Most golf side games are about the round. Skins is about the hole. Each hole is its own competition, with its own stakes, won outright or carrying over to the next. By hole 12, a few consecutive ties can mean a single 6-foot putt is worth more than every other hole combined.
There's no single official Skins — different groups handle ties, carryovers, and the final-hole resolution differently. What follows is the most common base game, plus how ForeBoard handles the variations.
The basics
Skins is a hole-by-hole competition. Each hole is worth a number of skins (typically starting at 1). The player with the lowest score on that hole wins those skins. If two or more players tie at the lowest score, no one wins the hole and the skins carry over to the next.
At the end of the round, tally each player's total skins. Highest total wins. Most groups settle for a fixed dollar value per skin — $1 per skin keeps it casual; $5 per skin makes hole 14 unexpectedly serious.
The carryover is the whole point
The carryover is what separates Skins from every other side game.
When a hole ties, no one wins it. The skin from that hole carries into the next hole's pot. Now the next hole is worth 2 skins. Tie again? Skins carry. Now the following hole is worth 3.
By hole 5, the pot can be worth 4 or 5 skins. By hole 12, with a streak of consecutive ties, it can be worth 6 or 7. The drama compounds. Watch a Skins round at any local course and you'll see the cart stop on every tee where there's a big pot — everyone wants to know whether the previous hole resolved.
A short example:
- Hole 1: Tied at 4. 1 skin carries.
- Hole 2: Tied at 5. Pot is now 2 skins, carries.
- Hole 3: Alice wins with a 4. Pot was 3 skins. Alice wins 3 skins.
- Hole 4: Tied at 4. 1 skin carries.
- Hole 5: Bob wins with a 3. Pot was 2 skins. Bob wins 2 skins.
That's 5 skins distributed across 5 holes — two big wins, three ties, completely different rhythm than stroke play.
Individual Skins vs Team Skins
ForeBoard supports two competition modes for Skins. Pick at round creation.
Individual Skins (the default). Every player competes against every other player. Lowest score on a hole wins that hole's skins. Ties between any two or more players cause the skins to carry.
This is the classic "four guys playing for skins" version. Each player has their own running total. The player with the most skins at the end wins the round.
Team Skins. Each team's score on a hole is its best ball — the lowest single score among the players on that team. Then the standard Skins rules apply at the team level. The team with the lower best ball wins the hole's skins; tied team best balls carry forward.
Quick example of team Skins:
- Team A's players shoot 4 and 6 on a hole. Team A's score is 4 (best ball).
- Team B's players shoot 5 and 5. Team B's score is 5.
- Team A wins the hole.
Team Skins is the natural fit for 2v2 or 3v3 rounds. Two players who are roughly even can compete against another pair, with each side's best player effectively carrying the team on any given hole while the other player still has the chance to be the hero. The pace is faster than individual Skins because there are fewer competitors to track per hole.
Settlement works either way — individual skins go to individuals, team skins are pooled per team and split however the team agreed.
Net or gross — your choice
ForeBoard supports both gross and net scoring on Skins.
In net mode, handicap strokes are applied to each player's score before comparing. If Alice gets a stroke on a par-4 and cards a gross 5, her net score is 4 — that's what's compared against the rest of the field for Skins purposes.
We recommend net scoring in any group where handicaps differ meaningfully. Skins on gross scoring in a wide-talent group means the better player wins almost every hole — the carryovers stop carrying, the drama disappears, and the worse players lose interest by hole 5. Net keeps everyone in it.
The final-hole drama
What happens if you reach the 18th hole and the pot still ties? This is the edge case most groups handle on the fly, which is fine until it isn't.
ForeBoard gives the round organizer three options when the round ends with an unresolved carryover:
- Single winner. Pick one player (or team) to receive the entire unresolved pot. Useful when the group informally agrees on a winner — closest to pin on hole 18, longest drive, whatever the group decides.
- Multi-winner split. Pick two or more winners. The remaining pot splits evenly among them. Honors a genuine final-hole tie.
- Void. The pot disappears. No one gets the unresolved skins. Cleanest for groups that don't want to argue.
Set the resolution preference upfront. The trip-wrecking Skins argument always traces back to "wait, what happens with the pot then?" at the 19th-hole bar.
When Skins works best
Skins shines in specific conditions:
- Foursomes, twosomes, or anywhere in between. Skins scales — it works for two players, three, four, six, eight. Wolf is locked at four. Vegas is locked at four. Skins has no such constraint.
- Mixed-handicap groups, with net scoring. The hole-by-hole format means a worse player can win a hole here and there. Net scoring keeps it competitive across the field.
- Groups that like building drama. The carryover compounds the stakes. A round with three or four consecutive ties becomes its own conversation by the back nine.
It works less well with:
- Groups that hate ties. If most of your rounds tie at every hole, Skins gets frustrating fast. Consider net scoring or a different format.
- Players who don't want to track per-hole stakes. Skins requires per-hole engagement. If half the group checks out, the carryover math is wasted on them.
The math problem
Here's what happens by hole 8. The pot's been carrying for three holes. Someone wins outright on hole 8. But wait — was there a carryover from hole 7, or did the pot get reset on hole 6? Two guys disagree. The fourth player is doing arithmetic on the back of his scorecard. By hole 14, no one remembers exactly how the third-hole carryover resolved.
ForeBoard tracks every carryover automatically. The leaderboard shows each player's running skins total, the current pot value, and the carryover chain across all 18 holes. You score the hole, ForeBoard handles the rest. Net or gross. Individual or team. Final-hole resolution handled at round end.
Ready to try Skins? Create a round on ForeBoard → Pick your players, choose Skins as your format, decide individual or team, share the link with the group. You're scoring within thirty seconds — no app, no accounts, no math arguments at the bar.
