How Skins work
Each hole is worth one skin. The player with the lowest score on the hole wins that skin — but only if they win it outright. If two or more players tie for low, the hole is halved and no one takes the skin.
- Everyone plays the hole.
- Lowest score wins the skin — outright. A tie for low means nobody wins the hole.
- Tally the skins at the end. If there's money on it, each skin is worth your agreed dollar value, and you settle the differences between players.
That "win it outright" rule is the whole personality of the game. In a foursome, halving a hole is common — which is exactly what sets up the carryover.
Carryover — how the pot rides
When a hole ties, its skin doesn't disappear — it carries over and gets added to the next hole. Tie that one too, and now two skins ride to the third. The pot keeps stacking through every tie until someone finally wins a hole clean and scoops the entire pile at once.
This is what makes Skins with carryover so much more fun than the flat version. A quiet front nine full of halves can load up six or seven skins onto one hole, and suddenly a mid-round par for the win is worth a week's worth of pride. The comeback is always live: you can lose every hole and still take the round on the 18th if it's carrying a stack.
House rules worth settling first
| Decision | The common call |
|---|---|
| Gross or net | Net for mixed handicaps; gross when everyone's close. |
| Dollar per skin | Fixed per skin — carryovers make a small value swing big. |
| Validation (re-skin) | Optional: a winner must "validate" by matching the score next hole. |
| Last-hole tie | Split the carried pot, or go to a sudden-death hole. Pick one. |
Why we built Skins in
Carryover Skins is a bookkeeping headache by hand — you're tracking who won what, which holes halved, and how big the rolling pot has gotten, all while playing. GolfTrip handles the carryover automatically: enter each player's score, and the app awards the skin or rolls it forward, applies handicap strokes if you're playing net, and keeps the running pot live on the leaderboard so the whole group can see exactly what's riding on the next hole.
Common questions
What does carryover mean in Skins?
When a hole is tied for low, no one wins it and its skin carries forward to the next hole. The carried skins stack up until someone finally wins a hole outright — and that player scoops every carried skin at once.
Do you have to win a hole outright to take the skin?
Yes. A skin only goes to a single low score. If two or more players tie for the lowest score on the hole, the hole is halved, no skin is awarded, and (in a carryover game) the value rolls to the next hole.
What is the difference between gross and net Skins?
Gross Skins use raw scores, so the low-handicap players win most of them. Net Skins apply each player's handicap strokes per the scorecard's stroke index first, which keeps the game competitive across mixed abilities. Decide gross vs net before you tee off.
What happens to carried skins if the last hole ties?
Agree on this before the round. The two common calls: the pot splits evenly among everyone still in, or it carries to a sudden-death playoff hole. Pick one up front so the 18th green is fun, not an argument.