Spots Golf Game Rules: Paying Out for One-Putts, Sandies and Anything Else

The rules

Spots is a tally. Nothing about it is worked out from the scores. The count is the record: if the scorer puts two spots against your name on the 7th, you made two spots on the 7th.

Agree the spot

Before the round, agree what counts. One-putts, sandies and barkies are the usual ones.

Tap it in

On the hole it happens, the scorer adds it to that golfer’s count.

Settle at the end

The counts turn into money by the method chosen at setup.

No handicap

A spot is a spot. There are no strokes, so a 20-handicap’s sandy is worth the same as a scratch golfer’s. The low handicaps usually still make more of them.

What counts as a spot

Anything the group agrees on, as long as it is something the scores cannot show. The app does not know you were in a bunker or hit a tree, which is why the scorer enters it by hand.

Sandy. Up and down from a greenside bunker.

Barky. A par or better on a hole where your ball hit a tree.

One-putt. One putt on the green, whatever the score.

Leave birdies out

Birdies are already on the card, and games like Las Vegas and Banker already pay for them. Counting them as spots as well pays the same shot twice.

Five ways to settle

The stake is set once for the round. What it means depends on the method.

Pool

Everyone puts in the same ante, and the pot is split by how many spots each golfer made. Nobody pays anybody directly, and nobody can lose more than the ante.

Per spot

Each spot pays the golfer who made it one stake from every other golfer playing that hole.

vs Average

You settle against the group’s average count. Make more spots than average and you collect the difference; make fewer and you pay it.

Above you

You pay each golfer who made more spots than you, by the difference, and collect from each golfer who made fewer.

Just leader

Only the golfer with the most spots collects. Everyone else pays him the difference.

A golfer only pays or collects on the holes he played. Losses can also be capped per golfer for the round.

Scoring it without a spreadsheet

On a paper card, spots end up as ticks in the margin, and by the 15th nobody is sure whose they are. Halved puts a counter under each golfer on the score entry screen, one tap per spot, and settles the counts with the rest of the round.

One tap a spot

A counter under each golfer on every hole. Nothing else to set.

Its own pot

Spots settles separately from the main game, so it never changes the Nassau or the skins.

Any settlement

Pool, per spot, vs Average, above you or just leader, chosen at setup.

Every sandy, on the card.

Free for the group. Tap each spot as it happens and Halved settles it alongside the rest of the round.

Download on the App Store See the other formats

Questions people ask

What is a spot in golf?

Anything the group agrees to pay for that the scores cannot show, such as a sandy, a barky or a one-putt. The scorer enters each one on the hole it happens.

Do handicaps apply to Spots?

No. A spot is worth the same whoever makes it.

Should birdies count as spots?

Usually not. Birdies are already on the card, and games like Las Vegas and Banker already pay for them.

How is Spots settled?

Five ways: a pool split by spots made, a stake per spot from every other golfer, against the group average, against each golfer above and below you, or winner takes the difference from everyone.