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Medal

The oldest bet in golf: everyone antes, and the low net card takes the lot.

Also called stroke play, and it is what most groups mean when somebody says "a tenner each?" on the first tee. No holes won, no points, no carrying — one number apiece at the end of the day, and the smallest one takes the money.

The rules

Everybody puts the same in. Lowest net total over the round wins the pot. A tie splits it. That is the whole game, which is exactly why it survives: nobody has to remember a format on the ninth green.

The money

In a foursome at $20 a man the winner collects $60 and the other three are down $20 each. Because it is a pot, your exposure is your ante and nothing more — a nine on the last hole costs you the day, not the week.

How we play it

Net, with strokes falling on the holes the card's index says. Nothing settles until every player has a number on the board, because a leader through four holes that two of them haven't played is not a leader.

How it settles

Four players, $20 in each. You shoot 74 net, the rest are 76, 78 and 81. You take the $60 and buy the first round with it.

Rivalry scores Medal live — the rules stated on the first tee, the money running along the bottom of the card, and the settle done to the dollar when the last putt drops. The round goes into your group's permanent record, because a game this good deserves to be remembered past the car park.

Some scores take years to settle.

Rivalry is in closed beta with a handful of groups. Leave an email and we’ll tell you when there’s room.

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