Golf Vacation Games - Skins

An oldie but a goody, Skins is one of the most widely recognized and exciting golf games in the world. What makes skins so appealing is that it is easy to score, fun to play and can be contested by any number of players from a twosome to a group of sixteen. The standard number however is still four. If you play off the low man’s handicap it also means that no matter what your skill level, you can compete with the best of them and still relieve them of some funds!

In Skins your total round score is completely inconsequential. It is how you do on each individual hole that counts. The object of the game is for you to be the player with the lowest score on a hole. If you score a 4 on a hole and everybody else scores 5 or higher on that same hole then you win the skin. What makes the game interesting though is that if any two players tie on a hole, the skin is carried over and the next hole that is played is worth two skins. Confused? Here is how it works.

Let’s take a sample foursome: Bill, John, Alice and Lisa. On the very first hole Bill scores and 6, John and Alice both shoot a 5 but Lisa shoots a 4. Lisa wins the ‘skin’. On the second hole Bill shoots a 3, John, Alice and Lisa all shoot a 4. Bill wins the ‘skin’. Lisa and Bill each now have one ‘skin’. On the third hole John and Alice each shoot a 5 while Bill and Lisa shoot a 6 and a 7 respectively. Since John and Alice tied for the low score on the hole no one wins the ‘skin’. Instead that ‘skin’ is ‘carried over’ to the fourth hole and the fourth hole will now be worth two ‘skins’. On the next hole Bill and John both shoot a 3 while Lisa shoots a 4 and Alice shoots a 5. Since there is a tie again the two ‘skins’ that were up for grabs carry over to the next hole (hole number five) and now the fifth hole will be worth three skins. On the fifth hole John scores a 4 while Bill shoots a 7 and Lisa and Alice each shoot 5. Since John has the low score on that hole and no one tied him he wins the ‘skin’ for that hole and the two others that were carried over from the previous two holes. John therefore wins three ‘skins’. The total score so far for the game is therefore Bill and Lisa with one skin each and John with three. The next hole will be worth the normal one ‘skin’.

This scoring method continues until all eighteen holes have been played. When the round is done you tally each person’s total ‘skins’ and divide up the predetermined purse accordingly.