The Skins Game differs from most PGA tour golf tournaments for several reasons. First, only four golfers are invited to the tournament and the golfers play to win individual holes or skins in a match play format.

Each hole is assigned a different monetary value and the golfer who has the lowest score on the hole wins the money for that hole. In the event that two or more golfers tie (which is called halving) on a hole, the skin money carries over to the next hole. If two or more golfers would happen to halve the final hole, a playoff begins until one golfer wins the hole outright.

The Skins Game has a long tradition for being highly competitive, but also very fun both to play and to watch. In 2001, the player winning a hole outright had to tie or win the next hole to collect his skins from the previous hole. This was very tough to do. Greg Norman was the only golfer that could back up his win on the previous hole. He won the 17th and tied for low on the 18th to collect $800,000 which was the largest skin ever collected for one hole. He would go on to win $200,000 in a playoff to win the entire $1 million dollar prize money.

In the 2004 Skins Game, the first six holes were worth $25,000 a piece. Holes 7 through 12 were worth $50,000 each. 13 through 17 were valued at $70,000 a pop, and the 18th hole known as the Super Skin carried a value of $200,000.

Fred Couples is given the nickname of Mr. Skins because of his dominance in the Skins Game. He has won $3,515,000 and 77 skins in 11 appearances. He has won five of the Skins Games overall.

You can conduct your own skins game when playing golf. Of course, your holes wont be valued quite as high as the pros are, but you can sure have a blast as you compete to see who can become your own clubs Mr or Ms Skins.

There’s much more to how you can actually play golf than that.  Most just go on the course in an “every man for himself” type of structure but understanding these other forms of play can actually help with your enjoyment of the game itself.

Match play

In what is called match play, two players (or two teams) play each hole as a separate contest against each other.  The party with the lower score wins that hole, or if the scores of both players or teams are equal the hole is “halved” (tied).

Match play is won by the person or team that wins more holes than the other, regardless of the actual stroke numbers.  If one person or team has taken a lead that can’t be overcome by the other team in the remaining number of holes, the match is declared won by the dominating team.  “Dormie” refers to when the lead is equal to the number of holes remaining and in this case play continues until the winning team has enough holes to be declared the winner, or until the other team overtakes them for the lead.

Stroke play

Stroke play is the most commonly played form of golf, even for tournaments.  Players compete against each other with their own score or number of strokes for the entire game.

In tournament play, if there is a tie at the end of the game then there is a playoff between all the tied players.  This playoff might be sudden death or may go for a predetermined number of holes, anywhere from three to eighteen with the player achieving the lowest score then declared the winter.

Skins

Many tournaments are played in skins format, where golfers compete on each hole as a type of separate contest in of itself.  Prize money is assigned to each hole and this money is carried over if the hole is tied.  There are no real winners or losers in skins play, just a rundown of the prize money won by each player.

Team play

Team play seems pretty self-explanatory; rather than competing individually, you form teams and these play against one another.  There are different ways of forming teams and scoring, as follows:

• According to the USGA, a foursome is two teams of two players each and each team has one ball between them.  They alternate playing it.  Foursomes can be played as match play or stroke play.
• A four-ball foursome means that each player has his or her own ball and the lower score on each hole is counted.  Four-ball can be played as match play or stroke play.
• In scramble play, each player tees off on every hole and the players then decide which shot was the best; each player then plays his or her second shot from within a club length of this ball.  This procedure is repeated until the hole is finished.

Realizing these different ways of playing golf can add some fun and excitement to your game as you try new challenges with your fellow players.