Honors Golf Game Rules: Hold the Honor, Score the Hole

The rules

There is one honor, and it is never split or shared. After every hole, somebody holds it or it is loose. The golfer holding it after a hole scores a point. At the end of the round, points are holes held.

Low score takes it

An outright low score on a hole takes the honor, or keeps it.

A tie doesn’t beat you

If the holder is in a tie for low, he keeps it.

Hold it, score it

Every hole you finish holding the honor is a point.

Why ties matter so much

In a group of four, many holes end with two or more golfers level for low. If a tie moved the honor, it would change hands on most holes. Because it doesn’t, a golfer who takes the honor has to be beaten outright to lose it.

The four tie cases

Outright low. Takes the honor, or keeps it. The ordinary hole.

Tie that includes the holder. The holder keeps it. Nobody scored strictly below him.

Tie among golfers who all beat the holder. Walk back through the earlier holes, most recent first, until one of them scored lower. He takes the honor.

Never separated: the honor dies

If the walk-back reaches the 1st without separating them, the honor goes loose. It does not go back to the holder, because he was beaten. A loose honor scores nobody a point, and the next outright low score or walk-back winner picks it up.

Handicaps

Net

Each golfer plays his course handicap at an allowance between 50% and 130%.

Strokes off the low man

The lowest handicap plays off scratch and everyone else gets the difference.

Gross

Scores straight off the card.

The money

One point is worth one stake, so a hole held is a hole paid. The points are settled in one of four ways:

vs Average

The default. You settle against the group’s average. Hold your share of the holes and you are square.

Above you

You pay each golfer who held more holes than you, and collect from each golfer who held fewer.

Just leader

Only the golfer who held the most collects. Everyone else pays him the difference.

Pool

Everyone antes the same and the pot splits by holes held.

Honors can also be a side bet between two or three golfers in a group. Anyone not playing can’t take the honor, and neither pays nor collects. Losses can be capped per golfer for the round.

Scoring it without a spreadsheet

The honor is easy to follow for the first few holes. By the back nine, a walk-back means reading the whole card backwards to find the last hole two golfers didn’t tie. Halved works out who holds the honor after every hole and says why when a walk-back or a loose honor decides it.

Who holds it, always

The holder and his points are on the leaderboard after every hole.

Walk-backs shown

When a tie is broken on an earlier hole, the app names the hole.

Settled with the round

Points turn into money by the method you chose, with nothing to add up.

Who has the honor? Everyone should know.

Free for the group. Post the scores and Halved moves the honor, breaks the ties and settles the points.

Download on the App Store See the other formats

Questions people ask

How do you win the honor in Honors?

Make the lowest score on a hole outright. If you are tied with others who all beat the current holder, earlier holes decide between you.

Does a tie take the honor from the holder?

No. If the holder is in the tie for low, he keeps it.

What does it mean when the honor dies?

Golfers who beat the holder were tied, and walking back through every earlier hole could not separate them. The honor goes loose and nobody scores a point until someone picks it up.