Skins, carryovers, and three-ball formats that don't ruin the round

Three players is the hardest number in golf. Two, you play matchplay. Four, you play a fourball. Three, you stand in the car park working out whose ball you're hitting next. The good news is there are two proper three-ball formats that run cleanly — skins and nine-point — and they both reward playing the hole as an individual rather than worrying about teammates.

Here's how they actually work, and the small rule tweaks that stop skins becoming a coin-toss by hole seven.

Skins: one hole, one winner, no ties

In skins, every hole is worth one skin. In Yardages, the lowest gross score on that hole wins the skin outright. If two or more players tie for the low score, nobody wins — the skin carries over to the next hole. So hole two is now worth two skins. Tie again, and hole three is worth three. At some point someone breaks the tie and collects the pot.

At the end of the round, the winner is the player with the most skins. Not the lowest score. Not the most points. Skins.

The reason skins is good: it turns every hole into a standalone event. A triple bogey on hole three doesn't matter beyond hole three. You reset on hole four and play for that skin like nothing happened. There's no running total eating away at you.

The reason skins is tricky in three-ball: with three players, you only need two of them to tie at the lowest net score and the skin carries. In practice, about half the holes end in a carryover on a mixed-ability group, which can mean the last two holes are worth ten skins between them and the winner is whoever happened to hole a putt on the 17th. That's the drama, but it also means the first fifteen holes can feel decorative.

Rule tweaks that keep skins interesting

Most groups use at least one of these:

• Validation rule: to win a skin you have to par the hole (or better). A net bogey that happens to be the lowest score doesn't count — the skin carries. This stops the "I won a skin with a 7" energy and makes skins feel earned.
• Cap the carryover: if skins haven't been won by hole 15, reset the pot. Keeps the back nine from mattering twice as much as the front.
• No carryovers in the last three holes: the lowest score wins the skin outright even on a tie. Forces a result if the group's been tying a lot.
• Gross and net skins tracked separately: good for mixed-handicap groups — low-handicap players can compete for gross skins, the full field competes for net. Doubles the drama without changing the format.

Pick one or two of these before you tee off, agree out loud, and stick to them.

Nine-point: a clean three-ball format

If skins feels too lumpy for a three-ball, nine-point is the format designed for exactly three players. It's cleaner, fairer, and avoids the carryover problem by allocating points every single hole.

On each hole, 9 points are distributed based on finishing position on net score:

• Lowest net (first place): 5 points
• Middle net (second place): 3 points
• Highest net (third place): 1 point

Total: 9 points per hole. Over 18 holes, that's 162 points in the round. Highest total wins.

What happens when players tie

The tricky bit. Three common situations:

• Two tied at the lowest net, one higher: the two top players split the top two positions' points (5 + 3 = 8, split evenly = 4 each). Third-place player still gets 1 point. Total still 9.
• Two tied at the middle/highest net, one lower: top player gets 5, the two behind split the bottom two positions (3 + 1 = 4, split evenly = 2 each). Total still 9.
• All three tied: every player gets 3 points (9 split three ways).

The principle is the same every time — 9 points get handed out per hole, shared among the tied positions. Nobody "wins" or "loses" any given hole; you're accumulating by how well you finished relative to the other two.

Worked example over two holes

Three players, all off different handicaps, net scores shown.

Hole 1: Alex net 4, Ben net 4, Chris net 5.

• Alex and Ben tie for first (5 + 3 = 8, split = 4 each)
• Chris third (1 point)
• Running: Alex 4, Ben 4, Chris 1

Hole 2: Alex net 5, Ben net 3, Chris net 5.

• Ben first (5 points)
• Alex and Chris tie for second (3 + 1 = 4, split = 2 each)
• Running: Alex 6, Ben 9, Chris 3

Two holes, 18 points distributed, everyone still in contention. No carryovers, no "hole is worth four skins now" energy. Just accumulate.

When to pick skins over nine-point

Skins if:

• The group likes drama and is OK with the first twelve holes being a warmup for the last six.
• You're playing for a modest sum and want the stakes to feel like the stakes. "Hole 17 is worth eight skins" plays harder than "hole 17 is worth eight points."
• You're happy to add a validation rule so the skins feel earned.

Nine-point if:

• The group has mixed handicaps and you want every hole to matter equally.
• You want a format where bad luck on one hole doesn't balloon into the decisive moment six holes later.
• The three of you play together often and want every hole to distribute the same number of points.

Where handicaps come in (both formats)

Nine-point uses net score in Yardages — gross minus the configured handicap stroke on that hole. Yardages' current skins engine uses gross score, so do not assume it is applying handicap strokes to the skins pot.

These are informal formats, so agree gross or net skins and any allowance before teeing off. Nine-point uses the app's configured hole-stroke allocation; the current skins leaderboard does not.

A few small things that cause arguments

Decide on validation before you tee off. Skins without validation is a different game from skins with it. Settling this on the first tee saves a conversation on the 16th.

Agree the tie rules for nine-point. Most groups use the fractional split described above, but some use an even simpler "tied players each get the midpoint" approach. It's fine either way — pick one and stick to it.

Write the running total somewhere. Both formats benefit from seeing the scoreboard after each hole. Pen and paper works; Yardages can calculate these supported formats live for joined players.

Don't mix formats mid-round. If you're running both gross and net skins, track them in separate columns. Confusion about which skin was won on what basis turns into a car-park conversation fast.

Three-ball golf shouldn't be awkward. Pick the format that matches your group's mood, agree the small rules upfront, and enjoy the fact that one of you is going to have a very good afternoon and two of you are going to buy dinner.

If you're running these formats often and the scorecard admin is starting to feel like work, that's what the app is for.