Umbrella

Six points a hole — sweep them all for twelve

The basics

Umbrella is a 2-v-2 game where every hole has six points on offer across four categories: low ball 2, low team total 2, closest to pin 1, gross birdie 1.

Ties on a category mean nobody gets it. The birdie point is always gross — no strokes.

☂ The umbrella

Win all six points on one hole and it doubles to twelve. Dominance pays. Battle Tees counts your “umbrellas opened” in the standings.

Closest-to-pin is tapped every hole — any hole, not just par 3s — so short game matters everywhere.

⚡How to actually win it

Chase the sweep, but not stupidly. Taking all six points doubles the hole to twelve. That's the whole game — one swept hole is worth two ordinary ones. When your team already has low ball and low total locked up, spending a shot to steal the closest-to-pin is genuinely correct.

Closest to pin is a full point every par 3. That's four or five free points a round that most groups treat as an afterthought. Aim at the middle of the green and let the point come to you rather than short-siding yourself at a tucked flag.

The birdie point is exclusive — it doesn't stack. Know which points are still live before deciding how aggressive to be on your approach.

Low team total rewards the partner having a bad day. Two bogeys often beat a birdie and a double. Keep your partner in the hole even when their ball can't win it outright.

🔥Why the sweep is worth the wait

Umbrella gives every hole four separate things to fight over, so there's always something at stake even when the hole is otherwise decided. Lost the low ball? Low total is still live. Lost both? There's still a birdie and a closest-to-pin.

Then there's the sweep. Taking all six and watching the hole double to twelve is the loudest moment in the game — and the app counts them for you at the end, so you know exactly how many umbrellas you opened.

It's the thinking golfer's team game: four small battles per hole, and knowing which one to fight is the skill.

💰The wager

Six points a hole, twelve on a sweep — 108 points minimum across 18 holes and considerably more if anyone is sweeping. Umbrella settles team against team: the point margin is paid once by the losing pair and split evenly between them.

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

The spread usually lands 20–45 points, so a quarter a point is a $5–12 round. Sweeps are where the variance lives: two of them in a round can decide the whole thing.

Mixed handicaps? Play it net.Umbrella takes strokes off the low man across all six points — so a stroke can win you low ball and low total on the same hole, which is four of the six points in one go. 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.

In Battle Tees

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 Umbrella that means team pairings, and because closest-to-pin is one of the six points, the CTP picker is forced on every hole so nobody forgets to award it. 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.

Fixed teams picked in setup, net or gross via the scoring options, pairwise settlement per point.

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