The format library
Twelve Games. One Leaderboard.
Every Friday the league plays a different format. These are the rules we use — written for a small group playing nine holes, so you can steal any of them for your own game.
Individual formats
Individual
Medal (Stroke Play)
Medal play — stroke play — is the simplest format in golf: count every shot for nine holes, and the lowest total wins. Every other format on this list is a variation invented to make medal play less brutal.
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Individual
Stableford
Stableford replaces your score with points: you earn points for playing a hole well and simply score zero when it goes wrong. A disaster hole costs you one hole, not your round.
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Individual
Skins
Every hole is worth one skin. Win the hole outright and the skin is yours; tie it and the skin carries into the next hole, so a stack of carryovers can turn one putt into the whole round.
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Individual
Wolf
One player is the Wolf on each hole. They watch the others tee off, then either pick one as a partner for a 2v2 hole, or declare Lone Wolf and take on everybody alone for double points.
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Individual
Quota
Every player gets a personal points target based on their handicap. You score points hole by hole and the winner is whoever beats their own target by the most — so a 24 handicap and a 4 handicap play the same race.
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Individual
Points Duel
On every hole you score one point for each opponent whose score you beat. Playing against three others, a hole win is worth three points and last place is worth nothing — one round becomes three matches at once.
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Individual
Bogey vs Course
You are not playing the other three; you are playing the golf course. Win the hole against par, halve it, or lose it — and finish the round with a record like +2 rather than a number.
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Individual
Nassau
A Nassau is three matches played at once: the front, the back, and the overall. Lose the front and you can still take two of the three, which is why the bet has survived a hundred years.
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Team formats (2v2)
Team · 2v2
Scramble (2v2)
Both partners hit every shot, you pick the better ball, and you both play again from that spot. The format that makes a bad golfer feel useful and a good golfer feel invincible.
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Team · 2v2
Alternate Shot (2v2)
One ball per team, and partners alternate every stroke. You will spend the round playing out of trouble your partner found, which is why it produces the best and worst moments of any format we run.
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Team · 2v2
Vegas (2v2)
Your team's two scores become one two-digit number — a 4 and a 5 is 45, not 9. Then a birdie by the other side flips their number, and a comfortable hole becomes a catastrophe.
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Team · 2v2
Chapman (2v2)
Chapman is alternate shot with a safety net: you both tee off, you both play the other's ball once, and only then do you pick one and alternate to the hole.
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Common questions
What is the best golf format for a group of 4 or 5?
For mixed abilities, net Stableford or Quota — both keep everyone in the round after a bad hole. For pure competition, medal play. For entertainment, Wolf or Skins, because both create a decision or a stack of pressure on every tee.
Which golf formats work over 9 holes?
All twelve on this page are built to resolve cleanly in nine. Skins, Stableford, Quota and Wolf need no adjustment at all; Nassau is split front four, back five and overall.
How do you keep a mixed-handicap group competitive?
Give strokes by stroke index rather than on the first holes of the card, and pick a format that caps the damage of one bad hole — Stableford, Quota and Bogey vs Course all do this by design.
Play along
Run these formats in your own group
The whole season schedule, the points system and the forfeit are free to copy. Take the calendar, put your own four names on it, and send us your card.
Start your own league →