SKINS · HOLE BY HOLE
Skins
Every hole is its own skin. Post the low score alone and the skin is yours — tie it and nobody wins, so the skin carries onto the next tee and gets heavier.
HOW IT WORKS
Eighteen holes, eighteen separate paydays.
Skins throws out your total score entirely. Each hole is a standalone game worth one "skin," and the only thing that matters is beating everyone else on that hole. Nobody wins it outright? The skin carries, and the next hole is suddenly worth double.
Agree what a skin is worth
Pick a number — $5 is standard. In a foursome, every clean win means each of the other three hands you $5, so a skin pays $15.
Low score alone takes it
Not the lowest tied for it — the lowest, alone. Two players at par and everyone else worse? Nobody wins that hole.
Ties carry the skin forward
A halved hole rolls its skin onto the next one. Four quiet holes in a row and the fifth is worth five skins.
Decide on validation
Some groups make you birdie to win carried skins, or require a par minimum. Set the rule before the first tee, not after the argument.
Net it at the 18th
GoLo counts every skin, resolves every carry, and reduces the whole thing to one number each player owes or is owed.
WATCH IT PLAY OUT
A $5 skin that turned into a $75 hole.
Four players, $5 a skin — so every clean win pays $15. Then four holes get halved in a row and the eighth tee gets very quiet.
- H3One skinOnly birdie on the par 5 — clean win+$15
- H4–7Four straight halvesNobody wins clean — carry builds to five skinscarry
- H8Tom chips inTakes all five skins — a $75 hole−$25
- H14Three skinsTwo carried in, your 30-footer clears it+$45
- RESTThe other eleven holesYour 2 skins against Mike and Dave’s 7−$5
CARRYOVERS & VARIATIONS
The carryover is what makes skins mean.
Tie a hole and nobody wins it — the skin carries forward. GoLo tracks every carried skin so you always know what the next hole is worth.
The carryover
Every halved hole rolls forward. GoLo shows the live skins on the scoring screen before anyone stands over the next putt.
Validation rules
Make players earn a big carry with birdie-to-win or a par minimum on carried skins.
Net skins
Play off handicaps and GoLo allocates strokes by stroke index, hole by hole.
Stack the side games
Run skins beside a Nassau, Best Score or Wolf, then settle once.
PLAY SMART
Skins pays birdies, not steady golf.
Every hole resets, so the money goes to whoever is willing to make one great swing at the right moment.
Go at the pin when the carry is big
A big carry rewards one aggressive swing. Safe golf wins nothing when two other players are also making par.
Par rarely wins alone
In a foursome, someone usually makes par. If you need the skin, you probably need a birdie.
Settle the halve rule first
Decide before the first tee what happens to skins still carrying after 18.
TALK THE TALK
The terms you'll hear on the tee.
- Skin
- The prize for one hole. Won only by the player with the outright lowest score on that hole.
- Carryover (carry)
- A skin nobody won. It rolls onto the next hole, stacking on top of that hole’s own skin.
- Push
- A tied low score. Nobody wins the hole and the skin carries.
- Halve
- The match-play word for a tied hole. In skins the same tie is a push, and the skin carries.
- Validation
- A house rule that carried skins only count on a birdie or better.
- Net skins
- Skins played off handicaps, with strokes allocated hole by hole.
- Barkie / sandy
- Bonus mini-skins for making par after hitting a tree or getting up and down from a bunker.
SKINS, ANSWERED
Before you tee it up.
Never argue about a carryover again.
Set your skin value, add the group, and GoLo tracks every carry and who owes what at the 18th.
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