Short answer: play Nine Point. It's the one game on this list that was designed for exactly three players, and everything else here is a very good format that a threesome borrows.
The long answer is more fun, because a threesome is a genuinely underrated place to gamble. You're not the awkward group waiting on a fourth — you're three players who can run three separate matches at once without anyone sitting out a hole. Here's what to play, in the order we'd play it.
1. Nine Point (5-3-1)
Also called Nines or 5-3-1. This is the quintessential three-player golf game and it isn't close. Every hole matters, nobody is ever eliminated, and there's no odd man out — which is the exact problem you hit trying to squeeze a four-player format into a threesome.
How it works: Nine points are awarded on every hole, split across the three players by score:
- Low score earns 5 points
- Middle score earns 3 points
- High score earns 1 point
Ties split the points evenly:
- All three tie: 3-3-3
- Two-way tie for low: 4-4-1
- Two-way tie for high: 5-2-2
Set a dollar amount per point before you tee off and let it ride. Over 18 holes that's 162 points in play, which is why a penny a point is a real game and a dollar a point is a serious one.
The reason it works so well is the 1 point for last. Even the player who makes a triple is still collecting something, so nobody mentally checks out on the 12th tee. Compare that to skins, where a bad hole is worth exactly nothing.
Play it net off low
Nine Point is almost always played with net off low handicaps: the lowest handicap in the group plays scratch and the other two get the difference. It avoids the silliness of holes where all three players are stroking, which changes nothing but takes strokes off everybody's card.
Variations worth trying
The best one: win with a birdie and take 7-1-1. Win a hole outright with a birdie and you take 7 of the 9 points instead of 5. It rewards going at a flag, and it turns a 12-footer for birdie into something worth thinking about.
Add a snake
A snake is the perfect companion side game. Set a dollar amount and every time somebody three-putts, they "get the snake." Whoever is holding it at the end of the round pays each of the other two players that amount for every three-putt anyone made all day.
Five three-putts on the day and you three-putt the 18th? You're paying each opponent five dollars. It makes a four-footer for par on the last green about a great deal more than your score.
2. Three-way Nassau
Nassau is the most popular golf bet in the world, and a threesome plays it as three separate matches rather than one game:
Player A vs. Player B
Player A vs. Player C
Player B vs. Player C
Each of those is its own Nassau, and each Nassau is three bets — front nine, back nine, overall. So a threesome ends up with three matches and nine bets running off one set of scores. Beat one guy and lose to the other and you can walk off level, which happens more than you'd think.
This is where the format earns its keep in a threesome: you're never mathematically eliminated from your day, because losing badly to one player has no bearing on your match against the other.
Turn on auto presses
Our favorite setting in the whole app: auto 2-down presses. Any time a player falls two holes down in a match, a fresh bet opens automatically on the remaining holes. Nobody has to call it and nobody argues later about which hole it started on.
Three Nassaus with auto presses is roughly as much action as three people can generate in four hours. Full Nassau rules here.
3. Net skins with carryover
Skins is worth playing in a threesome specifically because you should turn carryover on.
How it works: every hole is worth one skin, and the lowest score takes it — but you have to win it outright. If two players tie for low, nobody wins the hole.
With carryover on, that skin doesn't disappear. It rolls forward:
- Tie the 1st, and the 2nd hole is worth two skins
- Tie that too, and the 3rd is worth three
- Keep tying and it keeps stacking until somebody finally wins a hole alone
That's the whole appeal. A quiet front nine turns into a 6th hole worth five skins and three players standing over their putts knowing it. Play it net so the strokes fall where they should, and the player getting a shot on a hard hole suddenly becomes the dangerous one.
A threesome is a good size for this. Ties are less frequent than they are in a big outing, so the pots that do build actually get paid out rather than carrying to the 18th and turning the whole round into one hole. Full skins rules, including validation.
