Side game

Call your number.

Honest Score is a golf game with no handicaps in it. You say what you are going to shoot before you play, six holes are forgiven at random afterwards, and the golfer who knew their own game best takes it. Go under your number and you are out.

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The rules

Five things, start to finish.

  1. 1
    Everyone declares a number

    Before the first tee, each golfer says what they think they will shoot. No handicaps, no strokes given, no negotiating. One number, said out loud, written down where everyone can see it.

  2. 2
    Play the round normally

    Eighteen holes, every stroke counted, exactly as you would on any card. Nothing about how you play changes — only what the number at the end is measured against.

  3. 3
    Six holes are forgiven

    When the card is finished, six of the eighteen are drawn at random and reduced to par. You do not know which ones while you are playing, so there is no hole worth giving up on and none worth protecting.

  4. 4
    Closest to the declaration wins

    Compare each golfer's forgiven total against the number they called. Smallest gap takes it.

  5. 5
    Under your number and you are out

    Beat your own declaration and you are disqualified, however close you were. Sandbagging a low number to look good, or a high one to walk it, both fail the same way.

Worked example

How it comes out.

Three golfers declare on the first tee. Ana says 88, Bo says 79, Cass says 102.

They finish on 94, 81 and 108. Six holes come out of the hat and each player's strokes on those holes drop to par — Ana loses six shots to par across them, Bo loses one, Cass loses eleven. Forgiven, they are on 88, 80 and 97.

Ana called it exactly and would win, on a gap of nought. Bo is one over the declaration, a gap of one. Cass finished five under the number she called, so she is out regardless of how well she played — declaring 102 was the mistake, not shooting 108.

Ana wins. Note what the game did not reward: Bo shot the best round of the three by thirteen strokes and came second.

Questions

Before you declare.

Why are six holes forgiven?
Because a round is decided by a small number of disasters, and a game about self-knowledge should not be decided by one shanked tee shot. Forgiving six holes strips out most of the variance and leaves the part you can actually predict.
Do I need a handicap to play?
No. Honest Score has no handicap system in it at all. Your declaration is your handicap, which is what makes it playable between a two and a twenty-eight without anyone doing arithmetic on the first tee.
Why does going under your score disqualify you?
Without that rule the game is won by declaring a number far above your ability and strolling home. Being out for going under is what forces the declaration to be honest rather than safe.
What number should I declare?
The score you shoot on an ordinary day, not your best round. Most people declare three or four shots too low the first time they play, because they are remembering the good rounds.
How do we split what we played for?
Once all six holes are drawn, set a reward pool and give each golfer a percentage of it. The card works out what everyone is owed and will not let the shares add past a hundred per cent, so the pot never promises more than went into it. Whether that pot is money, drinks or nothing at all is up to the group.
Can we play Honest Score alongside another bet?
Yes. It runs off the same strokes as everything else on the card, so a Nassau or a skins game can run at the same time without the two interfering.

Honest Score is one of three games the card scores for you. Modified Match Play and Skins are the others, and the rest are explained alongside them.

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