Team golf games put you and a partner on the same side. The hole gets decided by what your pair posts between you, and once somebody else’s score is tied to yours, a four-footer you would have waved off on a normal Saturday starts to matter to two people.
The eleven formats below are the ones you run inside your own weekend group. Two-on-two matches, team bets that grow as the round goes, and a couple where the partnerships shuffle along the way. Setup doesn’t go much further than simply splitting the four of you into pairs.
Some formats bury a bad individual score under the better ball. Others put a point on every shot and can really make you pay. Use the finder to sort by team structure, betting, and complexity, then keep scrolling for the full breakdown on every one.
The Team Game Finder
Use the finder below to filter all 11 team golf games by team structure, whether you want to put money on it, and complexity. Search by name, tap the filters to narrow the list, and open any card for the complete rules. Or, keep scrolling for the shortened written rundown on each format.
2-on-2 Golf Games Where Both Balls Count
These are the partner formats that refuse to let one player do all the carrying. Each of them puts a point, a tiebreaker, or a combined total on the worse of your two scores. The second ball in the pair is doing real work all afternoon.
Run them with a wide handicap gap and the teams need to be balanced, or the higher handicapper spends four hours apologizing. The shot that wins these formats most often is the scrappy up and down that turns a lost hole into a halved one, and our practice games and drills are built around improving that part of your game.
THE TRADEOFF
Two balls counting cuts both ways. It keeps everyone in the round, and it also means a partner having a bad day is visible on every hole. Even foursomes love these. Lopsided groups should play these matches net or not at all.
Low Ball Low Total
Players: 4 only (2v2) · Team Structure: Fixed pairs · Betting: Optional · Complexity: Simple · Mixed Skill Level Friendly? Yes, with handicaps
Two points are on the table every hole. One goes to the side with the lower individual score, the low ball, and one goes to the side with the lower combined two-ball total. Everyone plays their own ball all the way out.
The two points reward opposite kinds of golf. Low ball pays the birdie or difficult par. Low total pays the pair who both made bogey over the pair with one birdie and one seven. A hot round takes half the points available and steady partner golf takes the rest. That balance is why regular foursomes keep coming back to it.
Read the full scoring, the tie procedure, and the variations in the Low Ball Low Total Official Guide →
Low Ball-High Ball
Players: 4 (2v2) · Team Structure: Fixed pairs · Betting: Yes · Complexity: Simple · Mixed Skill Level Friendly? Yes, played net
A two-point structure: one point for the better low ball and one for the better high ball. That second point puts the worse score in your pair directly against the worse score in theirs, and all four players hole out.
Most groups run it net at a dollar a point, so a hole is worth two dollars. It pays the team with no weak spots, because your best score and your worst score both land on the card.
Read the full rules, the net setup, and the variations in the Low Ball-High Ball Official Guide →
Best to Next
Players: 4 only (2v2) · Team Structure: Fixed pairs · Betting: Optional · Complexity: Medium · Mixed Skill Level Friendly? Medium, both balls count
A four-ball (best ball) match with one addition. When both sides post the same low ball, the higher balls settle it, so a pair that makes 5 and 5 beats a pair that makes 5 and 7. Every score goes on the card.
That addition takes most of the halved holes out of the round, and a string of halves is usually what makes a straight best-ball match go flat by the 12th. It also removes the option to pick up, because a conceded ball hands over the tiebreaker. Most groups put a maximum score on blow-up holes.
Read the hole-by-hole scoring, the handicap-stroke rules, and the three-player workaround in the Best to Next Official Guide →
Umbrella (Six-Point Scotch)
Players: 4 (2v2) · Team Structure: Fixed pairs · Betting: Yes · Complexity: Medium · Mixed Skill Level Friendly? Medium, with handicaps
Five things pay on every hole: low ball, low total, a green in regulation for each partner, and a birdie. The wrinkle is the value, because a point is worth the number of the hole. A point on the 1st is worth one and the same point on the 18th is worth eighteen.
Sweep all five while the other side takes none and the hole’s points double. That is called an umbrella. Ties on any point wash. Gross is the default but net keeps a mixed foursome honest, though either way the back nine is where the money actually moves.
