Golf skins calculator
Enter the scores. The calculator finds every skin, carries ties to the next hole, and settles the money in the fewest payments.
How skins work
Every hole is worth a skin. The player with the lowest score on a hole, alone, wins it. If the low score is tied, the skin carries over and the next hole is worth two, and so on until someone wins a hole outright. Full skins rules: gross vs net, validation and pots.
Worked example
The example above is a $5 gross skins game for Matt, Tom, Kevin and Luis. Switch "Scoring" to Net to see how the strokes in the second column change who wins each hole. Change any score and the result updates instantly.
The math
- A skin is worth the stake from every other player, so with n players each skin pays (n − 1) × the stake.
- Net skins take strokes on the holes whose stroke index is at or below a player's strokes (two strokes on the hardest holes once strokes go past 18).
- Every player's total is netted and turned into the fewest payments, the same way the app's settle-up works.
FAQ
How does a carryover work in skins?
If two or more players tie for the low score on a hole, nobody wins it and the skin carries to the next hole. The next outright winner takes every skin that has carried, plus that hole's.
Gross or net skins?
Gross skins use actual scores. Net skins subtract handicap strokes on the holes where a player gets them (by the scorecard's stroke index) before comparing. Agree which you're playing before the first tee.
How much does each skin pay?
In this calculator, each skin is worth the stake from every other player. With four players at $5 a skin, a player who wins one skin collects $15 ($5 from each of the other three), and the totals are netted into one settle-up.
What happens to skins still carrying after 18?
They aren't paid out by the calculator. Groups handle it differently (a playoff, splitting them, or letting them lapse), so agree before you tee off.
Running a whole trip?
ForeLeft! does this for every round automatically: strokes from each player's tees, live scoring on several phones, and one settle-up for the whole trip.
Now on the App Store and Google Play. Works in your browser today.
