Golf games
Parful runs thisSkins
Also called Skins game, Skins golf.
Skins is a golf betting game in which each hole is worth one skin and the skin goes to the player with the outright lowest score on that hole. When two or more players tie for low, nobody wins the skin and it carries over, so the next hole is worth two skins, until someone wins a hole outright.
- Players
- 2 or more, anyone in the outing, any group
- Scoring basis
- Gross or net, chosen when the game is created (net by default)
- Unit
- One skin per hole, plus any skins carried from tied holes
- Ties
- Always carry over to the next hole
- Winner
- Most skins; equal skins are separated by lower total score
- Needs
- A hole score for each player; no extra input
How skins works
Every hole on the card is worth one skin. When the hole is finished, the scores of everyone in the game are compared. If one player has a lower score than everyone else, that player wins the skin. If two or more players share the lowest score, the hole is tied and nobody wins it.
A tied skin is not lost. It carries over and is added to the next hole, so hole 2 is worth two skins if hole 1 was tied, and hole 3 is worth three if hole 2 was tied as well. The carryover keeps growing until a player wins a hole outright and collects every skin that has piled up. That is why one good hole late in a round can decide the whole game.
Skins can be played gross, where the scores on the card are compared as written, or net, where each player's handicap strokes on the hole are taken off first. Net skins suits a group with a wide spread of handicaps; gross skins is the usual choice among players of similar ability.
Counting the skins
The value of a hole is one plus the number of tied holes immediately before it. Once a hole is won outright the count resets to zero. Nothing else changes the value of a hole: par, difficulty and the size of the winning margin are all irrelevant. A birdie that wins by one and a bogey that wins by one are worth the same skin.
At the end of the round the player with the most skins wins. If two players have the same number of skins, Parful places the player with the lower total score first. A carryover still open on the last hole is never awarded: if the final hole is tied, the skins that were riding on it are simply unclaimed.
Try it
Can we play Skins in our format?
Derived from the same compatibility rules the scorecard uses, so it cannot drift from the product.
Own ball, individual
Available
Four-ball, best ball, counted scores
Available
Shamble, bramble, cha cha cha
Available
Scramble, foursomes, greensomes, chapman
Needs a score per player; this format keeps one per side
Where the game is won
Skins rewards the outright winner, so a safe par in a group that makes bogeys is worth exactly as much as an eagle. The pressure builds when several holes have carried: a player who has not won a skin all day can catch the leader with one hole. In a large field, outright winners are rarer and carryovers stack higher, so a 20-player net skins game often ends with fewer than half the skins claimed.
How Parful scores it
Skins is available in two places. A member can start it from the group scorecard as a private challenge with anyone in the outing, in any group, and a club can run it as a shared pool for the whole field with a buy-in. In both cases the scores are the ones already on the card; there is no extra input and no decision to record.
When the game is created the creator picks gross or net. Net uses each player's handicap strokes on each hole from their Course Handicap™. The setup screen also shows a carryover toggle; in the current build ties always carry over regardless of that setting, and this page describes the behavior that actually runs.
The standings recompute on every score entered, and a corrected score reruns the whole game from hole 1. Skins works on any format where each player records their own hole score, including four-ball and shamble; it is not available on a scramble, foursomes, greensomes or chapman, where there is one score per team. For a club pool with a buy-in, the pot shown is the buy-in multiplied by the players who have paid.
Worked example
A worked example: the front nine, four players, net
Ana, Ben, Cal and Dee play net skins over 18 holes. The table shows their net scores on the first nine holes and how the carryover moves.
| Hole | Ana | Ben | Cal | Dee | Low | Result | Skins won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 (Ana, Cal) | Tied, 1 skin carries | 0 |
| 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 (Ben) | Ben wins outright | Ben 2 |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 (Ana, Dee) | Tied, 1 skin carries | 0 |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 (Ana, Ben) | Tied, 2 skins carry | 0 |
| 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 (Dee) | Dee wins outright | Dee 3 |
| 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 (all) | Tied, 1 skin carries | 0 |
| 7 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 (Ana) | Ana wins outright | Ana 2 |
| 8 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 (Cal) | Cal wins outright | Cal 1 |
| 9 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 (Ana, Cal, Dee) | Tied, 1 skin carries to hole 10 | 0 |
- Hole 5 was worth three skins: its own, plus the skins carried from the ties on holes 3 and 4. Dee's net 3 collected all three.
- Ana and Ben both have 2 skins. Parful lists the player with the lower total net score first, so if Ana finishes the round on 72 net and Ben on 74 net with 2 skins each, Ana is placed above Ben.
- If this were a nine-hole outing, the skin carried from hole 9 would be unclaimed and only eight skins would count.
Common variants
- No carryover
- A tied hole's skin is forfeited and the next hole is worth one skin only. Parful always carries ties over, so this variant is not scored.
- Validation
- A player who wins a skin must par or better the next hole to keep it, otherwise the skin goes back into the pot. Parful does not score validation; a skin won is kept.
- Whole-field skins pool
- The club runs skins across the entire outing with a buy-in and pays the pot out by skins won. Parful runs this as a shared pool that a manager sets up.
- Money per skin
- Groups attach a stake to each skin, usually a fixed amount. Parful can carry a per-skin stake on a private game, shows who owes whom at the end and never moves money.