The quickest way to tire of golf with the same crowd is to play the same game every week. The format is the flavouring: swap it around and a familiar course, a familiar four and a familiar Saturday feel new again. The right format also does something kinder; it drags every player into the contest, so the lad off 24 has as much to offer his team as the one off 6, and nobody’s round is dead by the ninth. Here are twelve formats worth having in your locker, grouped by the sort of day they suit, from big-society team games to the little side bets that keep a fourball needling each other to the last putt. Pick the one that fits your group and your mood, and rotate them through the season.
What makes a format work for a mixed group?
Before the list, one principle worth holding onto: the best formats for a group of mates share three traits. Every player can contribute regardless of ability, handicaps are applied so the contest is fair, and nobody’s left grinding out a meaningless hole while the others wait. Get those right and even your highest handicapper turns up wanting to play; get them wrong and the same faces quietly drift away.
The twelve below are sorted by occasion: team games for a big day out, quick betting games for a regular fourball, and season-long competitions that keep people coming back. Most work happily off full or reduced handicap allowances, so agree the allowance and the stakes on the first tee, before anyone’s ego gets involved.
Which team formats suit a big away day?
When the whole society’s out and the point is the day rather than the medal, team formats do the heavy lifting. These five spread the pressure around and make sure the quieter members are still part of it.
1. Fourball better-ball. The staple. Two teams of two, everyone plays their own ball, and the better score of the pair counts on each hole. It’s forgiving and sociable, because one partner can have a wipe on a hole while the other holds the fort, and it barely slows play at all.
2. Foursomes. One ball between two, played in alternate shots, and you alternate the tee shots too, so one drives the odd holes and the other the evens. It’s fast, tense and a proper test of a partnership, since you’re forever playing from your mate’s misses as well as your own. A classic away-day morning game.
3. Greensomes. A gentler cousin of foursomes. Both partners drive, you pick the better of the two tee shots, then play alternate shots in from there. You lose the terror of one player carrying every drive, which makes it far kinder for mixed-ability pairs while keeping the alternate-shot fun.
4. Texas scramble. The great leveller. Everyone in the team drives, you choose the best ball, everyone plays their next shot from that spot, and you repeat all the way to the cup. Add a minimum-drives rule, say each player’s tee shot must be used at least three or four times, so the longest hitter doesn’t simply monopolise it. Brilliant for a big field and a nervous beginner alike.
5. Waltz, or 1-2-3. In a team of four you count the single best score on the first hole of each trio, the best two scores added together on the second, and the best three on the third, then waltz back to one and repeat. It rewards a team that shares its good holes around rather than leaning on one hot player.
Which games keep a regular fourball on its toes?
For a standing weekend four, the fun is in the running contest and the modest stakes. These four turn a round into a rolling series of little battles, with a few quid or the next round of drinks riding on the outcome.
6. Skins. Every hole is worth a skin, usually a small agreed stake. Win the hole outright and the skin’s yours; tie it and the skin carries to the next hole, and the next, until someone wins one. A run of halved holes can leave a single putt worth a startling little pot, which does wonderful things for the concentration.
7. Wolf. Made for a four. The tee order rotates every hole, and the last to play, the ‘Wolf’, watches each drive and decides whether to snap up that player as a partner for the hole or to go it alone as a ‘lone wolf’ for a bigger reward. It’s equal parts golf and poker, and it keeps even a duffer relevant, because everyone wants the Wolf on their side.
8. Nassau. Not one bet but three: the front nine, the back nine and the full eighteen, all settled separately. Lose the front in a huff and you’ve still got two matches live, which keeps a one-sided game alive long after a straight matchplay would have fizzled out. The classic structure for a friendly needle match.
9. The chair, or Chairman. You become the chairman by winning a hole outright, and while you hold the chair you pocket a point for every further hole you win. The moment someone else wins a hole outright, the chair and its scoring pass to them; halve a hole and nothing moves. House rules vary from group to group, but the joy is constant: to score you have to beat the whole field on a hole, not merely avoid losing.
Which formats reward you all season long?
Some of the best group golf plays out over months, not a single afternoon. These three give your calendar a spine and a reason to keep score even on an ordinary Tuesday.
10. Individual Stableford. The backbone of club golf, and the natural default for most society days, because it uses each player’s handicap on every hole and lets a mixed field compete straight up. It earns a guide of its own, so we’ve set out the points, the strategy and the variants in our Stableford scoring explainer.
11. Matchplay ladder. Everyone’s name goes on a ranked list. You challenge someone a rung or two above you, and beat them to swap places, so the standings churn all season. It’s a low-effort way to get your members playing competitive one-on-one matches right through the year, arranged between themselves without the committee lifting a finger.
12. Eclectic. Played over several rounds on the same course, you keep only your best-ever score on each individual hole across all of them, and your eclectic card is that dream composite. It rewards turning up regularly, keeps your ordinary midweek round meaningful, and produces the one scorecard where you finally birdie the hole that usually eats you alive.
So which format should your group pick?
With twelve on the table the honest answer is to match the format to the day and the group in front of you. A big, mixed away day wants a Texas scramble or a waltz, so the beginners have cover and everyone finishes together. A tight, competitive four wants skins, Wolf or a Nassau, where the needle is the whole point. A society trying to crown a champion over a season wants Stableford days feeding an order of merit, with an eclectic and a matchplay ladder ticking along in the background.
Whatever you land on, the admin is the bit that quietly decides whether people bother. Working out better-ball points, tracking a running skins pot or keeping a ladder up to date across a season is exactly the sort of faff that gets abandoned by August. An app like Foremates handles the scoring and live leaderboards for team and individual formats alike, so the maths looks after itself and you can get on with the golf. If you’re stringing a full fixture list of these together, our guide to organising a golf society covers how to build them into a season.
The formats are just tools. The real trick is variety: rotate them through the year, save the team games for the big days, let the side bets simmer on a wet Wednesday, and you’ll keep every player, low or high, turning up with something to play for.