Main game · 2 or 4 players
Nassau
Three bets in one round: the front nine, the back nine, and the eighteen.
The most played money game in golf, and the reason is the structure: you are never out of it. Lose the front and the back is a fresh match; lose both and the overall might still be alive.
The rules
Two sides — head to head, or two against two playing better ball. Three separate matches run at once: holes 1–9, holes 10–18, and all eighteen. Each is match play: win more holes than the other side and you win that bet.
Presses are the famous part. When a side falls two down, they can press: a new bet starts from that hole to the end of the nine, at the same stake. Some groups make presses automatic, most make them optional, all of them argue about it.
Handicaps
Played net: strokes fall on the holes the card's index says, so the match is between the golfers, not the handicaps.
How it settles
Four players at $10 a bet. Your side wins the front 2&1, halves the back, loses the overall by one. One bet each way — you're square, and the argument about the press on 14 lasts longer than the drive home.
Rivalry scores Nassau 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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