9's

Every hole is worth exactly 9 points — 5 · 3 · 1

The basics

9's — also called Nines or 5-3-1 — is the classic threesome game. Every hole is worth exactly nine points: best score takes 5, middle takes 3, worst takes 1. With four players the worst gets 0 (5·3·1·0).

There's no waiting for a match to develop — every hole pays somebody, and no one is ever out of it.

Ties pool and split

Two players tied for best? They share the 5 and the 3 — four points each. Three-way ties split evenly. The nine points always add up; nobody argues math on the green.

Battle Tees keeps the fractions exact (down to twelfths) so pooled splits never round away a point.

Options

Blitz: win the hole by two or more strokes and sweep all nine points.

Closest to pin: a bonus point on par 3s — ball must be on the green, no carryover.

⚡How to actually win it

Never pick up. This is the one game where a bad hole still pays. Third place out of three is a point, and over 18 holes those single points decide more matches than the birdies do. Walking off in disgust hands a free 3 to someone.

The middle score is the real battleground. Everyone chases the 5, but the gap between taking 3 and taking 1 is the same two points — and the 3 is far easier to get. Playing for a safe par when the group is in trouble is usually worth more than a hero shot at a tucked pin.

Use the pooling. Tied for best splits the 5 and the 3 into four apiece. If you can't beat the leader, matching them is worth almost as much. That changes putting strategy on the green: sometimes the correct play is to guarantee a tie rather than gamble on a win.

Blitz changes everything. With the sweep rule on, winning a hole by two takes all nine. Now separation matters more than safety, and a two-shot swing is worth chasing. Know which version you're playing before the first tee.

🔥Why it's the perfect threesome game

Golf's oldest problem is the odd number. Most money games want a foursome, and a threesome ends up inventing something awkward. 9's was built for exactly three players and it shows — the math lands clean, every hole pays somebody, and nobody sits out.

It's also the most transparent game on the board. Nine points, every hole, split three ways. There is never an argument about what a hole was worth, which makes it the ideal game for a group that has one guy who likes to relitigate the math.

And it stays alive to the end. Because every hole pays, a player four holes back is never actually dead — they just need a run.

💰The wager

9's is scored in points and settled at whatever a point is worth. A full 18 puts 162 points in play, and the winner-to-loser spread usually lands somewhere around 30–50 of them.

Friendly · $0.10 / ptStandard · $0.25 / ptGrown folks · $0.50–1 / pt

Note the smaller numbers than Wolf — there are a lot more points in circulation here, so a quarter a point already means a $10–15 round. Groups that set a dollar a point are usually playing for more than they intended.

Mixed handicaps? Play it net.In 9's the strokes come off the low man, so the 5·3·1 split is decided on net scores — which is what lets a 22 take the 5 from a 6 on a hole where they get a shot. Battle Tees computes every player's course handicap from their index and the tees they actually played, then keeps gross and net side by side, live, on every phone — so the scratch sees their real number while everyone bets the one that decides the money. It is the difference between a group that bets and a group that talks about betting.

Battle Tees never touches the money. The app scores it, applies your handicaps, and shows exactly who owes whom at the end — one clean list, no arguing on the tailgate. You settle it in the parking lot, the way golfers always have.

Handicaps

Your group, your point structure.Every group has its own house rules, and the app bends to them instead of the other way round. In 9's that means the 5·3·1 split itself, whether the last player gets a point or a zero in a foursome, the Blitz sweep rule, and whether closest-to-pin on par 3s is live. Change any of it in setup before the round — the scoring, the standings and the settle math all follow automatically, and the numbers ride along to every phone in the group.

Strokes are taken off the low man — the dots on the score entry show exactly which holes give a stroke, so mixed-handicap groups play dead even.

If you like 9's, try these

⚔️ Play 9's in Battle Tees — request beta access Battle Tees — thirteen golf games, one scorecard, settled before the parking lot