Skins games are common among professionals who play this game during practice rounds to keep the pressure on. For the rest of us, it’s a fun game played hole by hole.
SKINS is a hole by hole game that can get pretty competitive pretty quick. It can be played with just two players or a whole field. The easiest way to explain Skins is with a foursome basic skins game. The four players – Grazer, Holly, Tule and Oak – decide that each hole is worth one acorn (this can be any amount) and that they are competing on all 18 holes (this can vary, as well). At the first tee box, the four bears hand over 1 acorn each to Grazer (the most honest of the four bears, if not the hungriest). They play the hole and Holly is the lowest net ball. Grazer hands over the 4 acorns to Holly. At the second tee box, the four bears each hand over another acorn to Grazer. Grazer and Tule each score a net 4 and Holly and Oak each score a net three. No one wins the hole out right, so Grazer holds on to the 4 acorns and each of the players again hand over one acorn to Grazer. The pot now has 8 acorns. For the next three holes, at least two of the bears win lowest net score, so the 8 acorns rolls over on each of those holes, PLUS each bear is contributing another acorn on each of the three holes. The pot is now 20 acorns. By now all the bears are looking hungrily at Grazer, but she’s the HBIC so they hold back and hand over another acorn each growing the pot to 24. On the next hole, Oak wins with a net three. Grazer grudgingly hands over the 24 acorns. The game continues in this vein until the 18th hole. Grazer and Holly both have 16 acorns, Oak has 28 acorns and Tule has just 8 acorns. The four bears hand over an acorn each and play the hole. Oak wins the hole with a net 3 and takes the four acorns for a total of 32 acorns. Being the nice California Black Bear she is, she proceeds to share her winnings with her friends.
Now, if no one had won the hole, the four bears would need to play a sudden death playoff for the last four acorns. On the next hole, Grazer scores a net 5, Tule a net 6, and Holly and Oak tie with a net 4. Grazer and Tule sit in the shade munching their acorns while Holly and Oak continue to the next whole. Oak wins the hole by one and takes the final four acorns.
There are lots of alternatives to this game. You can limit the holes to just par 3’s, the front nine, the back nine, etc. and the bets/tokens can be anything: money, tees, points with lowest number of points buying drinks, etc.
DWGC MYSTERY ROUND
For purposes of the DWGC mystery round, each player will receive an envelope with 18 DWGC Bear Bucks, each Bear Buck is worth one point. Sweeps will be paid out similar to PPP with the player with the most bucks over the field taking top prize, and payouts to the top 3-4 players in each flight (depending on the number of players).
Davis Women's Golf Club 