One foursome, six three-hole matches, and a new partner every third hole. Nobody is stuck with the man who cannot putt for eighteen holes, and by the last green you have played alongside each of the other three exactly twice.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Four golfers play six separate matches of three holes, two against two, better net ball. The pairing changes on the 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th and 16th tees, running through all three possible partnerships and then repeating them. Each match is its own bet at the same stake — win one and you win one match’s worth, whatever happened on the six holes either side of it.
THE ROTATION, PAUL · ALDO · BEN · LEE
1—3
Paul & AldovBen & Lee
4—6
Paul & BenvAldo & Lee
7—9
Paul & LeevAldo & Ben
10—18
the same three pairings again, in the same order
Four golfers split two against two exactly three ways and there is no fourth. Choose the first pairing and the whole round is already decided.
4
golfers
6
matches of three holes
2×
with every partner
3
bets a match, at most
The rules
On the first tee you set one thing: who is partnered with whom for holes 1, 2 and 3. The convention is the two long drives against the two short ones, but a coin or a random draw does the job. Everything after that is arithmetic — the second pairing is the one the first leaves over, the third is the last remaining, and then it starts again on the tenth.
Each three-hole match is its own match play bet, played better net ball, and it settles on the third green. Nothing crosses a pairing change: no carryover, no running aggregate, no way for the front nine to reach into the back.
1
Set the first pairing
The only choice in the format. Long two against short two, or draw it. Matches 2 through 6 follow from it.
2
Play three holes, match play
Better net ball wins the hole. Equal halves it. Up by more than the holes left and the match is closed out.
3
Settle it and swap
The bet is banked on the third green. New partner on the next tee, new bet, nothing carried.
Why it repeats after nine
Three pairings, six matches — each one played twice.
The second half is not a fresh draw. It is the same three matches again, which is the point of the format: the pairing that beat you on the 3rd green comes back on the 10th tee, and you know it is coming. Groups that expect a re-draw at the turn should settle that before they start — there isn’t one.
Every golfer partners every other golfer exactly twice, and plays against each of them exactly four times. There is no draw luck to argue about afterwards.
How a hole resolves
Four gross scores go in, and in this order they come out the other side.
1
Apply strokes off the low index. A stroke falls where the stroke index says it falls, whichever three-hole match that lands in.
2
Take the better net ball on each side. Lower wins the hole; equal halves it. Nothing else about the other two scores matters.
3
Move the match on, and close it if it is over. Two up with one to play is closed — 2 & 1 — and the margin stops moving there even if the last hole is still played for a press.
4
Check the press triggers. Win the first hole of a match and, on the default setting, a second bet opens by itself over the two holes left.
Three holes is short, and it shows
Win the first hole of a match and you are a third of the way through it, one up, with the press already open. Lose the first two and the match is gone before you have hit a shot on the third tee. That volatility is the format — six small matches produce more decided results, and more comebacks, than one long one.
The press
A press here is a new bet at the same amount, not a doubling — the same model as a Nassau press. It runs over the holes left in that match and settles on its own, which is why a match that is already lost can still have something live on the last hole.
None
Six matches, six bets, and no arithmetic to explain to anybody. The right setting for a group playing this for the first time.
Auto press after the first hole
DEFAULT
Win the first hole of a match and a second bet at the same amount opens over holes 2 and 3. Nobody calls it and nobody can decline it. It should be plainly visible when it happens — a bet that opens without anyone touching anything has to show its cause.
Manual + auto
The above, plus one press the trailing side may call by hand. So a match carries at most three bets: the match itself, the auto press, and the called one.
A press is called on the tee, and it covers the hole you are about to play
This is the rule that matters in a three-hole match. If a press only covered the holes after the call there would be exactly one pressable hole in the whole match, and the classic press — down on the last tee, ask for it back — would be impossible. Called while everyone is still looking back at a hole already in the book, it starts on the next one: nobody presses a result they have seen.
You cannot press onto a bet that is already the same bet
If a bet is already live, level, and covers exactly the holes a press would cover, the two can only settle the same way — that is a double, not a press, and it is refused. In practice that means the second hole of a match, where the auto press already sits over holes 2 and 3. A bet carrying a margin is not a twin, so once the auto press is one up it stops blocking anything.
A three-bet match, worked all the way through
Match 2, holes 4 to 6, on Manual + Auto at $5 a golfer. Paul & Ben against Aldo & Lee. This is the ceiling case — the match ends up carrying all three bets it can — and it ends somewhere worth seeing.
All scores below are net.
Match 2 · holes 4–6
$5 per golfer · Manual + Auto
AT RISK
{{ atRisk }}
Match bet
holes 4–6
all square
$5
Match bet
holes 4–6
Paul & Ben 1 up
$5
Match bet
holes 4–6
closed · 2 & 1
$5
Match bet
holes 4–6
Paul & Ben
+$5
Auto press
holes 5–6
all square · just opened
$5
Auto press
holes 5–6
Paul & Ben dormie
$5
Auto press
holes 5–6
halved
$0
Called press
hole 6 · Aldo & Lee
all square
$5
Called press
hole 6 · Aldo & Lee
Aldo & Lee
+$5
NET SCORE
4
5
6
Paul
4
4
5
3
Aldo
5
5
4
Ben
5
4
4
4
Lee
5
6
2
2
Aldo & Lee can press — covers hole 6
A press is called on the tee, so it covers the hole being played.
