 42.
- A flip does nothing to a pair of equal scores. A 5 and a 5 is 55 whichever way round it is written, which is why a team that makes two pars against a birdie loses less than a team that makes a par and a double bogey.
Two consequences follow. A bad score by one partner is far more expensive once the other team has birdied, because it becomes the first digit. And the flip only ever makes the opponents' number bigger, never smaller, so a flipped hole can never be won by the team that was flipped.
Pairing and flipping at a glance
| Situation | Team number | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Plain hole | Lower score first | 4 and 6 → 46 |
| Two equal scores | Same either way | 5 and 5 → 55 |
| Opponents made a lone birdie | Flipped: higher score first | 4 and 7 → 74 |
| Opponents made two birdies or an eagle | Flipped, and the hole's difference doubled | 4 and 5 → 54, then × 2 |
| Both teams birdie (or better) | No flip, no double | 2 and 3 → 23 v 2 and 4 → 24 |
| One player makes 10 or more | The 10+ goes first, whatever the partner made | 4 and 11 → 114, not 411 |
A worked round
Alex and Ben play Chris and Dana, fixed teams for 18 holes, at 25 cents a point, with the conventions above. The table shows each team's scores in the order Alex · Ben and Chris · Dana, the paired numbers after any flip, the points on the hole and the running difference.
| Hole | Par | Alex · Ben | Chris · Dana | Numbers | What happened | Points | Running |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 4 · 5 | 5 · 5 | 45 v 55 | Plain hole | Alex & Ben +10 | Alex & Ben +10 |
| 2 | 4 | 5 · 6 | 4 · 6 | 56 v 46 | Plain hole | Chris & Dana +10 | All square |
| 3 | 3 | 3 · 4 | 3 · 3 | 34 v 33 | Plain hole | Chris & Dana +1 | Chris & Dana +1 |
| 4 | 5 | 4 · 5 | 5 · 6 | 45 v 65 | Alex birdies, 56 flips to 65 | Alex & Ben +20 | Alex & Ben +19 |
| 5 | 4 | 4 · 4 | 4 · 5 | 44 v 45 | Plain hole | Alex & Ben +1 | Alex & Ben +20 |
| 6 | 4 | 5 · 7 | 3 · 5 | 75 v 35 | Chris birdies, 57 flips to 75 | Chris & Dana +40 | Chris & Dana +20 |
| 7 | 3 | 2 · 3 | 2 · 4 | 23 v 24 | Both teams birdie, no flip | Alex & Ben +1 | Chris & Dana +19 |
| 8 | 4 | 4 · 5 | 4 · 4 | 45 v 44 | Plain hole | Chris & Dana +1 | Chris & Dana +20 |
| 9 | 5 | 5 · 6 | 5 · 5 | 56 v 55 | Plain hole | Chris & Dana +1 | Chris & Dana +21 |
| 10 | 4 | 4 · 4 | 5 · 5 | 44 v 55 | Plain hole | Alex & Ben +11 | Chris & Dana +10 |
| 11 | 3 | 3 · 3 | 3 · 4 | 33 v 34 | Plain hole | Alex & Ben +1 | Chris & Dana +9 |
| 12 | 4 | 3 · 3 | 4 · 5 | 33 v 54 | Both Alex and Ben birdie: flip and double (21 × 2) | Alex & Ben +42 | Alex & Ben +33 |
| 13 | 5 | 6 · 7 | 4 · 5 | 76 v 45 | Chris birdies, 67 flips to 76 | Chris & Dana +31 | Alex & Ben +2 |
| 14 | 4 | 4 · 6 | 4 · 10 | 46 v 104 | Dana makes 10: the 10 goes first (104, not 410) | Alex & Ben +58 | Alex & Ben +60 |
| 15 | 4 | 5 · 6 | 4 · 5 | 56 v 45 | Plain hole | Chris & Dana +11 | Alex & Ben +49 |
| 16 | 3 | 3 · 4 | 3 · 3 | 34 v 33 | Plain hole | Chris & Dana +1 | Alex & Ben +48 |
| 17 | 5 | 3 · 5 | 5 · 5 | 35 v 55 | Alex eagles: flip (55 stays 55) and double (20 × 2) | Alex & Ben +40 | Alex & Ben +88 |
| 18 | 4 | 5 · 6 | 4 · 4 | 56 v 44 | Plain hole | Chris & Dana +12 | Alex & Ben +76 |
Front nine: Alex's birdie on the par-5 4th flips Chris and Dana's 56 into 65 for 20 points. Chris answers on the 6th: his 3 flips Alex and Ben's 57 into 75, and a hole that would have cost them 22 costs 40. Both Alex and Chris make 2 on the 7th, so the flips cancel and the hole is 23 against 24. After nine, Chris and Dana are 21 points up.
