Ready to Play Nassau?
Settle Up Golf tracks every bet, calculates every payout, and tells you exactly who owes what — so you can focus on your game.
The front 9, the back 9, and the overall — the classic three-bet format that's been fueling friendly competition on golf courses for over a century.
If you've played golf with money on the line, you've almost certainly played a Nassau. It's the most common golf betting format in the world, and for good reason — it's simple to explain, fair across skill levels with handicaps, and creates natural drama at both the turn and the final hole.
A Nassau is actually three separate bets packaged into one: the front nine, the back nine, and the overall 18-hole match. Each is scored independently using match play (hole-by-hole), meaning you win, lose, or halve each hole. At the end of the front nine, someone settles the front bet. At the end of 18, someone settles the back and overall bets.
The name comes from the Nassau Country Club in New York, where the format was popularized in the early 1900s. More than a hundred years later, it's still the default bet when someone says "want to play for something?"
When your group agrees to play a "$5 Nassau," that means there are three separate $5 bets in play:
So in a $5 Nassau, you're playing for $15 total — and you can win some bets while losing others. That's what makes it interesting. You might get crushed on the front and come roaring back to win the back and overall. The format naturally generates comebacks.
Each bet is scored using match play rules. On every hole, you compare scores (adjusted for handicap strokes if playing net). The player with the lower net score wins the hole — they go "1 up" in that match. If scores are tied, the hole is halved — no change in the match status.
The front and back bets are decided independently. The overall tracks the running hole count across all 18. It's entirely possible to be 2 down on the front bet (meaning your opponent won two more holes than you did on the front) but 1 up on the overall (because you won those early holes by a smaller margin in the context of all 18).
When a match is decided before its holes are complete — say someone goes 5 up with only 4 holes left — the match is over. The winner "wins X and Y," meaning they're up by more holes than remain. But in casual Nassau play, most groups finish all holes regardless, which is perfectly fine.
Here's where Nassau gets really fun. A press is a side bet that can be called by the team or player who is losing a particular match. When you're down 2 or more holes in a bet, you have the right to "press" — starting a new mini-match for that same dollar amount that runs alongside the original.
Say you're 2 down on the front 9 with 5 holes to play. You press. Now there are two bets on the front: the original (which you're losing) and a new press bet that starts fresh. If you win the remaining holes, you might lose the original front bet but win the press — cutting your loss in half, or even coming out ahead.
Presses stack. You can press a press. And a losing team can press the back bet too, or the overall. By the time you're done, a simple $5 Nassau can have $30 or more riding on the round — which is exactly the kind of pressure that makes those last few holes extremely interesting.
The key rule to agree on before you start: when can a press be called? Most groups use "2 down" as the trigger (you can only press when you're down 2 holes in that bet). Some groups allow pressing at any time, while others only allow one press per bet. Settle this before the first tee.
Many groups play with automatic presses — where a new press bet starts automatically any time someone goes 2 down in a match, without having to call it. This removes the social awkwardness of asking to press and ensures the format stays consistent.
Auto-presses are common in money games because they prevent the situation where one player forgets to press (or is too polite to ask) and just silently bleeds money. If your group likes action, auto-presses keep everyone engaged every hole.
With auto-presses, the number of active bets can grow quickly — especially on a tough back nine. Tracking all of this mentally is a headache, which is one reason apps like Settle Up Golf exist. It handles the press math automatically, so you never have to argue about what happened three holes ago.
There's no rule on what a Nassau has to cost — your group decides. Common formats:
Whatever amount you choose, make sure everyone in the group agrees — and understands what pressing means for the total exposure. It's bad form to realize at the 18th green that you owe three times what you expected.
Always settle the terms before hole 1. Front/back/overall, dollar amounts, press rules, and whether you're playing gross or net (with handicaps). Five minutes of clarity up front saves forty minutes of arguing on the 18th green.
Play net if there's a handicap gap. Nassau is most fun when the match is competitive. If one player is a 4 handicap and another is an 18, playing gross means the 4-cap wins almost every hole. Play net — each player gets their course handicap strokes applied to the hardest holes. The match play format explains how handicap strokes work in this context.
Keep a running tally. Match play is confusing to track when you're also tracking score, presses, and multiple matches at once. This is exactly where Settle Up Golf shines — enter your scores hole by hole and it calculates everything: who's up, by how much, and what the presses are doing.
Don't forget to combine Nassau with skins. Many groups play a Nassau for the match play competition and add a skins game on top for individual hole competition. The two formats complement each other perfectly — the Nassau rewards consistent play across the nine, while skins reward making a single great hole.
Nassau has lasted a century because it works. It's competitive, it creates comebacks, and it scales from $2 to whatever keeps things interesting. Once you've played a few rounds with it, you'll understand why it's the default when someone says "want to make it interesting?"
Settle Up Golf tracks every bet, calculates every payout, and tells you exactly who owes what — so you can focus on your game.