How do you play Battle Golf?

Match play where the loser of each hole gives up one club for the rest of the round. In the common form the winner chooses the club, the putter is protected, and halved holes cost nothing.

Can you lose your putter in Battle Golf?

Almost never. The putter is protected in nearly every version, and some groups protect one more club of each player's choice.

The winner of the hole in the common form. Letting the loser pick is a popular variant that keeps the match closer.

Usually not. The clubs are the handicap: whoever is winning has more clubs to lose. A match between very different players can start the better player a club or two down.

Does Parful score Battle Golf?

No. It changes how the round is played and Parful does not offer that as a side game. The holes can be tracked as a casual match play challenge while the players manage the clubs themselves.

Golf games

Rules and explanation only

Battle Golf

Also called Club elimination, Lose a club.

Battle Golf is a head-to-head game in which the loser of each hole loses a club from the bag for the rest of the round. In the common form the winner of the hole chooses which club the loser gives up, the putter is protected, and halved holes cost nothing. The match is decided on holes won.

Players: 2, or two teams of 2
Penalty: The loser of a hole loses one club for the rest of the round
Who chooses: The winner, in the common form
Protected: The putter, almost always
Result: Match play on holes won; the clubs are the handicap

How Battle Golf works

Two players start with full bags and play match play. Whoever loses a hole gives up one club: it goes in the bag with a headcover on, or is handed to the caddie, and cannot be used again that day. In the common form the winner of the hole picks which club the loser gives up, which is where the game gets its edge. A halved hole costs nobody anything.

The putter is protected in nearly every version, because a round without one is not golf. Some groups protect one more club of the player's choice. Everything else, including the driver and the wedges, is fair game.

The match is scored like any match play: holes up with holes to play, and the game is over when one player is more holes up than there are left. The clubs are a running, self-adjusting handicap. A player who wins the first five holes has an opponent with thirteen clubs and every reason to fight back.

Which club to take

Taking the driver early is the obvious move and usually the wrong one; most club golfers score as well with a 3-wood off the tee. The clubs that hurt are the ones with no neighbor: the only wedge, the only long iron, the hybrid the player uses for every shot from 190. A winner who takes the 8-iron and then the 7-iron has left a 40-yard hole in the opponent's bag.

Because the winner chooses in the common form, the player who is ahead gets stronger and the game can run away. That is why the variants below exist.

Teams and handicaps

Played two against two it is a four-ball match; the losing side both lose a club. Handicap strokes are usually ignored because the clubs are meant to be the handicap, though a match between very different players can start the better player a club or two down.

What Parful does

Parful does not score Battle Golf. The match itself is ordinary match play, but the game changes how the round is physically played, since a player with eleven clubs is not playing the same round as one with fourteen, and Parful will not offer as a side game something that alters the golf underneath an official card. A pair can keep the match on paper, or run a casual match play challenge on Parful for the holes and manage the clubs themselves.

This page describes the common form. Parful has not ratified a version.

Worked example

A worked example: six holes

Ana against Ben, gross scores, winner chooses the club. Each row shows the hole result and the clubs each player has left.

Hole	Ana	Ben	Result	Club lost	Ana clubs	Ben clubs	Match
1 (par 4)	4	5	Ana wins	Ben loses driver	14	13	Ana 1 up
2 (par 3)	3	3	Halved	None	14	13	Ana 1 up
3 (par 5)	6	5	Ben wins	Ana loses 7-iron	13	13	All square
4 (par 4)	5	4	Ben wins	Ana loses 8-iron	12	13	Ben 1 up
5 (par 4)	4	5	Ana wins	Ben loses sand wedge	12	12	All square
6 (par 3)	4	3	Ben wins	Ana loses 9-iron	11	12	Ben 1 up

After six holes Ben is 1 up with 12 clubs; Ana has 11 and no 7, 8 or 9-iron. Ben's choices on holes 3, 4 and 6 removed Ana's scoring irons one at a time.

Ana took Ben's driver on hole 1 and Ben was no worse off from the tee. Ben took a run of consecutive irons and left Ana with nothing between a 6-iron and a pitching wedge.
Hole 2 was halved and no club changed hands.

Common variants

Loser chooses: The player losing the hole picks which club to give up. The game stays closer for longer and is the better version for players of different standards.
Lose one, win one back: A player who wins a hole while clubs down gets one club back instead of taking one from the opponent. The bags tend back toward even and the match rarely runs away.
Stroke play version: Both players play 18 holes of stroke play and lose a club for every hole they lose to par. It is a solo test and works for a single player practicing.