Golf game formats.

The default

Count every stroke over eighteen holes. Lowest total wins. Scores are usually read against par rather than as a raw number, so +4 means four over.

Suits: Any group, any size. It is the format every other one is measured against, and the one a scorecard is shaped for.

Strokes win the hole, golf wins the points

Two sides. Handicap strokes are added to each card and the lowest adjusted score takes the hole — then the winner's real score sets what it was worth, with a birdie paying more than a bogey. Both a side's best ball and its second ball are contested.

Suits: Two to six golfers of mixed ability who want the match live rather than settled in the bar. The strokes let a twenty beat a five; the points stop a scrambled bogey counting the same as a birdie.

Points, not strokes

Points per hole against par: one for a bogey, two for a par, three for a birdie, four for an eagle. A hole gone badly wrong scores nothing and you pick the next one up.

Suits: Society days and mixed-ability groups. One catastrophic hole costs you two points instead of wrecking the card, so nobody is playing out the back nine for nothing.

Hole by hole

Each hole is won, lost or halved on its own. The score is how many holes you are up, and a match ends when the lead is bigger than the holes left — “three and two” means three up with two to play.

Suits: Two players or two pairs. A blow-up costs you one hole and nothing more, which makes it the most forgiving format there is for a wild round.

Best score counts

Everyone plays their own ball and the team takes the best score on each hole. Larger groups vary how many count — the best one of four on each hole, or the best two added together, so one good hole does not carry the whole team.

Suits: Teams of two to four. The best-two variant is the fairer one for a mixed group, because it needs more than a single player having a day.

Alternate shot

A pair shares one ball and takes turns hitting it, alternating tee shots hole by hole regardless of who holed out last.

Suits: Pairs who want a short round. It is fast and it is unforgiving — you are playing your partner's mistakes as well as your own.

Everyone plays the best ball

All players tee off, the group picks the best shot, and everyone plays their next from there. Repeat until it drops.

Suits: Charity days, corporate outings and anyone with beginners in the group. Scores come in far under par and nobody spends the day looking for their ball.

Every hole is worth a skin. Win it outright and you take it; halve it and the skin carries into the next hole. Halved holes early make a single hole late worth a lot.

Suits: Three or four players who want every hole to matter, including the ones where the round is already gone.

Three bets on one round: the front nine, the back nine, and the eighteen overall. Losing the front nine still leaves two to play for.

Suits: Pairs and fourballs. It is the classic wager because a bad start costs you a third of the bet rather than all of it.

Declare the score you think you will shoot before you tee off. Six holes are drawn at random afterwards and forgiven down to par. Closest to your declaration wins — but go under it and you are out.

Suits: Groups of any handicap, because it measures how well you know your own game rather than how well you play.