How to play Murphys.

Overview

A Murphy is the shortest bet in golf: you're off the green, you fancy the chip, and you say so out loud. If you get up and down — holed in two strokes or fewer from where you're standing — every other player in the group pays you the agreed amount. If you don't, you pay every one of them. That's the whole game. No handicaps, no scorecard, no relationship to whatever else you're playing for.

What makes Murphys worth adding is that they're volunteered. Nobody makes you call one. The bet only exists because you looked at a lie and backed yourself, which means every Murphy in a round is a small piece of self-assessment played out in front of an audience. Groups that play them find the same two players call them constantly, one of them profitably. It rides naturally alongside dots and any main game you've got running.

How a Murphy Works

1. Set the value on the first tee. A dollar to each player is the classic. Anywhere from a dollar to twenty works depending on the group; remember it's paid to everyone, so a foursome Murphy is three times the number you name.
2. You must be off the putting surface. A Murphy can never be called for a ball already on the green.
3. Declare it early. The call comes before you set up to the shot — not after a practice swing, not standing over the ball, and certainly not after you've hit it to two feet.
4. Get up and down. Hole the chip outright, or put it on the green and make the first putt. Two strokes, maximum.
5. Settle it. Success: every other player pays you. Failure: you pay every other player. No partial credit.

Worked example. $2 Murphys in a foursome. You short-side yourself on the 12th, look at it anyway, and call a Murphy before you take your stance. You bump it to four feet and hole the putt — that's $6 collected, $2 from each opponent. On the 15th you call another from a greenside bunker, catch it thin, and two-putt from thirty feet. That's $6 out of your pocket. Over a season, the players who call Murphys from good lies keep the money and the players who call them out of pride don't.

Rules & Variations

Fringe: in or out? The one rule every group has to settle. Some allow Murphys from the fringe, some rule it out on the grounds that a putt from the fringe is barely a chip. Decide on the first tee — it's the most common Murphy argument there is.

The doubling call. A popular addition: once a Murphy is declared, any opponent may double it. The caller can accept the double or withdraw the Murphy entirely at the original stake. It punishes anyone calling one from an impossible lie.

Bunker Murphys. Some groups make a Murphy from sand pay double automatically, on the reasonable grounds that it's a harder shot. Others ban them, on the equally reasonable grounds that good players will call one from every bunker they find.

Mandatory Murphys. The punitive version: any short-sided miss is a Murphy whether you like it or not. It removes the choice that makes the bet interesting, but it does make a certain kind of player miserable, which some groups consider the point.

Keep it separate from the main game. Murphys settle on their own ledger. They don't affect skins, the Nassau, or anyone's score — a failed Murphy costs you money, not strokes.

Strategy

• The lie decides, not the distance. A forty-yard pitch from fairway grass is a better Murphy than a fifteen-footer from deep rough. Amateurs call on proximity; the profitable ones call on lie.
• Count the payout before you call. In a fivesome you're playing four-to-one odds against yourself on a shot most amateurs convert well under half the time. The bet is much better in a threesome.
• Never call one you'd already decided to hit conservatively. A Murphy makes you attack. If the smart shot is to twenty feet, calling one turns a bogey into a bad bogey and a lost bet.
• Short-sided is not automatically a bad Murphy. If you have green to work with and a clean lie, short-sided is fine. What kills Murphys is grass between the ball and the clubface.
• Watch who accepts the doubles. If your group plays the doubling rule, the willingness of others to double is real information about your lie. Take the withdrawal when three people jump at it.

Frequently asked questions

If you like Murphy, try these

Same energy, different game. Everything below has a full rules guide of its own.

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