How to Play a Nassau in Golf — Bets, Presses & Scoring Explained
Learn how the Nassau golf bet works — front nine, back nine, overall, and presses. Includes a worked example.
What is a Nassau?
A Nassau isn't one bet — it's three. You wager separately on the front nine (holes 1-9), the back nine (holes 10-18), and the overall 18-hole result. That means a rough front nine doesn't have to ruin your whole match — you get a clean restart on the back, plus a third chance on the overall total. It's usually played as match play (holes won/lost/halved) but can also be scored on total strokes.
How Nassau scoring works
- Agree a stake for each of the three bets before you start — a "2-2-2" Nassau means $2 on the front, $2 on the back, $2 on the overall (total possible: $6 per player).
- Play match play as normal on each nine: lowest score wins the hole, ties are halved.
- Whoever wins more holes on the front nine wins that bet. Same for the back nine. The overall bet is won by whoever's ahead after all 18 holes combined.
- Presses: if you're down in a bet (commonly by 2 holes or more), you can call a press — a brand new bet, for the same stake, covering only the remaining holes of that segment. It's optional for the group to always accept presses, so agree your rules before you start.
Worked example
In a 2-2-2 Nassau, Player A is 2 down on the front nine after 6 holes. Player A presses — a new $2 bet now covers holes 7, 8, and 9 only, starting all square. Player A wins 2 of those 3 holes, winning the press bet, even though Player B still wins the original front-nine bet. Going into the back nine, both the back-nine bet and overall bet are still live and separate.
Common mistakes
- Not agreeing on press rules upfront — automatic presses, maximum number of presses, and whether they're mandatory to accept can all vary by group, and disagreements mid-round are the most common source of arguments.
- Losing track of which of the three bets (front, back, overall) you're actually up or down in — they run independently and can easily get confused.
- Forgetting that a press only covers the remaining holes of its segment, not the whole nine — it starts fresh from the moment it's called.
Track your Nassau automatically
Keeping three separate running bets straight — plus any presses — gets complicated fast. Golf with Mates tracks your front, back, and overall match status live, so you always know exactly where each part of the bet stands.
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Track front, back and overall bets in one place.
Nassau legs and presses settled automatically.