How to play a Nassau — golf’s classic 3-part bet
Any matchup
The Nassau is golf’s standard wager: three matches in one round — the front nine, the back nine, and the overall 18. Lose the front? You’ve still got two bets alive. It’s the fairest structure golf gambling ever produced, which is why it’s survived a century.
The rules
Play match play (holes won, not strokes) in each of the three legs — 1v1, two-man teams, or lopsided sides (a 3v4 works; better ball either way, settled per man). Each leg is worth the agreed stake: "a $5 Nassau" is $5 on the front, $5 on the back, $5 on the total. Some groups weight the total double.
Stroke-play groups run a medal Nassau instead — lowest total strokes per leg — and it works exactly the same way.
Presses
The press is the Nassau’s pressure valve: when you’re down (traditionally 2-down), you can press — starting a brand-new bet for the same stake over the remaining holes of that leg. Auto-press groups start one automatically at 2-down. It keeps every nine alive to the last putt.
How Swilkin runs it
Swilkin speaks fluent Nassau: per-man first-tee stakes ("a $10 Nassau" means each man), per-leg stakes for the $5/$5/$10 crowd, match or medal legs — even a whole-field medal Nassau or round-robin Nassaus against every pair. Add a press from any hole with a tap (auto two-down presses ride on a straight match), and the receipt itemizes every leg and press so the settle-up is never an argument.
Play Nassau this weekend
One scorecard, every bet settled to the penny — free for golfers.
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