Skins: one pot per hole, ties roll over
Each hole carries one skin. The outright lowest score wins it; any tie for low means nobody wins and the skin rolls into the next hole. Several tied holes in a row build the famous four-skin hole — which is exactly why people play skins.
Example: skins are $10. Holes three and four tie, then Wang takes hole five outright — he wins three skins, $30. If the eighteenth ends tied, most groups void the remaining pot, some play it off; agree before the first tee.
Nassau: three bets in one round
A nassau splits the round into three separate bets: front nine, back nine, and the overall eighteen. Blow up the front and you can still win two bets on the back — which is why the format has survived a century. A “$5 nassau” means five on each of the three.
A press is nassau’s famous extension: the side that falls behind opens a fresh bet covering only the remaining holes. Whether presses are allowed, and how far down you must be to call one, must be fixed on the first tee — it is the single biggest source of arguments.
One line on handicaps
With mixed abilities, play net scores: take the handicap difference and assign strokes to the hardest holes by stroke index, so those holes count actual minus one. Casual groups often just give “X strokes a nine.” Neither is wrong — only undecided is wrong.
Let the math run itself
The golf scorecard on Tallyo has all of this built in: enter strokes hole by hole and it runs the skins carryovers and all three nassau bets, keeps the full 18-hole card, and settles who pays whom at the end. One room code, every cart sees it live.