A points-based format where every player has a personal target. Beat your number, beat the field. The fairest way to bet across mixed handicaps.
Your quota is 36 minus your handicap. Earn points per hole — bogey 1, par 2, birdie 4 — and your score is how far over or under your number you finish. A 22-handicap can beat a 4 straight up, which is exactly the point.
Quota is a points game where each player earns points per hole based on their gross score relative to par, and tries to beat a personal quota of 36 minus their handicap. A 12-handicap needs 24 points; a scratch needs 36. Whoever beats their quota by the largest margin wins. Because the quota itself adjusts for handicap, scoring stays gross and the math stays simple.
If your club calls this game Chicago, you're playing the same thing. Chicago is the Midwest name for a quota game with one dial turned: the target is 39 minus handicap instead of 36. Same points table, same gross scoring, same winner — just a slightly higher bar. Everything on this page applies to both; where the two differ, it's noted.
The points table. Each hole's gross score is compared to par; points are awarded as follows:
The doubling structure rewards low scores aggressively — a single eagle is worth four bogeys. A blow-up hole never wrecks the round either: anything worse than bogey earns nothing, but it costs nothing.
Why points are gross, not net. The handicap is already baked into the quota itself, so points are calculated using gross scores. A 12-handicap who shoots 84 (with no double bogeys or worse) might post 30 points — against a quota of 24, that's a +6 differential. A scratch player would need 42 points to match that — not impossible, but they'd need real birdies, not just consistent pars.
Worked example (36-base Quota). Two players, same round of golf on paper. The 12-handicap wins because they beat their quota by more.
Worked example (39-base Chicago). Dana, an 18-handicap, needs 21 points. The round: eleven bogeys (11), four pars (8), one birdie on the short 14th (4), two blow-ups (0). Total 23 — plus-2. Alex, a 4-handicap chasing 35, makes fourteen pars (28) and two birdies (8) but doubles two holes (0): 36 — plus-1. Dana wins by a point, and the birdie on 14 was the difference all by itself.
Payouts (head-to-head). Duck Hook Golf settles Quota by comparing every player pair: the player with the higher differential collects (winner's differential − loser's differential) × unit cost from each player they beat. So the bigger you beat your quota, the more you collect from everyone behind you. Groups running it by hand often simplify to winner-take-pot, or split it so everyone below zero pays in and everyone above zero shares in proportion.
Nobody makes their quota? Nobody gets paid. The quota is a bar to clear, not just a tiebreaker — so if every player finishes below their number, the round is a wash and no money changes hands. Missing by the least is not winning. As soon as one player reaches their quota, the head-to-head math above runs as normal for the whole group, including the players who came up short.
Both games hand every player a target, both score gross points on the same 1-2-4-8 scale, and both award the round to the biggest plus. The base number is what changes:
Why 39? A scratch golfer shooting even par makes roughly 18 pars plus a few birdies traded against bogeys — about 39 points on this scale. The higher base calibrates the target so an average round for your handicap finishes near zero instead of comfortably above it. The 36 base is more forgiving and produces more plus-scores; pick one on the first tee and state it out loud, because mixing the two is how arguments start on the 19th hole.
You'll also hear Chicago scored as a running total from a negative start — an 18-handicap begins at −21 and adds points all day, playing to get back above zero. It's the same arithmetic, just tracked differently. Some groups also run Stableford-style net points against a flat target instead of gross points against a personal one; that's a different game, closer to straight Stableford.
Decimal handicaps. Quotas can be decimal — a 12.4 handicap has a quota of 23.6. Duck Hook Golf handles decimal handicaps natively.
USGA or relative handicaps. USGA-style is the default. Games using simulator courses fall back to the player's sim handicap if one is set.
Nine-hole quotas. Halve the quota (rounding in the player's favor) for league nights. The math holds up fine.
Quota adjustments for streaks. Season leagues often nudge quotas by results — beat your number by 3 or more, and next week's target rises by 1. Self-correcting and sandbagger-resistant.
Team play. Quota is at heart an individual format — the personal quota is what makes it fair across mixed handicaps — but groups do pair up by summing partners' plus/minus results or counting the best plus/minus per hole. For a purpose-built team handicap format, use Best Ball or a Scramble with a handicap allowance instead.
Presses and side bets. Getting buried? The app scores a 2x press: every point from the next unscored hole is worth double, for everyone. It also tracks side bets like closest to the pin and long drive on top, and settles them with the rest of the round.
Set up a quota game in about thirty seconds, hand out the code, and let everybody watch it play out.
Quota is a points game where every player gets a personal target — 36 minus their handicap — and earns points per hole based on gross score vs. par. Whoever beats their quota by the most wins. Because the target adjusts for handicap, it's one of the fairest formats for mixed-skill groups.
Yes — Chicago is the same game under a different name, with one dial changed. Both give every player a handicap-based target, use the same 1-2-4-8 gross points table, and crown whoever beats their number by the most. Quota subtracts your handicap from 36; Chicago subtracts it from 39, which sets a slightly higher bar. Agree on the base number on the first tee and the rest of the rules are identical.
Quota = 36 minus the player's handicap. A scratch player's quota is 36 points, a 12-handicap needs 24, a 20-handicap needs 16. Playing Chicago, use 39 instead: scratch needs 39, a 10-handicap 29, an 18-handicap 21. Decimal handicaps work too — a 12.4 handicap has a quota of 23.6.
A doubling table: bogey 1 point, par 2, birdie 4, eagle 8, albatross 16, double bogey or worse 0. Points are scored on gross scores because the handicap is already built into each player's quota.
A scratch golfer shooting even par makes roughly 18 pars plus a few birdies traded against bogeys — about 39 points on the 1-2-4-8 scale. The higher base calibrates the target so an average round for your handicap lands near zero rather than comfortably above it.
If every player finishes below their quota, nobody wins and no money changes hands — the round is a wash. The quota is a bar to clear, not just a tiebreaker, so missing by the least does not count as beating the field. Duck Hook Golf settles it that way automatically. Once any single player reaches their quota, the usual head-to-head payouts run for the whole group.
Stableford crowns the highest raw point total, usually scored net of handicap. Quota keeps scoring gross but measures every player against a personal target (36 minus handicap) — the winner is whoever beats their own number by the most, which levels the field for money games. Full guide: Stableford scoring explained.
Yes — sum the partners' individual plus/minus results, or count the best plus/minus per hole. It also runs well as a season-long league format since every player has a personal target every week.
Same energy, different game. Everything below has a full rules guide of its own.
Duck Hook Golf