Golf invented the side game the day the second golfer showed up. Somewhere between the first tee and the last putt, every regular group lands on its own stack of games — a match here, a skin there, a quarter riding on the par 3s. This is the field guide: every classic, what it is, who it suits, and where to learn it properly.
The match-play family
Nassau is the king — three matches in one stake: front nine, back nine, overall. Lose the front and the day isn’t over, and when a side goes two down the press opens a fresh match on the remaining holes. It’s the default game of the American Saturday foursome, and the bookkeeping is exactly why apps exist.
Match Play is Nassau’s simple sibling — one match, first tee to last putt, presses included. The right first game for a group new to keeping score this way.
The every-hole games
Skins puts a price on every hole: lowest score outright takes the skin, ties carry over, and three halved holes in a row make the next tee box very quiet. Works for any group size, and it’s the easiest game to teach in one sentence.
The points games
Wolf is the strategist’s game for exactly four: the Wolf rotates every hole, picks a partner off the tee — or goes lone against all three for multiplied points. The declarations are half the fun and the reason it’s famously hard to score on paper.
Nine Point is the standard for a threesome — nine points on every hole, split 5-3-1, everyone against everyone. A threesome playing Nine Point never feels short-handed.
Stableford scores points against par instead of counting strokes — blow-up holes stop hurting and aggression pays, especially on the Modified scale where a birdie is worth twice what a bogey costs.
The layer on top
Junk & presses ride on everything above: greenies on the par 3s, sandies out of the bunkers, birdies straight off the scorecard, polies for the long putts. Small fixed values, claimed as they happen, folded into the same settlement as everything else.
How they settle
Every game above shares one property when it’s run properly: the books balance to zero. Match games pay per match. Skins collect from the field. The points games — Wolf, Nine Point, Stableford — settle pairwise on the point gaps. Stack three games plus junk in one round and the day still nets to the fewest possible payments.
That’s the part TwoDown automates: every game on one card, scored live, settled in one Venmo. Your group argues about the golf, not the arithmetic.