Las Vegas Golf Game Rules: The Flip and Scoring

The rules

Split the four of you into two teams before you tee off. Both golfers on a team play their own ball all the way out — there is no best ball and nothing to concede. At the end of the hole each team makes a number out of its two scores, and the two numbers are compared.

The margin is the difference between the numbers, not one point for the hole. That is the whole character of the game: a routine hole is worth eight or ten points, and a hole where somebody loses a ball is worth fifty.

Pick the teams

Two and two, drawn or agreed. Most groups keep them for the round; some redraw at the turn.

Everybody holes out

Both scores count on every hole, which means the second ball matters as much as the first.

Make the number, take the difference

Low score first, apply any flip, subtract. The points go into a running total for the round.

Building the number

One rule, and one exception that comes up more than you would think.

Lower score in front

Always, unless somebody hits double figures.

4 AND 5

3 AND 7

5 AND 5

6 AND 10

106

A ten or worse goes in front. A 6 and a 10 is 106, not 610 — otherwise a single blow-up hole would be worth six hundred points and the round would be over.

Why the second ball is the whole game

In a best-ball game your partner making seven costs you nothing at all. Here it goes straight onto the back of your number. A team that goes 4 and 7 makes 47; the same team with a 4 and a 5 makes 45. Nobody is carried in Las Vegas, and every shot the second ball drops is a point off the hole.

The flip

A birdie by anybody on your team reverses the other team’s number. Their 47 becomes 74. Nothing changes about your own number — you just make theirs as expensive as it can be. This is what turns Las Vegas from arithmetic into a gambling game, and it is the rule most groups get wrong on the first tee.

Birdie

Flip the opponents’ number once. Two birdies on the same team flip it once, not twice — the number is already the wrong way round.

47 → 74

one flip

Eagle

Flip, then double the whole hole. Groups differ on whether an eagle flips a number a birdie already flipped; the tidy answer is that the number is flipped once and the doubling does the rest.

×2

and flipped

Both teams birdie

Both numbers flip. It happens on the short par fives, and it usually leaves the hole roughly where it started — which is the point. You matched them.

both

flipped

The order matters

Build both numbers first, then apply the flips, then subtract. Doing it the other way round — reversing the digits as you write them down — is how a hole ends up scored twice and nobody can work out why the totals do not agree at the turn.

Scoring, worked all the way through

Paul and Dave against Sam and Lee, at ten cents a point — the three holes from the diagram above.

Hole 1 — a normal hole

par 4

Paul 4, Dave 5. Sam 5, Lee 6. No birdies, so nothing flips.

PAUL & DAVE — 45

+11

$1.10

SAM & LEE — 56

−11

56 − 45

Hole 2 — a hole where nothing happens

par 4

Paul 4, Dave 5 again — 45. Sam and Lee both make par, so they are 44. No birdies, so nothing flips, and one shot on the card is the whole hole.

PAUL & DAVE — 45

−1

45 − 44

SAM & LEE — 44

10¢

Hole 3 — the one that hurts

par 4

Dave holes a birdie putt for 3 and Paul makes par, so they are 34. Sam makes 5 and Lee takes 8, so 58. Dave’s birdie flips 58 into 85. One hole, fifty-one points, and Lee is the reason.

PAUL & DAVE — 34

+51

$5.10

SAM & LEE — 58 FLIPPED TO 85

−51

85 − 34

AFTER THREE HOLES

Paul & Dave

+61

$6.10, or $3.05 each

Sam & Lee

−61

$3.05 each out

Two ordinary holes were worth twelve points between them. The third was worth fifty-one on its own. That is the shape of every Las Vegas round — nothing much happens, and then everything happens at once.

Picking a stake

The one thing to get right before you tee off. Points in Las Vegas run an order of magnitude higher than in any other golf game, so the per-point number has to be an order of magnitude lower. Ten cents a point is the standard.

5¢ A POINT

$8–15

a typical round

10¢ A POINT

$15–30

the usual game

25¢ A POINT

$40–90

know your group

A round usually settles somewhere between 150 and 300 points. Multiply the point value by 250 and ask whether you would be happy losing that.

House rules worth agreeing on the first tee

Las Vegas has more variants than most, because every group finds its own way to cap the damage. Settle these before you start.

Does a birdie flip the number, or multiply it?

Two ways to price a birdie, and they are not close in effect. Flip reverses the opponents’ number — 58 becomes 85 — so the swing depends on how lopsided their two scores were: a 58 flips savagely, a 55 not at all. Multiply doubles the hole’s point difference instead, which is predictable and always hurts. Flip is the traditional rule and the more interesting one, because it rewards a birdie most when the other side already has one bad score on the hole.

