- Games
- Skins
How to play skins in golf
Every hole is a prize, and the one player with the lowest score on it wins it. Tie for low and nobody does. It suits a foursome or a field of forty, and any mix of handicaps once it's played net.
Free for a single round. Players never sign up.
The rules. One hole, one winner, or nobody.
A skin is a hole won outright. Everyone plays their own ball, and on each hole the lowest score takes the skin only if nobody else matches it. Two players tied for low and the hole has no winner, however many others they beat.
That's the whole game. The rest is two questions to settle on the first tee: gross or net, and what happens to a tied hole.
- Set the stake. Usually a buy-in each, which makes the pot: four players at $18 is a $72 pot. Some groups play a fixed amount a hole instead.
- Agree gross or net. Net takes each player's handicap strokes off on the holes they get them. Gross is scores as they stand.
- Agree what a tie does. Either the hole is simply dead, or its money carries over onto the next hole.
- Play each hole. The lowest score, alone, wins the skin. Two or more tied for low: no skin.
- Count and pay. Without carryovers, the pot divides by the number of skins won. With them, each skin pays the holes it carried.
Four players, nine holes, $72.
Dale, Tom, Ray and Mike play nine holes of gross skins at $2 a hole each: $18 a man, a $72 pot, $8 a hole. Shaded scores won the hole; red is under par.
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Tot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Par | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 36 |
| Dale | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 38 |
| Tom | 4 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 39 |
| Ray | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 39 |
| Mike | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
| Skin | tie | Ray | tie | tie | Tom | tie | Dale | tie | Ray | 4 |
| Carried | $8 | $16 | $8 | $16 | $24 | $8 | $16 | $8 | $16 |
| Player | Skins | No carry | Carryover |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dale | 1 hole 7 | $18 | $16 |
| Tom | 1 hole 5 | $18 | $24 |
| Ray | 2 holes 2, 9 | $36 | $32 |
| Mike | 0 | $0 | $0 |
| Pot | 4 | $72 | $72 |
No carryovers: $72 ÷ 4 skins = $18 a skin, whichever hole it came on. Carryovers: Tom's birdie on 5 came after two tied holes, so it paid three holes' worth, $24. Same scores, different money: that's the whole argument about carryovers.
The house rules groups argue about.
None of these is the one true way. Pick before the first tee shot, because every one of them changes who gets paid.
Handicaps. Net skins: strokes on the hard holes.
In net skins each player takes a stroke off on the holes their handicap gives them, hardest first by the card's stroke index. A course handicap of 12 gets a stroke on stroke index 1 to 12; an 18 gets one on every hole; a 22 gets two on the four hardest.
Say the 2nd is stroke index 3 and Mike plays off 12. His 5 there is a net 4, which doesn't touch Ray's 3, but if he'd made 4 it would have been a net 3, tied Ray, and killed the skin.
Because the strokes land on the hardest holes, that's where net skins get won. Groups that find the high handicaps taking too many play off the low man (the lowest handicap plays at scratch, everyone else gets the difference), play a reduced allowance, or run gross and net as two pots.
Settling the money. What each player is up, after the buy-in.
Everyone paid $18, so each player's result is what they won less $18. From the example:
| Player | No carry | Carryover |
|---|---|---|
| Dale | $0 | −$2 |
| Tom | $0 | +$6 |
| Ray | +$18 | +$14 |
| Mike | −$18 | −$18 |
Every column adds to zero. With no carryovers, Mike pays Ray $18 and nobody else moves money. With carryovers: Mike pays Ray $14 and Tom $4, and Dale pays Tom $2.
In Live Links Golf. Scored off the card. Nobody names a winner.
Each player's scores go in from the cart, and the skins work themselves out from the card, across every group on the round. Set it up in round setup, play, and the finish screen has each player's figure and who pays whom.
Skins, asked on the first tee.
What happens to a skin when players tie?
Nobody wins that hole. If your group plays carryovers, its money rolls onto the next hole; if not, the hole is dead and the pot is shared across the skins that were won.
How much is a skin worth?
Without carryovers, the pot divided by the number of skins won: a $72 pot with four skins won pays $18 a skin. With carryovers, each hole is worth the pot divided by the holes played, and a skin pays every hole it carried.
What does it mean to validate a skin?
A house rule some groups play: to keep a skin, the winner has to tie or win the next hole, or make par on it. If they don't, the skin goes back into the pot.
Should skins be gross or net?
Net when handicaps differ much, so everyone has a chance at a skin. Gross when the group is close in ability. Plenty of groups run both as two pots.
What if the last holes tie with carryovers on?
That money hasn't been won. Agree the answer before you start: the last skin winner takes it, it's split among everyone who won a skin, a playoff, or it carries into the next round.