How to play skins

Each hole is worth one skin. The player with the lowest score on that hole wins the skin outright. If two or more players tie for the low score, nobody wins it.

Skins are won hole by hole, so a player can shoot a poor total and still have the best night — one birdie in the right place can be worth more than a steady round.

When a hole is tied, its skin carries over to the next hole. Tie hole 3 and hole 4 is worth two skins; tie again and hole 5 is worth three. Carryovers are what make the back nine of a skins night tense.

Some groups cap carryovers at three holes, and some declare that a carried skin can't be won with a bogey. Pick one rule and keep it for the whole season.

Gross skins reward raw scoring. Net skins subtract strokes on assigned holes, which keeps higher-handicap players in the game — the usual choice for a mixed-ability league.

A common compromise is half-handicap net skins: allocate half of each player's course handicap across the hardest holes.

For a recurring league, track two things separately: skins won (the money or bragging rights each night) and season points (finish position each week). That way a hot night of skins doesn't distort the season standings.

Enter scores hole by hole, mark the skin winner for each hole, then post a recap with the weekly winner, low round, and biggest carried pot.

Late Night Links handles all of it: weekly score entry for the whole group, automatic skins and carryover detection, season standings, and a shareable recap for every session.