Ten formats · one round · one app
Every format your group plays, explained.
If you learned to play from a golfer who'd been playing for thirty years, you probably already know most of these. If you didn't, here's what each one is, how it's scored, and how Caddie Games runs it inside a round.
Nassau
The classic multi-bet round — front, back, and overall.
One Nassau round is actually three separate bets running at once: the front nine, the back nine, and the overall 18. A five-dollar Nassau usually means five dollars to whoever wins the front, five to the back, and five to the overall — three lines settled at the end.
The press is the twist. Any time you're two down in a bet, you can call a press, which opens a new bet at the original amount from the current hole forward. Presses can compound. A committed foursome can leave the 18th with half a dozen overlapping bets, and someone always has to draw the diagram on a napkin.
How Caddie Games scores it
Caddie Games runs the front, back, and overall automatically. When someone says press the back, Caddie Games opens a new line, notes who accepted, and keeps every running press separate in the standings. No napkin, no arithmetic on the walk to the cart.
Skins
One hand per hole. Winner takes the pot, ties carry it forward.
The lowest net score on a hole wins that hole's skin. If two or more players tie for lowest, no one wins — the skin carries to the next hole and doubles up until someone wins outright. Some groups play net (handicap-adjusted), some scratch, some with a validation rule that a birdie is required to carry.
Skins keeps a wide-open round tense into the back nine. A single skin on 15 can be worth more than the front nine's dollar total, and the group that spent the front carrying pots is suddenly playing for real money.
How Caddie Games scores it
Caddie Games watches every hole, awards or carries the skin per your group's rules, and reads back the current pot on request. Configurable per group: net vs. gross, carryover on or off, birdie-required validation.
Junk is a collection of little bets that reward specific things happening during a hole. Sandies (par or better from a bunker). Greenies (closest to the pin on a par-3). Barkies (par or better after hitting a tree). Chip-ins. Pollies. Waterries. Snakes. Every group runs a different set.
The naming is half the point. Groups argue at the turn about whether a shot off the cart path counts as a barky, whether a fringe putt was really a chip-in, whether the greenie on 12 got knocked out when someone hit it closer three groups later. That's Junk in action.
How Caddie Games scores it
Pick which Junk your group counts (or use a preset), and Caddie Games tallies each type separately. Say I got a sandy on 7 and the tally moves; add a new Junk type mid-round without restarting anything.
Wolf
Rotating captain picks a partner off the tee, or goes lone wolf.
Every hole, a different player is the wolf. The wolf tees off first (some groups run it in reverse — check your rules), watches the other three hit, and picks one as their partner for the hole — or declines everyone and plays as lone wolf for a bigger stake. Team-scored: lowest ball for the wolf-and-partner side vs. lowest of the other two.
Rotation moves the wolf through the group so each player captains every fourth hole. The game rewards reading who's on and who's off that day; picking the wrong partner off a good tee shot can lose the hole before anyone reaches the green.
How Caddie Games scores it
Caddie Games tracks the rotation, records who was picked (or if the wolf went alone), and scores side-vs-side per hole. Say I pick Ryan and the caddie writes it down; say I'm going lone wolf and the stake doubles.
Nine Points
Nine points per hole, distributed across the group by finish.
Nine points get split each hole based on where players finished. A common threesome split: 5-3-1 (best score gets 5, middle gets 3, worst gets 1). Or 5-2-2 (best gets 5, other two split 4). Foursomes run 4-3-2-0 or similar. Ties split the tied places evenly.
The game rewards steady scoring across all 18 holes more than any single dramatic hole. A group of even players can walk off 18 separated by two or three total points, and it comes down to a handful of holes where someone made a good par and someone else made a soft bogey.
How Caddie Games scores it
Pick your split (5-3-1, 5-2-2, or a custom point distribution), and Caddie Games does the per-hole point split automatically as scores come in. Standings update the moment the last player finishes a hole.
