Playing Tip  

Skins Game

Do you like to compete with your friends while playing a round of golf? The skins game is an excellent format to play and makes a round more exciting and dramatic with the added competition amongst friends. There are two skins formats that I know and enjoy playing.

In the first, and what I call basic skins, such as played each year on television by the pros, each hole is given a cash value amount and a player wins a skin(s) by having the lowest score of the group on a particular hole. If no one wins a hole then the cash value is "carried over" to the next hole and so on, until a hole is won. That player then wins the cash amount for all holes played to that point and the game begins again on the next hole to be played. This format can also be played without having "carry overs". This basic skins format is the most recognized skins format and probably played by thousands of foursomes during their weekend games all across America.

The second skins format is called "confirms and steals" and has a couple of added twists to the basic skins format. In confirms and steals a player must "confirm" his skin on the next hole played by tying or beating the lowest score made by his fellow competitors. For instance, if Bob makes a birdie for a skin he can confirm his skin with a bogey on the next hole if that score ties or beats the lowest score made by any of the others in the group. If, however, Bob had made a bogey and at least two others in the group made a par then the skins would go back on the table for all to compete for. To "steal" a skin(s) a player has to make the lowest score in the group on a hole where someone else is trying to confirm his skin(s) from the previous hole. The player who steals the skin(s) is then subject to the same criteria and chances losing them if he doesn't successfully confirm them or has them stolen once again by another player.

In the basic skins format once a skin is won it is in the bank forever, but in the "confirms and steals" format, you sometimes sense that it is never over because of all the possibilities that can arise. I really enjoy playing the "confirms and steals" format because it adds double the pressure to win a skin and thus double the excitement. Try it in your group this weekend.

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