Two of your foursome have played golf for years. The other two started this spring. On the first tee, one of the regulars suggests the usual: a Nassau, presses, skins with carryovers, a dollar a birdie and greenies on the par 3s. The two new players nod, because nodding is easier than asking what a press is. By the 6th they have no idea what they owe, and by the 12th they have stopped asking.
Start with one game
The problem with five games at once isn’t the arithmetic. An app can do that. It’s the agreement. Every extra game is another set of rules that every player has to understand before the first tee shot, and a new player is the least likely to say they don’t.
One game means one thing to understand, one amount to agree on and one result at the end. It also means that when somebody asks “what’s going on?” on the 9th, there is a one-sentence answer.
Five decisions, made before the first tee shot
The format
Best Score is the easiest to explain: everyone puts in the same amount and the lowest total takes it. Nothing to track hole by hole, nothing to call on the course.
The amount
Pick a number the newest player would happily lose. Five dollars is plenty, and the amount is the same for everyone.
Net or gross
With new players in the group, play net, so handicap strokes are part of the score. Gross between a 9 and a 32 isn’t a game, it’s a forecast.
Ties
Say what happens to a tie before there is one. In GoLo, Best Score splits a tied place evenly, which is the simplest rule there is.
Picking up
New players pick up, and they should. Agree what goes on the card when they do, say double par, so every player has a number on every hole. Best Score compares totals, and GoLo won’t settle it while one card is missing holes.
Paying two places is friendlier than one
GoLo’s Best Score can pay one place or split between the top two or three. For a foursome with new players, the top-two split is worth a look.
At $5 each the total is $20. Winner takes all: the low net score finishes $15 up and the other three are $5 down. Top two split: first and second each get $10, so both finish $5 up and third and fourth are $5 down. Nobody can lose more than $5 either way. With clear first and second places, two people finish ahead, and a new player who has a decent back nine has a real chance of being one of them. If players tie across the paid places, they share those places’ money, so more than two players can share the total.
Handicaps for players who don’t have one yet
Net scoring needs a number for everyone. A player with a Handicap Index enters it, and GoLo works out the course handicap for the tees and places the strokes by stroke index. A guest can be added with a name and an index, no account needed.
A new player often has no index yet. The group can agree on an index for the day, entered like any other, and GoLo turns it into strokes for the tees. Agree on it before the round, not after the front nine. If nobody wants to guess, play the first round gross and for nothing, and start the game once the new player has a number. In GoLo everyone plays from the same set of tees, so a new player moving up to the forward tees isn’t something the app handles yet. The index-versus-course-handicap guide explains what the number means, and net against gross shows how much the choice can change.
The number you agree on the first tee is fair. The number you argue about on the 10th tee isn’t.
What to leave off for now
When the group is ready for them, the pressing post and how a $5 skin becomes a $60 hole explain the two that cause the most confusion.
When to add the next game
Add a second game when every player can explain the first without help, usually after a few rounds. A sensible second step is $1 standard skins with carryovers off: each hole is its own prize, a tied hole goes to nobody, and a hole won by someone else costs you $1. In a foursome, a hole you win is worth $3.
After that, try carryovers on, or a Nassau without presses. The games-for-two post walks through skins and a Nassau at small amounts, and the first-tee checklist lists everything worth agreeing once the games stack up.
Whatever you play, settle it before anyone leaves, and be generous with a new player’s money: the unwritten rules of settling up cover that. GoLo keeps the card, applies the strokes and nets the games into a short who-owes-whom list; the money moves outside the app. See one round from setup to settle-up, or get GoLo for the next one.
