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How to Play Skins in Golf — Rules & Scoring Explained

Learn how skins games work in golf — scoring, carry-overs, and how to settle up. Includes a worked example.

What is a skins game?

In a skins game, every hole is worth a prize — a skin. Whoever posts the lowest net score on a hole wins that hole's skin outright. If two or more players tie for lowest score, nobody wins the skin — it carries over and adds to the value of the next hole.

How skins scoring works

  1. Agree a stake per skin before you start (e.g. $2, $5, or points).
  2. Play the hole as normal, using net scores if you're playing with handicaps.
  3. Lowest net score wins the skin for that hole.
  4. If it's a tie, the skin carries over — the next hole is now worth double (or more, if it carries again).
  5. At the end of the round, add up how many skins each player won and multiply by the stake to settle up.

Worked example

Four players, $2 per skin. Hole 1 is tied — no winner, skin carries. Hole 2: Player A wins outright — since hole 1 carried, Player A wins 2 skins ($4). This is why late ties in a skins game matter so much — a carried skin from a tricky par 3 can double the value of the very next hole.

Common mistakes

  • Not agreeing gross vs. net scoring before starting — decide this before hole 1.
  • Forgetting to track carry-overs — a skin that isn't tracked properly leads to arguments at the 19th hole.
  • Playing skins with a big handicap spread and no adjustment — skins rewards low scores per hole, so mismatched handicaps without net scoring skews it heavily toward higher-handicap players.

Track skins automatically

Manually tracking carry-overs hole-by-hole is exactly where skins games get messy. Golf with Mates tracks skins live as you play and settles who owes who automatically at the end of the round.

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