Read the point triggers, the sweep math, and the variations in the Umbrella Official Guide →
Wingman
Players: 4 (2v2) · Team Structure: Fixed pairs, rotating scorer · Betting: Optional · Complexity: Medium · Mixed Skill Level Friendly? Yes, always net
A Golf Games Hub original built to stop one player carrying a team for four hours. Before anyone tees off, your side names which partner’s score counts for that hole, and across 18 holes each of you has to take on exactly nine holes.
If the named player wrecks the tee shot, the team can call wingman and hand the hole to the other partner. You get two of those passes for the round, and once you use one the switch is final.
Read the declaration rules, the two passes, and the variations in the Wingman Official Guide →
2-on-2 Golf Betting Games
These run on the same two-versus-two structure, with the scorecard converted into money. What sets them apart from a flat per-hole wager is that the stakes escalate on their own, either through the scoring math or through a doubling mechanic. All four reward a small per-point number.
For the pot games, the per-hole formats, and the side action you stack on top of any round, the golf betting games collection has the rest of them.
Vegas
Players: 4 only (2v2) · Team Structure: Fixed pairs · Betting: Yes · Complexity: Medium · Mixed Skill Level Friendly? Rough, scores compound fast
Partner scores get pushed together into a two-digit number rather than added. A 4 and a 5 becomes 45, the other side does the same, and the gap between the two numbers is what you settle at an agreed rate per point.
The low score normally goes in front. Under the flip rule, triggered in most groups by a birdie, the losing side’s number gets reversed. A 45 turns into a 54 and the gap widens in a hurry. One blow-up hole can outweigh the six before it. Groups that enjoy Vegas keep the per-point stake tiny.
Read the full scoring walkthrough, the flip rule, and the handicap method in the Vegas Official Guide →
Daytona
Players: 4 only (2v2) · Team Structure: Fixed pairs · Betting: Yes · Complexity: Medium · Mixed Skill Level Friendly? Rough, blow-ups punish twice
The punishing cousin of Vegas. You pair your two scores into one number the same way, but failing to make par flips the high score to the front, so a 4 and a 6 becomes 64 instead of 46. Lower number wins the hole and the difference is the payout.
The rules drift from group to group, and the two common versions (par protection and the negative-hole rule) score the same blow-up differently. A nickel or a quarter a point is plenty, because the numbers here escalate faster than anyone expects.
Read the scoring examples, both versions, and the variations in the Daytona Official Guide →
Hammer
Players: 2 or 4 (2v2) · Team Structure: Fixed pairs · Betting: Yes · Complexity: Medium · Mixed Skill Level Friendly? Rough, bets compound fast
Match play with a doubling bet either side can call out at any point in the hole, including mid-shot with a ball in the air. “Throwing the hammer” offers to double the stakes. The other side accepts and plays on for double, or declines and forfeits the bet at the level it was at.
With four players there are two calls to make: whether a side’s score is the better ball or both balls combined, and whether a halved hole carries to the next. A bet can reach 16x the original net before the ball rolls into the cup on any hole. Most groups put a ceiling on the max bet.
Read the throwing rules, how it differs from a Nassau press, and the variations in the Hammer Official Guide →
Tug of War (Three-Point Game)
Players: 4 (2v2) · Team Structure: Fixed pairs · Betting: Yes · Complexity: Medium · Mixed Skill Level Friendly? Yes, with handicaps
One running score for the entire match, tracked on a number line from 3 on one side, through 0, to 3 on the other (3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3). Three points are live every hole, low ball, high ball, and a natural birdie, and the side that wins more of them drags the imaginary marker a notch its way.
Points cancel out. Win low ball while they win high ball and the marker stays where it was. Take all three and you pull it three notches at once. First side to drag it to 3 wins the match on the spot, and that can land on the 7th hole or not until the 18th. You then restart the game for the remaining holes and have the option to switch partners at that time.
Read the full rules, a hole-by-hole match example, and the Mongolia line in the Tug of War Official Guide →
Team Games Where the Partners Change
Fixed pairs make for a tidier match, and they also mean one bad draw leaves you stuck for 18 holes. These two hand out new partners as the round goes, spreading the pressure so no single pairing decides the day.
