The Best Golf Betting Games for 4 Players

Why a foursome is the perfect betting group

Four players is the sweet spot for golf gambling. You've got enough people for real team games, the natural pairings that make a Nassau sing, and enough bodies for skins to actually carry. Whether it's your regular Saturday group or day three of a buddies trip, these are the games worth playing.

Here are four of our favorites for a foursome — and how GolfApp keeps score for all of them at once.

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Wolf

Wolf is the quintessential four-player game. It's part golf, part poker, and it rewards reading both the course and your partners. With four players, everyone gets to be the Wolf an even number of times — which keeps it fair and keeps everyone engaged.

How it works: On the first tee, set a rotation order — the order you'll be the Wolf in. It rotates every hole, so over the first 16 holes each player is the Wolf four times.

On each hole, the Wolf watches the other three players tee off one by one. After each tee shot, the Wolf decides: do I want this person as my partner for this hole? If yes, it's a 2v2 for the hole. The catch — once a player is passed, they can't be picked later. So if the first drive splits the fairway but you pass hoping for better, you might end up stuck.

If the Wolf passes on all three, they go it alone — that's the Lone Wolf, playing 1 against 3.

Scoring

Set a dollar amount per point before the round.

• If the Wolf and their partner win the hole, each earns 1 point
• If the other team wins, each of them earns 1 point
• If the Lone Wolf wins alone, they typically earn 3 points — one from each opponent

For the last two holes, most groups use a house rule — often the player in last place becomes the Wolf, giving them a chance to climb back in.

Variations

Wolf has more house rules than almost any game. The Blind Wolf (declaring you're going alone before anyone tees off) is worth even more points. Some groups add birdie bonuses or let points double on the back nine. Play it your way — in GolfApp, you enter each player's scores and the resulting Wolf points per hole, and the app handles the running tally and final payout.

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2v2 Nassau

Nassau is the most popular golf bet in the world, and in a foursome it comes alive as a team game. Split into two pairs and you've got a match worth talking about for the rest of the trip.

How it works: A Nassau is really three bets in one — the front nine, the back nine, and the overall 18. Pick your teams, choose your format, and let it run.

The most common foursome format is better ball: each player plays their own ball, and your team's score on a hole is the better of the two. GolfApp also supports high-low, where points are won for both the best and worst ball on each hole.

Turn it up with auto presses

This is one of our favorites: turn on auto presses. When a team falls 2 down, a new press (a fresh side bet on the remaining holes) kicks in automatically. It keeps a lopsided front nine from killing the action and stacks up new bets as the round goes on. GolfApp tracks every press and tells you exactly where each one stands.

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Skins

Skins is the easiest game to explain and one of the most fun in a group of four. Everyone plays for themselves, every hole is worth money, and the pressure builds with every tie.

How it works: Set a dollar amount per hole. On each hole, the lowest score — usually net — wins the skin. But you have to win it outright. If any two players tie, nobody wins and the skin carries over to the next hole.

With four players, ties happen more often than in a threesome, so carryovers stack up — and a single hole late in the round can suddenly be worth six or seven skins. That's when things get loud. GolfApp handles the carryovers, the net calculations, and the final payout, with validation rules on or off depending on how your group likes it.

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Scotch (alternate shot)

Want something different from the usual stroke-for-stroke games? Scotch — also called Foursomes or alternate shot — is a true partnership game and a great change of pace on a multi-round trip.

How it works: Two teams of two. Partners alternate hitting the same ball — one tees off, the other hits the second shot, and so on until it's holed. You also alternate who tees off on odd and even holes. It's a test of trust: you live and die by your partner's misses as much as your own.

GolfApp tracks the rotation between partners automatically, so you never lose track of who's hitting next or whose turn it is on the tee.

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Don't just play one

The best foursomes don't pick a single game — they stack them. Run a team Nassau as the main event, layer Skins on top so every hole still pays, and add a Wolf game for the strategy. Everyone's playing three games off the same set of scores.

That's the whole point of using an app. You just enter your raw scores, and GolfApp settles every game running on the round. See the full list of supported games, or if you're a man down, here are the best betting games for 3 players.