“Fairways & Greens” a fun new game submitted by a loyal reader.  Akin to Bingo-Bango-Bongo, the game is won on performance.  I love these kind of games because they help you focus on each shot and ultimately contributes to your game improvement.

How to play

It’s a hole-by-hole points game where you earn 1 point for hitting a fairway, 1 point for a green in regulation, and 1 point for a one putt.  But wait, there’s more!  3 putt and you lose a point.   Oops.

For the bet, you can either place a dollar value on points, or agree on a contribution to a pot to be won.

How to Handicap

Obviously a lower handicapper has an advantage over a higher handicapper in this game.  There’s an easy fix to this.  In a twosome, the lower handicapper starts out with minus double their handicap differential.  So a 6 handicapper VS a 10 handicapper will start out with -8 points. (or you can flip it and give the 10 handicapper +8 points to start)

If you are playing the game with more than two competitors, spin the handicaps, double the strokes and give starting plus points to each player.

Spinning examples

Let’s say Player one is an 8 handicap, Player two is a 1o, Player three is a 12 and Player four is a 15.

Spinning the handicaps gives Player one= -0-, Player two = 2, Player three = 4 and Player four = 7

At the start of the match, Player one has 0 points, Player two has +4 points (double the differential), Player three has +8, and Player four has +14.

Give Fairways & Greens a try and give us your feedback!

Submitted by Dave Edison, Tigard, Oregon

OPTIONS

• After playing this game for a while you may want to evaluate the math for the pre-match awarding of points off handicaps to make it fair within your group.
• Play the game in a Nassau format with a winner on the front nine, back nine and total.
• Use this model and create your own performance measures for winning and losing points.