Vegas is the side game your group will try once, immediately argue about, and then play every week for a year. The rules are simple — two-on-two teams, scores pair into a two-digit number, lower number wins. The multipliers are what get you.
There's no single official Vegas — different groups handle the variations (the flip, par-5 doubles, birdie doubles) differently. What follows is the most common base game, plus the three optional rules ForeBoard supports. Once you know the base, the variations make sense.
The basics
Vegas is a four-player game played as two-on-two teams. Each player plays their own ball through every hole — no shared shots, no scrambles. At the end of each hole, the team's score becomes a two-digit number formed by combining the players' two scores.
- The lower individual score goes first (tens digit)
- The higher individual score goes second (units digit)
Example: Player A on Team A shoots a 4. Player B shoots a 5. Team A's score for the hole is 45.
Team B shoots a 5 and a 6. Their team score is 56.
Team A wins the hole by 11 points (56 minus 45).
That's the entire base game. The lower team-number wins; the difference is the points. Run the math hole by hole, and the team with most points when the round is over gets free beers, cash, to name the losers' next child, etc. You get the idea.
The point structure
Vegas is straightforward in concept but the point swings can be massive even at the base level. A hole where Team A scores 34 (3 + 4) and Team B scores 67 (6 + 7) is a 33-point swing on a single hole — way bigger than Skins or Niners ever produce.
Most groups play for a fixed dollar value per point. $0.25 per point keeps it civil; $1 per point turns a casually bad hole into a significant emotional event. Calibrate to your group's tolerance.
The three Vegas variations ForeBoard supports
Beyond the base pairing math, Vegas has three optional rules that ForeBoard supports. Toggle any combination on at round creation. Each one can compound the swing on certain holes.
The Flip. When the losing team gets blown out on a hole — meaning their best score is still worse than the winning team's worst score — their composite is flipped before the points are calculated. The high ball becomes the tens digit.
Example: Team A shoots [3, 4] (composite: 34). Team B shoots [5, 8] (composite: 58).
- Team A wins. Team B's lowest score (5) is greater than Team A's highest score (4) — Team B got beaten on every ball.
- The Flip triggers: Team B's composite flips from 58 to 85.
- Team A wins by 51 points (85 minus 34) instead of the raw 24 (58 minus 34).
The Flip never changes who wins — it just amplifies the margin when the losing team gets completely outplayed. Punishes blowouts.
Double on Par 5s. The winning team's points are doubled on every par 5 hole. A 10-point swing becomes 20; a 50-point swing becomes 100. Simple multiplier that adds risk/reward to long holes, where blow-ups are more common.
Birdie Doubles. When the winning team makes a birdie, that hole's points are doubled. A clean 5-point win turns into a 10-point win. Rewards aggressive play.
These stack. Birdie Doubles + Double on Par 5s on the same hole = 4× the points. A winning team that makes a birdie on a par 5 with a Flip-triggering blowout could turn a single hole into a 100+ point swing — round-defining.
Stack carefully, especially when you're settling for cash.
House rules outside the variations
Beyond the three multipliers, a couple of decisions still need to happen at the tee:
Net vs gross. Net scoring applies handicap strokes before the pairing. Gross uses raw scores. Net is more inclusive in mixed-handicap groups; gross is obviously simpler when everyone is roughly even or some players don't have handicaps. ForeBoard supports both — pick at round creation.
Dollar value per point. Set it before the first tee if you're playing for more than pride. Vegas arguments at the bar usually trace back to "what were we playing for?"
Triple-bogey caps (informal). Some groups cap individual scores at, say, 9 or net double bogey, to prevent a single blow-up hole from going completely sideways or from a 10 making the math especially messy. ForeBoard scores the actual numbers you enter — if you want a cap, agree on it before the round and self-enforce.
When Vegas works best
Vegas shines in specific conditions:
- Foursomes. Like most games of this type, Vegas is built for exactly four players in two-on-two teams. It doesn't translate to threesomes or fivesomes without significant rewrites.
- Mixed-handicap groups. The team format softens individual handicap gaps. The better player on each team carries the team score (their lower number becomes the tens digit), but the worse player can still tank a hole with a bad units digit. Both players contribute every hole.
- Groups that like volatility. With all three variations on, the swings can be staggering. If your group doesn't like big point swings, leave the multipliers off and just play the base game.
It works less well with:
- Conservative players when Birdie Doubles is on. That variation rewards aggressive birdie attempts.
- Groups that can't agree on rules. Three multiplier toggles plus net/gross plus dollar-per-point = a lot of variables. Lock them all down before the first tee.
The math problem
Here's what happens by hole 5: someone shoots a 6, their teammate shoots a 4. Team score is 46. Other team shoots 5 and 5, so 55. Team A wins by 9 points — except hole 5 is a par 5 and the group wanted to apply doubles on Par 5s, so Team A actually wins by 18. Also Team A's player made birdie, and Birdie Doubles is on too — so it's 36. The Flip didn't trigger because Team B's 5 wasn't greater than Team A's 6.
What's the running total again?
By hole 12, the math has drifted. Someone insists Team A is up 130. Someone else says it's 60. There's a debate about whether the Flip applied on hole 7. The player keeping score has spent more time looking at the scorecard than golfing.
This is the universal Vegas experience. The per-hole math is simple. The bookkeeping across 18 holes — with the variables — is where it falls apart.
ForeBoard handles all of it automatically. Enter each player's score on the hole, ForeBoard pairs them low-ball-high-ball, applies the Flip when triggered, applies the multipliers when enabled, and runs the cumulative team total. The leaderboard updates live on every player's phone. You don't have to remember the rule on hole 7. The app does.
Ready to try Vegas? Create a round on ForeBoard → Pick four players, choose Vegas as your format, toggle the variations you want, share the link with the group. You're scoring within thirty seconds — no app, no accounts, no math arguments.
