Nine Point: the game built for exactly three.
Nine points on every hole, split three ways. Nobody is ever out of a hole and there's no odd man left over — it's the rare betting game built for exactly three.
Nine points on every hole, split three ways. Nobody is ever out of a hole and there's no odd man left over — it's the rare betting game built for exactly three.
Nine Point — also called Nines, 9-Point, or 5-3-1 — puts nine points in play on every hole and splits them across three players. Low score takes 5, middle takes 3, high takes 1. Then you do it again on the next hole.
That's the entire game, and it's better than it sounds, because of what it fixes.
Almost every golf betting game assumes four players. Try to run one as a threesome and somebody is always the odd man out — the partner formats don't divide, and the team games need an even split. Nine Point was built the other way round: nine divides cleanly by three, so there's no leftover player and no awkward adaptation.
The second thing it fixes is worse rounds. In match play, once you're 4 down with 5 to play the golf stops meaning anything. In Nine Point the worst you can do on a hole is 1 point, and there's always another nine on the next tee. You can shoot your worst score in a year and still be collecting points on the 18th.
It's the game we recommend first for a threesome, and it's the reason the three-player games guide opens with it rather than with a borrowed four-player format.
There's one rule underneath all of this: every hole hands out exactly nine points, no matter what happens. The splits exist to keep that true when players tie.
The tie logic is simpler than the table makes it look. Tied players pool the points they would have won separately and divide them. Two players tie for low, so 5 and 3 become 4 and 4. Two tie for high, so 3 and 1 become 2 and 2. All three tie and the nine splits into 3-3-3.
Across 18 holes that's 162 points in the round — worth knowing before you set the stake, because a dollar a point sounds small right up until someone is down 48.
This is the variation worth knowing about, and plenty of golfers who have played Nines for years have never heard of it.
With 7-1-1 switched on, winning a hole outright with a birdie or better pays 7 points instead of 5. The other two players take 1 each. It still adds up to nine, and everything else about the game is unchanged.
What it changes is how you play. Under plain 5-3-1 the difference between a winning birdie and a winning par is nothing at all — both pay 5. Under 7-1-1 that same birdie is worth two extra points and it takes two points off the other guys, so a four-point swing rides on one putt. Suddenly a tucked pin is worth going at, and the 12-footer you were going to lag matters.
Three details worth knowing:
All of which the app works out for you. Turn the toggle on at setup and the 7-point holes appear on the card by themselves — there's nothing to remember on the tee and nothing to adjust afterwards.
One screen, four decisions, and two of them you can leave alone.
Net Off Low is the one most threesomes want. The lowest handicap in the group plays at scratch and the other two get the difference, which avoids holes where all three players are stroking — mathematically identical to nobody stroking, but slower.
Tap Add Game and it starts scoring itself.
Nobody should be splitting nine points three ways on the tee box, and with Nine Point nobody has to. Everyone enters the same raw scores they'd enter for any round. GolfApp applies the handicap strokes, works out who was low, middle and high, resolves any ties, and allocates the nine points.
The game sits next to the round rather than replacing it, so the scorecard you're keeping is still just a scorecard.
The round holds the golf. The game sits under it, scoring off those same numbers — which is why you can stack a skins game or three individual Nassaus alongside your Nine Point and settle all of them together at the end.
It's the same idea behind every format in the golf betting app: enter the score once, let the games sort themselves out.
Any threesome. This is the whole reason the game exists. Three is the group size every other betting format handles badly, and Nine Point handles it natively.
Mixed abilities. With Net Off Low on, a 20 and a 5 can play the same game and both have something to collect on every hole.
Rounds where somebody is struggling. The 1 point for last is doing more work than it looks like. Nobody is ever playing for nothing, so the player who is four over after six holes is still in it on the 18th tee.
When you want a second game running. Nine Point scores off the same raw scores as everything else, so a skins game or three individual Nassaus can run on top of it and settle together at the end.
Nine Point is a three-player betting game where nine points are split across the group on every hole. The low score takes 5, the middle takes 3, and the high takes 1. It's also called Nines, 9-Point, or 5-3-1, and it's the one common betting game designed for exactly three players rather than adapted from a four-player format.
Nine points are in play on each hole. Outright low takes 5, middle takes 3, high takes 1. Ties split the points they would have shared: two tied for low is 4-4-1, two tied for high is 5-2-2, and all three tied is 3-3-3. Every split adds up to nine, so over 18 holes there are 162 points in the round.
The 7-1-1 rule is an optional birdie bonus. If you win the hole outright with a birdie or better, you take 7 of the nine points instead of 5, and the other two players get 1 each. It has to be an outright win — if two players tie for low the hole reverts to the normal 4-4-1 split. In GolfApp it's a single toggle on the setup screen called "Win With Birdie for 7-1-1".
In GolfApp the bonus qualifies on a net birdie, so a handicap stroke on that hole counts toward it — a net 3 on a par 4 pays the 7 exactly like a gross 3 does. The app applies the strokes and works out which holes qualified, so nobody has to check it on the card.
No. The whole point of Nine Point is that nine divides cleanly across three players, and it stops working with a fourth. If you're a foursome, play Wolf, Skins or a 2v2 Nassau instead — and if you're three, Nine Point is the format that was actually built for you.
Usually, and it's what keeps a mixed threesome honest. GolfApp gives you three options: None for straight gross scores, Net Off Low where the lowest handicap plays at scratch and the other two get the difference, or Full where everyone gets their full course handicap. Net Off Low is the common choice — it avoids holes where all three players are stroking, which changes nothing.
162. Nine points a hole across 18 holes. That's a useful number to know before you set a wager, because at a dollar a point the gap between the winner and the loser in a lopsided round can get to $40 or $50 without anyone noticing it happening.
Nines, 9-Point, 5-3-1, and occasionally just "the points game". They all describe the same format. The 5-3-1 name comes from the standard split, and some groups use it to distinguish the plain version from one played with the 7-1-1 birdie bonus switched on.
GolfApp scores Nine Point free for life — points allocated hole by hole from the raw scores you're already entering, handicap strokes applied automatically, ties resolved, and the payout calculated at the end. No subscription and no premium tier.
WolfThe other game that works with three. One player picks a partner each hole, or goes it alone for more.
SkinsOne prize per hole, won outright or carried over. Runs alongside a Nine Point off the same scores.
Every format worth playing as a threesome, and how to stack two or three of them at once.
The toggles behind every game, and what each one changes.
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