4. Three-player Wolf
Wolf is usually described as a four-player game, but a threesome plays it better in one specific way: 18 divides evenly by 3. Each player is the Wolf exactly six times and you never need a house rule for the last couple of holes. A foursome gets 16 clean holes and then an argument.
How it works: spin a tee to decide who's the Wolf first, then rotate in a fixed order for the rest of the round.
On each hole the Wolf watches the other two tee off, one at a time, and after each drive decides whether to take that player as a partner for the hole. The catch: pass on someone and you can't go back to them. Pass on a good drive hoping for a better one and you might end up with nothing.
Pass on both and you're the Lone Wolf, playing the hole 1 against 2.
With three players the decision comes at you fast — you're choosing from two options, not three, and the Lone Wolf call is a genuine gamble rather than a stunt. Set a dollar amount per point, and give the Lone Wolf a bonus for winning alone.
Wolf has more house rules than any other game in golf — birdie bonuses, blind wolf, carryovers on tied holes. GolfApp doesn't try to encode them. You work out the points on the hole, enter them, and the app applies your stake and settles up.
So what should your threesome actually play?
Stack them. That's the honest answer, and it's what the good groups do.
Run Nine Point as the main event, because it's the one that keeps all three of you in every hole. Layer a snake on top for the three-putts. Then add three individual Nassaus with auto presses if you want a second, completely separate way to win your money back.
All of it runs off the same scorecard. You enter your raw scores once and every game scores itself, then settles up together at the end — no napkin, no arguments in the parking lot.
Want the full rules? We keep a page per game: how to play Nassau, how to play Skins, how to play Scotch, or browse every golf betting game GolfApp scores. Got a fourth? Here are the best golf betting games for 4 players.
Three players.
Four great games.
Zero math.
Now go find two friends and a tee time.
Enjoy the mayhem.
Common questions
What is the best golf betting game for 3 players?
Nine Point, also called Nines or 5-3-1. It's built for exactly three players — nine points are split across the group on every hole, 5 for the low score, 3 for the middle, 1 for the high. Nobody is ever out of a hole and there's no odd man left over, which is the problem with adapting four-player games to a threesome.
How does Nine Point scoring work?
Each hole is worth nine points. The lowest score takes 5, the middle takes 3, the highest takes 1. Ties split the points evenly: all three tied is 3-3-3, a two-way tie for low is 4-4-1, and a two-way tie for high is 5-2-2. Over 18 holes that's 162 points in play.
Can you play Nassau with 3 players?
Yes — you run it as three separate matches rather than one game. A plays B, A plays C, and B plays C. Each of those is its own Nassau with a front, back and overall bet, so a threesome ends up with three matches and nine bets running off the same set of scores.
Can you play Wolf with only 3 players?
Yes, and the rotation is cleaner than it is with four. Eighteen divides evenly by three, so each player is the Wolf exactly six times and you never need a house rule for the closing holes. The Wolf picks from two possible partners instead of three, so the decisions come faster.
How does carryover work in a skins game?
If nobody wins a hole outright — two or more players tie for the low score — that skin isn't lost. It rolls into the next hole. Tie the 1st and the 2nd is worth two skins; tie that and the 3rd is worth three, and so on until somebody finally wins a hole on their own.
Should a threesome play net or gross?
Net, unless all three of you play off similar handicaps. Nine Point is normally played with net off low handicaps, where the lowest handicap plays scratch and the other two get the difference. Skins and Nassau both work net too, and it's what keeps a mixed-ability threesome competitive.
Can you play more than one game at once with 3 players?
Yes, and most good threesomes do. All of these games score off the same raw scores you're already entering, so a Nine Point game, three individual Nassaus and a skins game can all run at once off one scorecard and settle up together at the end.
What's a snake in golf?
A three-putt side game. Set an amount — a dollar is typical — and whoever three-putts last is holding the snake at the end of the round. They pay every other player that amount for every three-putt that happened all day, so a late three-putt on the 18th can be expensive.