Most games reward good golf. Trouble keeps score of the bad: every water ball, every bunker, every three-putt is a point against you. Lowest total at the end of the day wins, and the group finally has a number for the round you’d rather forget.
Each mistake from an agreed list earns penalty points: 1 for water, out of bounds, a bunker or a three-putt, more for the big ones like a four-putt or a whiff. Add them up after 18. Lowest points wins, either the whole pot or the difference per point.
Trouble is the reverse of dots: instead of collecting points for greenies and sandies, you collect them for disasters, and you want as few as possible. It’s also called Disaster, Bong or, with a slightly different list, Misery. It plays alongside any main game and suits any number of players, individually or as 2v2 teams.
The common points table.
Worked example. On one hole Sam finds a fairway bunker (1), takes two to get out (1) and three-putts (1): 3 points. Jo’s tee shot goes in the water (1) and Jo two-putts for a double: 1 point. Jo’s double bogey was the better hole in Trouble.
Disaster. The same game under another name, often with one more line: water or out of bounds a second time on the same hole, 3 points.
Misery. A near-identical version that drops the whiff and bunker-to-bunker items and escalates instead: 2 points for failing to get out of a bunker (more for each extra try) and 2 for a four-putt (more for each extra putt).
House items. Groups add their own: missing the fairway off the tee, hitting a tree, a chip that doesn’t reach the green, a drive that doesn’t pass the forward tees. And they change the values, such as 2 points for water.
Settling. Winner-take-all from a fixed ante, or a value per point with the differences paid.
Trouble isn’t one of the formats Duck Hook Golf scores yet. The free app scores 32 others — skins, Nassau, Wolf, Vegas, Stableford, Snake and the rest — and does the arithmetic and the settle-up for you.
Get the free app Browse all 52 gamesPlayers earn penalty points for mistakes: 1 each for water, out of bounds, a bunker, failing to get out of a bunker at the first try and a three-putt, 2 for going from one bunker into another, 3 for a four-putt and 4 for a whiff. The lowest total after 18 holes wins.
Yes, Disaster (also called Bong) is another name for the same game, sometimes with an extra 3-point item for finding water or out of bounds twice on one hole. Misery is a near-identical version with a slightly different list.
Either winner-take-all from a fixed amount each player puts in, or a value per point with each player paying the difference to those below them.
Yes. In 2v2, add both partners’ points together; the lower team total wins.
Not yet. Trouble isn’t one of the formats Duck Hook Golf scores. Its Dots game tracks the positive kind of junk, checked against the scorecard.
Same energy, different game. Everything below has a full rules guide of its own.
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