A little about side games

So far I've been talking about Golfstakes and how to do things on the web site. Today I want take a some time and tell you a little about the side games that you can setup and score with Golfstakes.

Four out of twelve

Golfstakes currently has twelve side games that you can play while scoring a round of golf. Here's a brief description about a handful of them.

- Abilene, a GREAT game. There are 2 variations of Abilene. Some play with long drive for a 5 point game, I only play with 4 points and do not count long drive. You have teams of 2 that play each other. If you and I were partners against Joe and Sam. We win closest to the pin, win single low score, and win low team total, we would get 3 points, but Joe and Sam get low team total putts, so they get 1 point, so we net result 2 points. There are no presses, EXCEPT that the point total can change like with skins. Each point is worth point value * number of points awarded per man/per team based on how they configure it. So if we were playing for a point value of 1 per man, we would be up 2 points after the first hole. If you win ALL of the points, you get a bucket. The bucket can either be worth and extra point, or double points.

- Daytona This game is played between four players, two on each team. On each hole a team's score is a two digit number where the ten's digit is the low score of the two golfers, and the one's digit is the high score. The points earned on a hole is the difference between the two team's scores. For example if team A scored a 4 and 5 and team B scored a 5 and 6, team A wins 11 points (56 - 45). A running total of the points is kept and the winners are paid one unit bet for each point won.

- Sows, Everyone’s favorite bet.  This is a putting game where the goal is to gain as many Sows as possible.  You are awarded a Sow for any putt made that is longer than the flag stick.  You are also awarded a Sow for any birdie putt.  A birdie putt made that is longer than the flag stick is awarded 2 Sows. Scoring: .  This is  a per player only wager. There will never be teams allowed on this bet.  It is per man only at whatever the wager is set at.

- Train wreck. Players play their own ball and accumulate points as follows: bogey=1, par=2, birdie=3, eagle=4, albatross=5, hole in one=10. If at any point during the round, player makes a double bogey or two bogeys in a row, the players points are reset to 0. Players keep separate point values for net and gross. Highest point values win. So you could be high score all the way up to the 17th and 18th hole. You Boggy on the 17th, and then boggy on the last, you are suddenly last with no points. If you've got money riding on this style of game, you're able to either make a whole lot quick or loss everything faster.

The wrap up

As you can see, each of these games start involving a little math on the side and when you start to play with a large group this just gets crazy. When you use Golfstakes to score your rounds and you add in a few side games, all of these calculations take place automatically. This takes a lot of work off of you, and lets you enjoy the actually play of the game instead of trying to figure out who's scored what when.