Back nine: Alex and Ben both birdie the 12th, so Chris and Dana's 45 is flipped to 54 and the 21-point gap is doubled to 42. Chris's birdie on the 13th flips a 67 into 76 and wins 31 straight back. On the 14th Dana makes 10: the 10 goes first, so the team number is 104 rather than 410, and the hole costs 58 points instead of 364. Alex's eagle on the 17th flips Chris and Dana's 55, which is 55 either way, and doubles the 20 points to 40.
Final: Alex and Ben finish 76 points up, on gross scores of 72 and 89 against 71 and 89. The team with the better individual scorer lost, which is Vegas in a sentence: the second digit matters, and so does the timing of the birdies.
Let the group see the same game.
MatchPlay is being built to pair the scores, apply the flip and keep the running points as the group plays, then post who owes whom the moment the card is confirmed.
Settling up: who pays whom
Vegas settles on the final points difference multiplied by the value per point. In the worked round that is 76 points at 25 cents, or $19.
| Convention | How it settles | Worked round at 25c a point |
|---|---|---|
| Per player (the usual way) | Each player on the losing team pays the points × value to one player on the winning team | Chris pays Alex $19, Dana pays Ben $19 |
| Per team | The losing team pays the points × value once, split between them, to the winning team | Chris and Dana pay $9.50 each; Alex and Ben receive $9.50 each |
Say which you are playing before the round, because the per-player convention is worth exactly twice the per-team one. Either way, the check is the same: the points won and lost across the 18 holes net to the running total on the card, and the money is one multiplication from there. Nobody should be paying and collecting at the same time.
Keep the value per point small. Australian Golf Digest's guidance is that 25 cents a point rarely produces a loss worse than $30, and that fits the worked round: a 76-point margin with two flips and a 10 in it came to $19. At a dollar a point the same round is $76 a player, and a flipped hole alone can be worth $40 or more.
Vegas with handicaps
Vegas can be played gross or net. The Rules of Handicapping, Appendix C lists allowances for the recognised formats and none for Vegas, so the group chooses:
- Play off the lowest at 100%. This is the convention Australian Golf Digest describes: the lowest Course Handicap in the group plays off scratch and each other player receives the full difference on the lowest stroke index holes. Course Handicaps of 8, 12, 18 and 24 give 0, 4, 10 and 16 strokes.
- Pair the net scores. A player receiving a stroke on a hole takes one off their score before the team number is formed, so a gross 5 with a stroke pairs as a 4.
- Decide what flips. Most groups only flip on a natural (gross) birdie, so that the flip rewards the shot rather than the stroke index. Groups that flip on net birdies will see far more flips in a round; say which on the first tee.
The match play handicap calculator works out the strokes off the lowest and, if you enter the course's stroke index, lists exactly which holes each player gets one on.
How the teams are chosen
- Fixed teams. Two pairs for 18 holes. Simplest to score, simplest to settle, and the version the worked round uses.
- Rotate every six holes. Three sets of six holes, with each player partnering each of the other three once. Each six-hole segment settles on its own, so a player can win one segment and lose two.
- Pair by the drives. Australian Golf Digest describes a version in which, after everyone has teed off, the two balls furthest left are partners and the two furthest right are partners, so the teams can change on every hole. Keep an individual points record for each player.
- Regroup by the previous hole. The 18Birdies rules describe a dynamic version in which the previous hole's lowest and highest scorers become partners. It keeps the teams close but needs a careful card.
Variants groups play
Eagle triples
Some groups, including the SwingU guide, have a lone birdie double the hole and an eagle triple it, rather than the flip-and-double used here. The structure is the same; only the multiplier changes, so write it on the card.
Pressing the last two holes
Australian Golf Digest describes the team that is behind after the 16th choosing the order of play and whether the points on the 17th and 18th are doubled, tripled or quadrupled. It is the Vegas equivalent of a Nassau press, and it means a 76-point lead is not safe with two holes to play.
Daytona
golf.com describes Daytona as the same pairing game with a standing doubling convention: either team may propose that the value of a point is doubled from the next hole, and the other team must accept or decline at once. Once a point is worth a dollar or more the swings become serious, so most groups cap how many times the stake can double.
No flip
Groups new to the game, or playing with a wide spread of handicaps, sometimes drop the flip altogether and play the paired numbers straight. It turns Vegas into a steadier better-ball-style bet where a 10 still hurts but a birdie does not swing 40 points.
