Units

Units are not a playing format: they are satellite bets. They run alongside whatever else you are playing — a medal, a set of pressures, anything — and each one counts a single thing.

Every unit is an independent bet with its own amount. Switch on one, five or all of them. And there is no cap for the round: if the day goes your way, you collect on everything you did.

They are the easiest way to put something on a quiet round without setting up a whole format.

The available units

Unit	What it counts	How it is recorded
Birdies	Holes one under par	From the score
Eagles	Holes two under par	From the score
Albatrosses	Holes three under par	From the score
Hole Out	Holing it from off the green	By hand
Longest Drive	The longest drive on the agreed hole	By hand
Sandy Par	Par or better out of a bunker	By hand
Wet	Ball in the water	By hand
Out of Bounds	Ball out of bounds	By hand
Fewest Putts	Fewest putts for the round	From the score
Closest to the pin	Nearest the flag on the par 3s	By hand

Closest to the pin has its own rules, and far deeper ones than the rest, which is why it lives in its own guide. Fewest Putts also works differently, and we cover it at the end.

How it settles: by difference, against each rival

This is the mechanic to understand, because it is not a common pot.

Each unit settles one on one against every rival, comparing totals. Against each player you take the difference between your count and theirs, and multiply that difference by the amount.

If the counts are level, nothing moves between those two.

Four players, birdies at $50:

Player	Birdies
Ana	5
Beto	3
Caro	2
Dani	0

Ana collects from each one separately: two of difference from Beto ($100), three from Caro ($150) and five from Dani ($250). Ana finishes +$500. Beto collects from Caro ($50) and Dani ($150) and pays Ana $100: +$100. Caro pays Ana and Beto, collects from Dani: −$100. Dani pays all three: −$500.

There is no single pot for somebody to sweep. There are as many small ledgers as there are pairs of players.

Amounts are configured per game. The numbers in this guide are examples used to explain the mechanic, not prices.

The birdie, eagle and albatross multipliers

The three scoring units share a mechanic, but they are not worth the same. The amount is multiplied by rarity:

Unit	Under par	Multiplier
Birdies	1	×1
Eagles	2	×2
Albatrosses	3	×3

On a base amount of $50, each birdie of difference is worth $50, each eagle $100 and each albatross $150. It is the scale that saves you configuring three separate amounts for the same idea.

Note that they are separate units. An eagle counts in the eagles unit, not in the birdies unit. They do not cascade downwards.

The units marked by hand

Hole Out, Longest Drive, Sandy Par, Wet and Out of Bounds do not come from the score: somebody marks them in the hole statistics. And they stack — put two balls in the water on the same hole and that is two.

They settle exactly like the scoring units, by difference of totals against each rival.

Wet and Out of Bounds pay you, not the other way round

This is the one to say out loud on the 1st tee, because it runs against instinct: on Wet and Out of Bounds, the player who commits the event collects.

The more balls you put in the water, the more you collect. The more times you go out of bounds, the more you collect. The difference in events against each rival is settled in your favour.

It sounds backwards until you play it once. These two units are not a punishment: they are disaster insurance. The round where your swing falls apart and you lose four balls is exactly the round where you are going to lose everything else. These two hand something back, and turn the worst shot of the day into a laugh instead of a silence.

The consistent player, the one who never finds the water, is the one paying here. And that player is already collecting on birdies, on sandy pars and in the main format.

Sandy Par, Hole Out and Longest Drive

These three reward the obvious:

• Sandy Par: saving par or better after being in a bunker. The scrambler’s unit.
• Hole Out: holing it straight from off the green. Rare, spectacular, always celebrated.
• Longest Drive: the longest drive on whichever hole the group agrees on. It can be one hole or several across the round.

Fewest Putts works differently

Fewest Putts is the exception to everything above. It does not settle by difference — it is a pot.

It works like this:

1. Every player puts up the same fixed amount at the start.
2. At the end, raw putts for the whole round are counted. No strokes, no handicap adjustment: putts are putts.
3. Fewest wins. If several tie, all of the tied players win.
4. Every loser forfeits their stake, and the total is split equally between the winners.
5. If absolutely everyone ties, no money moves.

Holing out from off the green counts as zero putts, and it counts in your favour. It is the one unit where chipping in is worth double: it saves you the shot and it drops your counter.

With four players at $200 each there is $800 on the table. A sole winner takes home $600 net — the two hundred from each of the three losers — and keeps their own. If two tie, each takes $200 net.

Strategy

• Switch on few units and raise the amounts. Ten units at a small amount produce a lot of ledgers and very little drama.
• Let the multipliers do the work. You do not need to price the eagle higher: it is already worth double.
• Wet and Out of Bounds level the table. They are the two that stop the high handicapper from paying out on absolutely everything.
• Fewest Putts is the fairest unit there is. It does not care about distance or handicap. It is the one where a 24 can beat a 4 straight up.
• Agree who marks the manual events. If nobody logs them, the unit does not exist.