The course is closed, the bay is booked, and the group still wants something on the line. Here's how to run a skins game on the sim that's as fair as the one you play on grass — and settled before the bay time runs out.
Skins is the easiest money game to bring into a sim bay. Every hole is its own bet, so nobody checks out after a bad front nine, and a tie carries the skin to the next hole, so the 17th can be worth four times what the 1st was. It also plays fast. A foursome on a sim moves quicker than on the course, and skins keeps every shot meaningful without slowing anyone down.
On grass the course sets the rules. On a sim, the settings do, and they change who wins. Settle these before the first swing and keep them the same all night:
Pick a value per skin — $1, $5, whatever the group plays — and decide what happens on a tie. The usual rule is that a tied hole carries its skin to the next one, and the next hole is worth two. Decide too whether the game is gross or net. On a sim, net only works if everyone is playing off the right handicap, which brings us to the part most groups get wrong.
Most golfers don't score the same indoors. Lies are perfect, putting depends on the settings, and some sims are kinder off the tee than any real course. Give strokes off everyone's outdoor handicap and the game can be lopsided before the first swing. A separate sim handicap fixes that: a second number, just for the sim, that reflects how each golfer actually plays in the bay. We wrote a whole post on why your sim handicap should be separate.
Duck Hook Golf doesn't connect to the simulator, so it works with any of them. Your group keeps score in the free app:
During the round, every score starts at par. If everyone made par, tap Everyone Made Par and move on. Skins carry on their own, and Tee Box Odds shows who's favored on each hole before anyone swings. When the round ends, every skin, press and side bet is netted into one payout, with Venmo filled in. The bay time is the only thing left to settle.
Playing every week? Sim rounds are kept apart from your outdoor golf, so your sim record builds on its own and never touches your GHIN index. If you run a league for a whole venue, Duck Hook Pro sets up the season in one step, keeps the standings, and puts a live leaderboard on the TV in the bay.
Duck Hook Golf is free, works with any simulator, and has 27,000+ real courses ready. Flip on Simulator Round and you're set.
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