Golf Games Explained
How to play 'Bundle': The game that keeps you engaged even on your worst days
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Golf Games Explained is exactly what it sounds like. You want to mix it up and try something new for once? Well, someone has to do the thankless work of playing different golf formats and telling you if it's worth it. You can thank me later.
It is officially golf season basically everywhere right now, so ideally you've already gotten out there and started grinding. Perhaps you've even began competing with buddies, trying one of the 20 golf games we broke down for our readers here over the last year or so.
Thanks to those same readers, in particular Richard Ward (@richward65 on X/Twitter), we now have a brand-new game to introduce. It's called "Bundle," and, like many of the games we explained last year, "Bundle" keeps you fully enaged to the very end of the round even on your bad days.
Here's how to play.
Number of players required: Four.
Best for: Groups who carry cash. All skill levels. Players who will stay in the fight even when they are struggling with their swing.
How to play: As my man Rich explains, each player in your foursome forks over $20 (or another agreed upon amount of your group's choosing) to put in the "Bundle." Then, a random order is established and the No. 1 player who tees off first literally holds onto the Bundle of cash, which in this case would be $80.
If that player hits the ball out-of-bounds, into a hazard, makes a double-bogey OR three-putts, the Bundle moves on to the No. 2 player in the order. If any player NOT holding the Bundle makes a birdie, the bundle also immediately moves on to the next player in the order. If none of these scenarios occur, the Bundle remains with the player holding it. In other words, when you have the Bundle, keeping the ball in play and making bogey or better and not three-putting is the objective. Also known as sound, solid golf.
The player who holds on to the Bundle after the front nine gets to keep $40 of the Bundle. After 18, the player holding on to the Bundle gets to keep the other half. So for the entire round, you're always playing for the potential of doubling your money. And you're secretly rooting against the other three. Some rounds, the bundle may switch hands a total of two or three times. Other rounds, it could change two or three times on one hole.
If Bundle reminds you have any other game, it might be Rabbit, which similarly pays out after 9 and after 18, though that game is all about shooting the low net score on every hole in an effort to beat the rest of the group. In Bundle, there's a little more to it than that.
If you have any golf games or variations of golf games we haven't covered and you'd like to explain, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter/X @Cpowers14.
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