Which handicap method?

Three choices. Gross is the traditional game and right when the four are close in ability. Net gives everyone their full allocation. Strokes off low is the middle road and the usual pick: the lowest handicap plays to scratch and everyone else receives the difference, allocated by stroke index. A Net % setting scales whichever allocation you chose — 100% is the full difference, and dialling it down is how a group softens a wide handicap spread without going gross. Whichever you pick, strokes matter more here than in most games: a stroke does not just win a hole, it changes a digit. Turning a 6 into a 5 moves your number by ten points if it is the back digit, and by far more if it reorders the pair.

Does a halved hole carry?

By default nothing happens: the difference is zero and the hole is simply halved. With carryover on, a halved hole’s stake rides onto the next one, so the hole after an identical pair of numbers is worth double. It makes the rare halve matter and it is the one option that can make a quiet stretch expensive.

Is there a maximum score on a hole?

Most groups cap an individual at double par, or at triple bogey, and write that number down instead of what actually happened. Without a cap, one lost ball on a par five can be worth more than the rest of the front nine put together. Capping is the single most common house rule in the game — and it is an agreement between the four of you, not a setting: agree the number on the first tee and post the capped score.

Do the teams change?

Fixed teams for eighteen is simplest. The livelier version rotates every six holes so everyone partners everyone, and the round becomes three separate matches — which also means nobody spends the whole day tied to the one man who is out of form.

Does an eagle really double?

Some groups double, some triple, some do nothing beyond the flip. Doubling is the common one. Whatever you pick, say it out loud on the first tee, because the hole it comes up on is always a big one.

Scoring Las Vegas without doing the arithmetic

Las Vegas looks easy and is not. Every hole you have to order two pairs of digits, check whether a ten belongs in front, work out who birdied and whose number it flips, subtract, and then add a two-digit result to a running total that is already in the hundreds. Miss a flip on the fourth hole and the number in the car park is wrong.

Halved does that part. Post gross scores like any other round. It builds both numbers, applies the flip, keeps the running total in dollars, and shows the whole group the same figure.

The flips are automatic

It knows a 3 on a par 4 is a birdie and reverses the other number without being asked.

The hole, shown as a pair

13 against 43 for +30, hole by hole, so a big swing is never a mystery afterwards.

Points shown in money

Four hundred and forty points means nothing. $4.40 each means something.

Edit Vegas screen in the Halved golf app: the four golfers dragged into a blue and an orange team with their course handicaps, a Net / Gross / SO Low handicap selector with a Net % slider, and a Birdies control set to Flip — Set the teams and the rules
Drag the pairs, pick the handicap method, and choose whether a birdie flips or multiplies.

Hole 3 score entry in Halved for Las Vegas: the two teams colour-coded blue and orange, a circled 2 marking Wendy’s gross birdie, and a card below showing the hole as 13 against 43 for +30 points — See why the hole cost that
Both numbers, the flip that caused it, and the margin.

Las Vegas leaderboard in Halved: Wendy and Paul 41 points and $1,590 up against Pete and Hal, a biggest-hole callout naming hole 3, a hole-by-hole strip of paired numbers, and the full scorecard — Know where you stand
Points and money side by side, all round.

Play Las Vegas. Let something else keep score.

Free for the group, flips applied automatically, and the settlement is done before you get to the car park.

Get Halved See the other formats

Questions people ask

Why is it called Las Vegas?

Because of the swing. Points come in twos and threes on the ordinary holes and then fifty at once on the hole where somebody makes eight, which is a good deal more like a casino than a golf bet. The name is also a warning about the stake.

Can you play Las Vegas with three or six golfers?

It needs even teams, so four or six. With six you make three-digit numbers, which sounds absurd and plays fine as long as the cap is tight. With three there is no version that works; play Wolf instead.

What happens if both teams make the same number?

Nothing. The difference is zero, so the hole is halved and no points change hands. It is rarer than it sounds, because the two numbers have to match on both digits.

Should we cap the hole score?

Yes, unless everybody in the group is a single-figure handicap. Double par is the usual cap, agreed between the group and posted as the score rather than set as an option. Without one, Las Vegas stops being a game of golf and becomes a game about who has the worst hole, and the man who has it stops enjoying his round.

IF YOU LIKE LAS VEGAS

Wolf

New teams every hole, chosen off the tee by one golfer.

Skins

Win the hole outright or the money carries to the next one.

Nassau

Three bets in one round: front, back and the whole eighteen.

Survivor

Worst score on the hole goes out. Last one standing takes it.