Wolf
Players: 3 to 5 (4 ideal) · Team Structure: Rotating, chosen each hole · Betting: Yes · Complexity: Medium · Mixed Skill Level Friendly? Medium, use handicaps
The tee order rotates so everyone takes a turn as the Wolf. The Wolf watches each tee shot, in a specific order, and has to decide right then whether to take that player as a partner or pass and watch the next player drive. Pass on all three and the Wolf plays the hole alone against the other three.
Some holes end up 2v2 and some 3v1, and nobody knows which until the third tee shot lands. Declaring Lone Wolf before any tee shot raises the stakes further, and that is where most of a round’s money changes hands. Wolf also runs with a threesome, which few partner formats manage.
Read the full rules, the scoring, and the Lone Wolf variations in the Wolf Official Guide →
Sixes (Hollywood, Round Robin)
Players: 4 only · Team Structure: Rotating every six holes · Betting: Optional · Complexity: Medium · Mixed Skill Level Friendly? Excellent, everyone partners with everyone
Three six-hole matches inside one round. Partners change at the 7th and again at the 13th, so by the end you have played alongside and against each of the other three. Each player plays their own ball and the side’s score is the lower of the two.
Each six-hole segment is usually settled as its own match. A rough opening stretch costs you one of the three and leaves two matches still to play. Nobody gets stuck with the same partner for 18 holes, which makes it an easy one to run with a group that does not play together often.
Read the rotation, the segment scoring, and the tie procedures in the Sixes Official Guide →
Picking a Team Format for Your Group
The useful question is not which of these is the best game. It is how wide the gap is between your four players, because that decides which formats stay fun past the 6th hole.
When the handicaps are close, take a format where both balls count. Low Ball Low Total, Low Ball-High Ball, Best to Next, and Umbrella all reward the pair who keeps two scores in play, and an even foursome can hold that up for 18 holes. When the gap is wide, that same design turns the higher handicapper into a running liability everyone can feel. A wide-gap group wants the better ball to decide it, played net, with strokes taken off the card’s stroke index.
Net scoring is doing most of the work either way. Run the numbers through our free golf handicap calculator, and if you want the reasoning behind the allowance, how a golf handicap is calculated covers it. Apply strokes to each player’s score first and pair the net numbers afterward.
FIRST-TIMER PICK
Start with Low Ball Low Total. Two points a hole, no doubling, no two-digit math, and you can explain it on the cart ride to the first tee. Once the group has that one down, Umbrella and Tug of War land easily.
These formats also live or die on the recovery shot, because a partner who turns a wayward drive into a bogey has protected a point that was otherwise gone. Golf Digest’s breakdown of the mistake behind most blow-up holes covers where those strokes go. The short putt that halves a hole is the other place a partner earns their spot, and a teaching pro’s method for the three-footer is worth ten minutes on the practice green.
Frequently Asked Questions
For a regular foursome that wants a real match, Low Ball Low Total is simple to teach and it holds up over a season, because two points a hole keeps both partners involved. If you want money on it, Umbrella and Tug of War both build pressure into the closing holes without needing a spreadsheet.
Those are event formats rather than games you run inside your own group, so they live in the tournament golf formats collection along with shamble, greensomes, and the rest of the field-wide setups.
Apply strokes hole by hole off the card’s stroke index before you work out the team score, not after. Most of the formats here play net by default. Work out what everyone gets with the free golf handicap calculator.
Wolf is the one built for it, running with three, four, or five. Most of the others need four, since the pairing is the whole format. For a threesome the golf games for 3 players collection covers the formats designed around an odd number.
Picking randomly with a tee spin keeps it honest and takes about ten seconds. Splitting the two low handicaps is the other common method, and it produces closer matches than pairing the two best players together. Sixes and Wolf sidestep the question entirely by rotating.
Which One to Start With
If your group has been playing the same individual bet for years, any format on this list changes the round more than a bigger wager would. Partner golf makes people care about shots that are not theirs, and that’s the fun part.
Pick one that fits your foursome, send this page to the group chat, and give it a go on Saturday. Have a good one out there.