Golf Poker
Cards for the good holes. Chip the pot for the bad ones. Play the hand at 18.
Two currencies run in parallel across the round. You draw a card every time you make a birdie or better, or a one-putt or better — one card each, one draw per event, so a birdie made with a one-putt is worth two. You chip into the pot every time you double-bogey a hole or three-putt a green. Good moments earn cards; bad moments feed the pot.
At 18 everyone plays a poker hand with the cards they collected. Best hand takes the whole pot. A tidy round of a few birdies and a couple of one-putts leaves you with five or six cards to work with; a round with two doubles and a three-putt leaves you paying into someone else's win.
How Caddie Games scores it
Caddie Games tallies both sides in real time as scores come in: cards earned on birdies and one-putts, pot dollars added on doubles and three-putts. The physical deck and the final poker hand stay with the group — Caddie Games just keeps the running counts honest so nobody has to remember who's earned what.
Baseball
Birdies are singles. Eagles are doubles. Three bogeys and you're out.
Scores map to baseball: birdies are singles, eagles are doubles, double eagles are triples, hole-in-ones are home runs. Bogeys are outs — three in a row and the batter is retired for the inning. Runs score when subsequent hits advance the runners already on base.
Some groups run strict innings across nine or 18 holes with three-out sides; others just tally total bases and call it a game. The stricter version rewards streaks; the tally version rewards consistency.
How Caddie Games scores it
Pick your Baseball flavor — strict innings or total bases — and Caddie Games tracks the tally per player as scores come in. The caddie reads out inning changes so nobody has to keep the count in their head.
Stroke play
Lowest total score wins. The oldest format there is.
Every hole counts. Every stroke counts. Total gross score across 18 holes decides the round. Net stroke play subtracts each player's course handicap from their gross to level the field for players of different skill.
It's the format every scorecard was originally designed for, and it's the one most people mean when they say let's play. Handicap-adjusted net stroke play is what most club competitions use.
How Caddie Games scores it
Enter scores per hole (voice or tap) and Caddie Games totals gross and net standings as they come in. Handicaps pull automatically from GHIN so net scoring works out of the box for anyone in your group who's linked.
Stableford
Points per hole against par. Highest total wins — and blowups don't kill you.
Every hole earns points based on your net score against par. Standard scoring: birdie 3, par 2, bogey 1, double-bogey or worse 0. Modified (the format the PGA's WM Phoenix Open uses) rewards aggression harder and punishes blowups: eagle 5, birdie 2, par 0, bogey minus one, double or worse minus three. Highest total after 18 wins.
The reason Stableford exists: in stroke play, one triple-bogey wrecks your card. In Stableford, you pick up, take the zero, and the round keeps going. It's the format of choice at UK and European clubs, at member-guest events, and anywhere a group wants aggressive play without a single bad hole ending the day.
How Caddie Games scores it
Pick Standard, Modified, or a custom point table — Caddie Games scores per hole with your handicap allowance applied, and totals both individual and team standings live. Configurable stakes: per point, winner-takes-pot, a Nassau-style front/back/overall split, or per-hole with tie carryover.
Match play
Hole by hole. Up, down, or all square.
You don't total scores in match play — you win, lose, or halve each hole. If you shoot lower than your opponent, you're one up. Ties are halved and the score stays the same. The match ends the moment a player is up by more holes than there are left to play. That's the classic 3 & 2 finish — three up with two to play, no math left to do.
Match play runs head-to-head between two players or side-vs-side between teams. Groups often run it as one bet inside a larger round alongside Nassau and Skins.
How Caddie Games scores it
Caddie Games tracks the match state hole by hole and reads the running score in match-play vocabulary: 1 up, all square, 3 & 2 finish. Works standalone or alongside any other format your group is running.
Bring the whole group. It's more fun that way.
Caddie Games is designed for the group — the more of your regulars on it, the better it gets.
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