Competition formats
Parful runs this, with a caveatSkins as a competition
Also called Skins format, Skins competition, Skins game with carryovers.
Skins is a hole-by-hole format where every hole is worth one skin and the lowest score on the hole, gross or net, wins it outright. If two or more players tie for the lowest score nobody wins and the skin carries to the next hole, so a hole can be worth several skins. The most skins at the end wins.
- Played as
- Own ball, any number of players from 2
- Per hole
- One skin to the outright lowest score; a tie carries it
- Ranked by
- Skins won, most wins
- Basis
- Net or gross, chosen when the game is created
- Recommended allowance
- 100% of Course Handicap™
- On Parful
- An outing side game and leaderboard overlay, not a standalone competition
How Skins works
Each hole is a separate prize called a skin. Everyone plays the hole and the lowest score wins the skin, but only if it is the lowest on its own. When two or more players share the lowest score the hole is halved and the skin is not awarded; it carries forward and the next hole is worth two. Three tied holes in a row put four skins on the fourth. The player with the most skins after the last hole wins.
The carry is what makes Skins a format rather than a tally. A player who has done nothing for twelve holes can win the day on one birdie that lands on a pile of carried skins, and a single par can be worth more than a run of birdies. Groups play it for money at a fixed value per skin, and clubs run it across a whole field as a pot.
Net or gross, and where the strokes fall
Skins is played gross among players of similar ability and net among everyone else. Net Skins gives each player their strokes on the holes by stroke index from a full Course Handicap™: the recommended allowance is 100%, because the hole-by-hole comparison already limits how much a stroke can be worth. A net birdie on a stroke hole beats a gross par, and a player receiving two strokes on stroke index 1 can win it with a net eagle from a gross bogey.
Across a big field net Skins produces more ties and more carries, which is why some clubs run it gross and net at once from the same cards.
What happens to skins nobody wins
A skin carried from the eighteenth has nowhere to go. Groups either play it off on the first tee, split it among the players who tied the last hole, or let the pot roll to next week. Whatever the group agrees, the result of the round is the skins already won; carried skins at the end are not awarded to anyone.
How Parful runs it
Skins on Parful runs as a side game on a club outing, not as a standalone competition. The standalone Skins competition was removed because a skins pot is not a structured contest with rounds and podiums; it is an overlay on a round that is already being scored. Start Skins from the outing and it reads the scores the groups are already keeping, gross or net as chosen, and shows a live overlay: which hole is worth how many skins, who won each one and the running count.
Skins always carry over on Parful. Any number of players from two can be in the game, from one group to the whole field, and the result is recomputed on every score, so correcting a card reruns the game from the first hole. A skin still carrying after the last hole stays unclaimed. The Skins page in the games library covers the side game in full, including the wager and settlement.
Worked example
A worked example: six holes, four players, net
Ana, Ben, Cal and Dee play net Skins. Net scores are shown after the strokes have been taken on each hole.
| Hole | Par | Ana | Ben | Cal | Dee | Result | Skins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | Ana and Cal tie on 4, carried | 1 carries |
| 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | Ben and Cal tie on 4, carried | 2 carry |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | Ana and Cal tie on 3, carried | 3 carry |
| 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | Ben wins outright on 4 | Ben takes 4 |
| 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | Cal wins outright on 3 | Cal takes 1 |
| 6 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | All four on 5, carried | 1 carries to hole 7 |
- Cal had the joint-lowest score on three of the first four holes and has one skin to show for it. Skins pays for being alone, not for being good.
- The skin carried from hole 6 is added to hole 7. If hole 7 is also tied, hole 8 is worth three.
Common variants
- No carryover
- A tied hole is void and the next hole is worth one skin again. The day becomes a count of holes won outright. Parful always carries skins over; a group playing without carries is playing a variant Parful does not score.
- Validation
- A player who wins a skin must make par or better on the next hole to keep it, or the skin goes back into the pot. Common in money games. Parful does not score validation.
- Whole-field skins pot
- Every player in a club outing pays into a pot and the skins are won across the entire field, so a hole is only won by the outright lowest score of everyone playing. Parful runs this as the outing Skins game with the whole field selected.
- Gross and net together
- Two skins games from the same cards, one gross and one net, each with its own carries. Parful can score both scopes at once.