If you’ve been on the hunt for a new game to shake up the rounds of golf you play with your friends, you want to have a closer look at the “High Low” golf game format.
Sometimes called “Lowball, Highball”, the rules for this golf game are really pretty simple and straightforward. The idea is to split into two different teams – you can play this with two people or for people, it’s up to you – and then compare respective low score and high score.
We dig a little bit deeper into the ins and outs of how “High Low” golf works below!
How to Play the High Low Golf Game
The perfect game for golfers of every level, this game works particularly well when you are able to play it with teams that are relatively even matched.
You either want golfers that are all at the same skill level (roughly), two golfers that are at the same level and two others that matchup with each other, or calculate scores using a handicap system – either the official USGA handicap system or one that you come up with all on your own.
After the teams have been divvied up, though, you’ll want to follow these rules of how to play the High Low golf game:
- Teams take a turn teeing off, with each player continuing to play their ball only
- At the end of a hole, both teams submit the lowest score that their team got on that hole as well as the highest score
- A point is given to the team that has the lowest low score as well as the lowest high score, and points are tallied up after each whole to determine who is in the lead – and who wins
… And that’s really all there is to it!
How to Score the High Low Golf Game
Now that we’ve gotten the rough rules of the game down pat, let’s dig a little bit deeper into the “nuts and bolts” of how you actually score the High Low golf game.
Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that you have the following scores on a par four:
- Three and six on Team One
- Four and five on Team Two
Because three strokes is the lowest score on this part for whole that team (Team One) earns a single point.
At the same time, because the five for Team Two is the lowest high score that team also gets a point.
The scorecard here would show 1-1 (all even) if this is the only hole of golf played so far.
How are Ties Handled In High Low Golf Game?
But what if instead of a player on Team One shooting a six and the player on Team Two shooting a five instead both had fives (or instead both had sixes)?
What do you do in the event of a tie?
There are a couple of different things you can do in this situation, depending on how you want to keep score going forward.
Some people that play High Low with ties like to give a point to any score that meets the scoring criteria.
This means that a single point would go to the lowest score on the whole (a single point for Team One for shooting at three in our example) and then a point a piece to both Team One and Team Two for scoring either two fives or two sixes in our tie example.
Other players, though, like to keep scoring even simpler than that by not awarding any points whatsoever if there’s a tie.
This might mean that an entire hole doesn’t contribute to High Low-scoring in some situations, for example if everyone got a par on a par four.
Doubled Birdies Scoring
There are even some golfers that like to shake things up even more by awarding double points for any team that scores a birdie on a hole.
This means that a birdie player would get two points instead of one on that hole (or three points if they got an eagle). It just incentivizes great play a little more!
How to Win the High Low Golf Game
At the end of the day, the beautiful thing about High Low is that it really keeps everyone involved in the game no matter what.
Every player is incentivized to “carry their weight” as much as possible since everyone’s score has a huge impact on the outcome of the head-to-head matchups.
Here are just a couple of tips to help teams win more rounds of High Low golf going forward, though.
Low Handicappers Should Play More Conservatively
For starters, low handicappers should try and play more conservatively so that they can save a hole whenever necessary.