Call press · $5
Aldo & Lee pressed — covers hole 6
Can be taken back until hole 6 has been played.
Called ✓
{{ stepLabel }}
{{ caption }}
MATCH 2, SETTLED
Paul
$0
Ben
$0
Aldo
$0
Lee
$0
A match won 2 & 1, three bets, fifteen dollars a golfer on the line, and nobody owes anybody a cent. That is why presses are separate bets and not multipliers — a win, a half and a loss on the same three holes cannot be expressed as one number, and a group that keeps only the match record here will be arguing about the total on the 7th tee.
The money
The stake is per golfer, per match — five dollars is the usual number, and it is not five split between a pair. Lose a match and you are down five and so is your partner; the two winners collect five each.
A halved match pays nobody and does not carry. Carrying it forward would mean a wager owed by a pair that no longer exists three holes later.
What the round can cost, at $5
Worst case for one golfer, all six matches lost.
NO PRESSES
$30
six bets
AUTO PRESS
$60
twelve, if it fires every match
MANUAL + AUTO
$90
the ceiling, three bets a match
THE ONE THING TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT SETTLING
Only the four net numbers are real. The stake is a man a match, so a lost match has two losers paying five and two winners owed five — and nothing in the format says which winner a given five dollars belongs to. When you square up, the handovers are just the shortest way to make the four nets true. They are not a record of who beat whom.
Settle these on the first tee
Four decisions, none of them wrong, all of them worth making before anyone is down money.
Handicaps: net, gross, or strokes off the low ball?
Strokes off the low ball is the sensible default. Six two-against-two matches are a match game, and full net inside three holes hands the high-handicap golfer his whole allowance in a burst — two strokes on holes 4 and 5 can decide a match on its own.
Who picks the first pairing?
Long two against short two is the convention and it makes the first match the closest one. A random draw is fairer and less negotiated. Either way it decides the entire round’s rotation, so do not let it become a twenty-minute discussion on the first tee.
Presses on or off?
The auto press doubles the number of bets and roughly doubles the swing without anybody having to remember anything. Adding the hand-called press is where the game gets interesting and where the arithmetic gets past what you want to do on a card.
Can a press be taken back?
Allow it right up until a hole it covers has been played, and not after. The tap was free; the bet is not, and a bet the group has already played on is a settlement question rather than a mistake.
Scoring it without a spreadsheet
Six matches, three of them possibly carrying three bets each, a pairing that changes every third hole and strokes falling on the full course index. On paper that is eighteen bets to track and a new pair of columns every three holes, and the failure is not dramatic — it is one hole entered against the wrong pairing and a total nobody can reconstruct.
Halved does that part. You post gross scores. It knows whose match it is, applies the strokes, opens the auto press where it fires, offers the called press to the side that is entitled to it, and ranks everyone by money rather than matches won — because a match carrying three bets is worth three flat ones.
One line per live bet
Match, auto press, called press — each with its holes, its amount and its own state. No multipliers.
The press offer names the pair
One phone scores the group, so anybody can call it for the side that is down — the card says which side that is.
Ranked by money
Won–lost–halved counts every bet, not every match, so the record and the dollars agree.
The press offer names the side
Down 1 with 2 to play, so the card offers it to Pete & Hal and says what it covers.
Every bet, stated
Three bets on one three-hole match, each with its holes, its amount and its own state.
Squared up in the car park
Sixteen bets, halves included, and the fewest handovers that make the four nets true.
Six matches, eighteen bets, one total.
Free for the group. Post gross scores and Halved handles the rotation, the strokes, the presses and the settlement.
No — the repeat is the format. Every golfer partners every other one exactly twice, and re-drawing at the turn breaks that and hands the second half to whoever draws well. If you want a fresh draw, play two nine-hole Sequoyas instead and settle each one.
How is this different from Sixes?
Same idea — rotate the partnerships so nobody is stuck — at a different resolution. is three matches of six holes; Sequoya is six of three. Shorter matches mean more of them decided early, more presses, and a first hole that is worth a third of the match on its own.
What happens to a halved match?
It pays nothing and nothing carries. It still belongs on the receipt at zero — six matches were played, and a settlement listing five invites exactly the question a settlement exists to prevent.
Can you play a match that is already closed out?
You play the hole, but the match margin does not move — a match closed 2 & 1 stays 2 & 1 however the last hole goes. What you are playing that hole for is the press, which is a separate bet and still live. This is the one game where holes after a close-out are routinely played out.
Why is one golfer up on matches but level on money?
A press that went the other way. The match record counts matches; the money counts bets, and a match carrying three of them can be a win, a half and a loss at once. That is not an error in the total — it is the reason the standings rank on money.
Can you play it with three, or five?
No. The whole structure rests on four golfers splitting two against two in exactly three ways. With three, play Survivor; with five, split the group.
