Golf Betting Games – 2 v 2 FORMATS

Four frienenemies are going out to play golf. You want to have fun, but not destroy any relationships. A team of two vs a team of two takes some the burden off of playing every shot well, and builds comradery, and hopefully speeds up play.

Determining the Pairing

So who will be on your team? Well, if you all know each other’s game you can set the teams.

Sixes

The first six holes Players A+B vs. C+D;

The second six holes Players A+C vs. B+D;

The last six holes Players A+D vs B+C

(Korean) Vegas

Not to be confused with VEGAS which is another 2v2 format wherein the scores are put together and then subtracted to figure out the wager.

K-Vegas is also known as “Amigo” where the teams are determined by the shots off the tee (long/short or left/right).

Longi & Shorty: Player A who had the longest drive off the tee (longi) pairs with Player D who had the shortest drive off the tee (shorty) = longi+shorty are a team vs. the other two. The teams change every hole depending on everyone’s drive.

Alternatively, for left/right pairing, the two drives furthest left play as a team vs. the two drives furthest right. Again, the teams change every hole.

“Bobp-ki”

“Bobp-ki” means “to draw”. In Korea they have nice sets that almost all caddies have in case the players want to use them. It’s basically drawing straws to see who will be paired as a team.

Rather than knowing your teammate is before the hole. Typically the four players play their own ball from tee to green. Then after each hole (and each knows their score), each player draws a straw (usually a stick with colors, or lines, or numbers at the bottom) to determine the pairing 2v2. The team with the best score wins. Each hole the pairing will be determined by the luck of the draw.

Four players draw from five sticks in the set. The fifth stick is the Joker. By standard rules, the team that draws the Joker gets a PAR (irrespective of the drawing player’s actual score). To mix things up, you can set the Joker to be a BOGIE. You can determine whether the Joker score is optional or overrides all scores – a bogie override can actually be worse for the team if the real scores were better than bogie.

Since “bobki sets” are hard to come by here in the United States, I made my own. I used an old Crown Royal velvet bag with five poker chips (two red, two blue, one white for the Joker).

Determining the Wager

You have determined how the teams are going to come together. Now we determine how and what the wager will be.

Best Ball vs. Shamble vs. Scramble

“Best Ball” really should be called “Best Score.” This is often very confusing. In a team format, the “Best Ball” means each player plays their own ball and the best individual score among them is the team score.

A “Scramble” score: Each teammate tees off. They determine which tee shot is the best. Then all team members take their second shot from that location. The team determines which second shot was the best, and the team members all take their third shot from that location. This continues until a ball is holed out.

A “Shamble” recognizes that most players have trouble off the tee box. So the team shares the best tee shot (like a scramble), but after the tee shot, each player plays their own ball until the hole is completed.

“Worst Ball” and “Alternate Shot” are usually played when all players are very skilled. Those formats are not as popular with Koreans I know (probably because we not that good).

Hi-Low

For a team to win both players on a team have to beat both players on the other team.

[Team A best score vs. Team B best score] and [Team A worst score vs. Team B worst score]

Vegas

Each player plays their own ball and with that score, the wager is determined by placing the scores next to each other.

Team A scores bogie & double bogie is not 1+2 = 3… it is 12.

Team B scores par & bogie = 01

Team A pays Team B 12-01 = 11

There is potential for big money (hence the name “Vegas”)

Hammer

While the game of WOLF often involves a 2v2 format, we will go over Wolf in its own post.