Short answer. Skins is "Every hole is its own game". The lowest score on a hole, with nobody tied, wins that hole's skin. A tie means nobody wins it: the value carries to the next hole or dies, depending on the setting. Skins is Gross by default and can be funded per skin or from a buy-in pot.
How it works
A hole settles once every active player has posted it, or the round is completed. Until then that hole and every hole after it are provisional, and the board shows the provisional low as "pending". Each settled hole puts one unit into play; an outright low that clears the validation rule takes everything in play. Skins carried but never won pay nothing.
Settings
| Setting | Options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| How should we score? | Gross · Net (Course strokes) · Net (Off low) | Gross |
| Handicap allowance | Presets or Custom, when Net | 100% |
| How are the skins funded? | "Direct wager per skin" · "Player-funded pot" | Direct wager per skin |
| Value per skin / Buy-in per player | Dollar amount | $5 |
| Carryovers ("Tied skins roll to the next hole.") | On · Off | Check the setting when you add the game |
| What wins a skin | "Any low score" · "Birdies only" ("A skin needs a gross birdie or better — a par wins nothing.") | Check the setting when you add the game |
| If nobody wins a skin (buy-in pot only) | "Add pot to team-game winners" · "Split pot across CTP winners" · "Commissioner-held season jackpot" | Add pot to team-game winners |
The birdie bar is always gross, even in a net Skins game.
Player count
Two or more; the field is everyone in the round. In a Net game a player without a handicap is left out of the skins field and listed as unhandicapped.
How it's calculated
How the money is split
Direct wager per skin. Every other player owes the winner the stake for each unit won; a carried two-unit skin pays double. No skins, nothing owed, and nothing goes through a Banker pot.
Player-funded pot. The pot is buy-in × players, split in proportion to skins won, cent-exact. If nobody wins a skin, the pot goes where If nobody wins a skin points. See How each pot is split.
Worked example
Four players, $5 per skin, carryovers on. Alex wins holes 2 and 9 outright. Holes 5 and 6 are tied, so hole 7 is worth three units, and Ben wins it. Nobody else wins a skin.
| Player | Units won | Owed to them | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alex | 2 | 2 × $5 × 3 others = $30 | +$30 − $15 paid out = +$15 |
| Ben | 3 | 3 × $5 × 3 others = $45 | +$45 − $10 paid out = +$35 |
| Cal | 0 | $0 | −$25 |
| Dan | 0 | $0 | −$25 |
Each player pays $5 for every unit someone else won. The four results sum to zero. With a $5 buy-in pot instead, the $20 pot splits 2:3 by units: Alex $8, Ben $12.
Who can do this
The Commissioner adds and configures Skins. Everyone sees the skins grid on the board. Skins is a single-round game.
If it doesn't work
- "Complete the team game before settling the zero-winner skins pot." No skins were won and the pot is routed to a team game that is not yet decided.
- "Assign every CTP winner before settling the zero-winner skins pot." Record each Closest to the Pin winner.
- "Choose the commissioner or banker who will hold the season jackpot." Set a banker for the round.