Three players
One player plays alone against the other two and their single score is counted twice to form their number, so a 4 alone becomes 44 against the pair's 45. Rotate who plays alone every hole or every six holes.
Agree these before the first tee
- The teams, and whether they are fixed, rotate every six holes or change by the drives.
- The value per point, kept small, because a flipped hole can be 40 points on its own.
- Per player or per team when you settle: the per-player convention is worth twice as much.
- The flip: a lone birdie flips, both-team birdies cancel, and whether two birdies or an eagle double or triple.
- The 10 rule: a score of 10 or more goes first.
- Gross or net, and if net, that strokes come off the lowest at 100% and whether a net birdie flips.
- Doubling: whether the team behind can press the last two holes, or whether you play Daytona-style doubles, and the cap.
- Who keeps the card. Four scores, two numbers, the flips and the running points on one shared record beats four memories at the bar.
Keep it social: the value per point should be one the whole group is comfortable with, remembering that the flip makes Vegas the swingiest of the common games. More ideas for the group in the golf betting games guide.
Related golf formats
Explore the complete golf match-play format library, or compare Wolf (the other four-player game, with teams that change on every tee), Bingo Bango Bongo (three points a hole, none for the score), skins (one skin per hole, with carryovers), Nassau (three matches in one round, with presses), four-ball, foursomes, better ball, individual match play and scramble. Brush up on match-play scoring, and use the skins calculator and Nassau calculator for the other big money games.
Common questions
What is Vegas in golf?
Vegas is a two-against-two golf betting game in which each team's two scores on a hole are paired into a single number rather than added, with the lower score first: a 4 and a 5 make 45. The team with the lower number wins the difference between the two numbers in points, and the points are settled at the end of the round at an agreed value per point.
How do you score Vegas in golf?
On each hole, write the two partners' scores side by side with the lower score first, so a 4 and a 6 make 46 and a 5 and a 5 make 55. Compare the two teams' numbers. The team with the lower number wins the difference in points, so 46 against 55 is 9 points to the team on 46. Keep a running points total through the round.
What does "flip the bird" mean in Vegas?
When one team makes a birdie and the other does not, the other team's number is flipped so that the higher score goes first. If the birdie team is on 34 and the opponents made a 4 and a 7, the opponents' 47 becomes 74 and the hole is worth 40 points instead of 13. If both teams make a birdie on the same hole, neither number is flipped.
What happens if both teams make birdie?
The flips cancel. Both teams' numbers are written in the normal order, lower score first, and the hole is settled on the plain difference. The same applies if both teams make an eagle or better: nobody flips and nobody doubles.
What happens if someone makes a 10 in Vegas?
Most groups play that a score of 10 or more always goes first in the team number, whatever the partner made. A 4 and an 11 become 114 rather than 411, which limits the damage from one blow-up hole. Without the rule a single 11 can cost more than three hundred points, so agree it on the first tee.
What does an eagle do in Vegas?
By the convention this page uses, an eagle flips the opponents' number and doubles the difference on the hole, the same as two birdies by the same team. Some groups triple the hole for an eagle instead of doubling it. Agree which before the round.
How do you settle a game of Vegas?
Agree a value per point before the round and keep it small, because a single flipped hole can be worth 40 points or more. At the end, multiply the final points difference by the value per point. The usual convention is that each player on the losing team pays that amount to one player on the winning team, so everyone makes or receives exactly one payment. In the worked round on this page, Alex and Ben finish 76 points up at 25 cents a point, so Chris pays Alex $19 and Dana pays Ben $19.
Does Vegas use handicaps?
Vegas can be played gross or net. The Rules of Handicapping list no allowance for Vegas, so the common convention is to play off the lowest Course Handicap in the group at 100%: the lowest plays off scratch and each other player receives the full difference on the lowest stroke index holes, so Course Handicaps of 8, 12, 18 and 24 become 0, 4, 10 and 16 strokes. The net scores are paired into the team number. Most groups only flip on a natural birdie, not a net one; agree which.
Can you play Vegas with three players?
Yes. One player plays alone against the other two, and the single player's score is counted twice to make their team number, so a 4 alone becomes 44 against the pair's 45. Rotate who plays alone every hole or every six holes so nobody is on their own for the whole round. Four is the number the game is built for.
Do the teams change during a round of Vegas?
Only if the group agrees it. The simplest game keeps the same two teams for 18 holes. Some groups rotate partners every six holes so everyone partners everyone, some pair the two drives furthest left against the two furthest right on each hole, and some regroup each hole by putting the previous hole's lowest and highest scorers together. Fixed teams are easiest to score and settle.