Nassau: the classic three-bet match
One round, three bets. The Nassau has survived a century because it keeps a blown-out front nine from ruining the whole afternoon.
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A Nassau is not one wager but three of equal value: the front nine, the back nine, and the eighteen-hole overall. When someone says they are playing a "$5 Nassau", they mean $5 on each of those three, so the maximum straight exposure is $15 before any presses.
The format is usually played as match play — you count holes won, not total strokes. Lose the first five holes of the front and you are three down with four to play, which in stroke play would be a catastrophe. In a Nassau it costs you exactly one third of the bet, and the back nine starts level. That reset is the whole point.
How the three bets resolve
- Front nine — whoever wins more of holes 1 through 9 wins that bet. All square means the front is halved and no money changes hands.
- Back nine — the same over holes 10 through 18, scored independently of the front.
- Overall — the match across all eighteen holes. It is possible to lose the front, win the back, and halve the overall.
Presses
A press is a new bet, for the same stake, covering only the remaining holes. Traditionally the player who is two down may press, which opens a fresh match from that point. If they win the remaining holes they recover the press even though the original nine is lost.
Presses are where a friendly Nassau becomes an accounting problem. Some groups use automatic presses: any time a player goes two down, a press opens without anyone having to ask. On a bad day that can produce five or six live bets at once, and the arithmetic afterwards is genuinely hard to do in your head. If you play automatic presses, track them as you go rather than trying to reconstruct them later.
Optional press variants
- Voluntary press — only the trailing player can call it, and only when two or more down. This keeps the total number of live bets manageable.
- Automatic press at two down — no request needed; it simply opens. Fast-moving and exciting, but requires careful tracking, ideally hole by hole rather than from memory.
- One press per nine — a cap that stops a genuinely bad nine from spawning three or four overlapping bets, popular with groups who want the drama without the spreadsheet.
Handicaps in a Nassau
Nassau is normally played off the difference in handicaps rather than full handicaps. If you are a 9 and your opponent is a 16, they receive seven strokes, allocated to the seven hardest holes by stroke index on the scorecard. Many groups play at 90 percent of the difference to slightly favour the lower handicap, on the theory that a higher handicapper's scoring is more volatile and volatility helps in match play.
Because strokes fall on specific holes, where they land matters more than how many there are. Getting a shot on the stroke-index-1 hole, typically a long par 4, is worth considerably more than one on an easier hole where you were likely to make par anyway.
Worked settlement
Two players, $5 Nassau, no presses.
- Front nine: Player A wins 3 holes, Player B wins 2, four halved. A wins the front — $5.
- Back nine: B wins 4, A wins 2. B wins the back — $5.
- Overall: A won 5 holes, B won 6. B wins the overall — $5.
Net: B is $5 up. Notice the overall bet did not simply follow the two nines — it is scored across the full eighteen, so a narrow front-nine win and a comfortable back-nine win produce different results from what the nine-by-nine tally suggests.
| Scenario | Front | Back | Overall | Net result ($5 Nassau) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A sweeps clean | A wins | A wins | A wins | A +$15 |
| Split nines, close overall | A wins | B wins | Halved | Even |
| Split nines, B stronger overall | A wins | B wins | B wins | B +$5 |
| One press won back on back nine | A wins | B wins (+ press) | B wins | B +$10, A +$5 |
Illustrative outcomes for a two-player $5 Nassau with a single $5 back-nine press.
Four-ball Nassau
With four players, the usual arrangement is two teams of two playing better-ball: each side records the lower of its two scores on every hole, and those team scores contest the three bets. Every payout is then doubled, since each player owes or collects from their opposite number. It is a good format for mismatched groups because a weaker partner can sit out a hole without costing the team anything.
Common disputes and how to settle them
Forgetting a press was called
The only real fix is writing it down the moment it happens — a note on the scorecard next to the hole number where the press opened. Relying on memory for two down at hole 13 is exactly how a friendly Nassau turns into a disagreement on the eighteenth green.
Disagreement over whether a hole is "two down"
This only comes up when strokes are involved and someone miscounts net scores mid-round. Settle it by recalculating from the card at the point of dispute rather than trusting either player's running count, and going forward, call the match status out loud after every hole.
Concession disputes near the hole
In match play, a conceded putt ends the hole immediately — the player does not have to hole out. Some groups get uneasy about generous concessions late when money is close. The standard fix is a "gimme" radius agreed on the first tee, typically the length of the flagstick or a fixed distance like two feet.
Regional variations
Some clubs use the term "Bingo" loosely for a Nassau with automatic presses, and in the UK a similar three-part match is sometimes folded into a broader "medal and match" day without a separate name. The structure — three equal-value match-play bets across front, back and overall — is consistent everywhere it is played, even where the local name for it differs.
Frequently asked questions
What does a $5 Nassau actually cost?
A straight $5 Nassau has three bets of $5 each — front nine, back nine and overall — so the maximum you can lose without any presses is $15. Presses add further $5 bets on top, so an aggressive automatic-press round can cost considerably more than the headline number suggests.
Can you win the overall bet without winning either nine?
Yes. The overall bet is scored across all eighteen holes independently of the two nine-hole splits, so a player can lose the front, lose the back, yet still win overall if their holes won across the full eighteen exceed their opponent's — this happens when close nines are won by an opponent while the other nine is lost heavily.
What is a press in a Nassau bet?
A press is a new, equal-stake bet covering only the remaining holes in a nine, usually initiated when a player goes two down. It gives the trailing player a fresh chance to win money back on the holes still to play, independent of the original bet, which continues running alongside it.
How are strokes given in a Nassau?
Nassau is normally played off the difference between the two players' course handicaps, with the higher handicapper receiving strokes on their hardest holes by stroke index. Many groups discount this to 90 percent of the full difference to slightly favour the lower handicapper.
Is Nassau played as match play or stroke play?
Nassau is a match play format: each hole is simply won, lost or halved, and the total strokes taken on a hole beyond what is needed to win it do not matter. This is what makes a Nassau far more forgiving of one bad hole than a stroke-play wager.