Ready to Play Sixes?
Settle Up Golf tracks every bet, calculates every payout, and tells you exactly who owes what — so you can focus on your game.
Three six-hole matches, three different team pairings. By the end of the round, you've played with everyone and against everyone — and the math always balances out.
Sixes — also called 6-6-6 or the Round Robin — is a four-player golf betting game that splits an 18-hole round into three separate six-hole matches, each with different team pairings. By the time you finish hole 18, every player has been partners with every other player exactly once and has competed against every other player exactly once.
That mathematical symmetry is the genius of Sixes. In a standard four-player Nassau, the same two teams battle it out all day — if you're mismatched on handicap, one team might dominate. Sixes prevents that by constantly reshuffling. A player who struggles on the front six might turn into a brilliant partner on the middle six. Nobody gets stuck with the same team all day, and nobody can blame their partner for a full 18 holes.
Sixes is particularly popular in groups where the handicap spread is wide or the skill levels vary, because the rotating teams smooth out the advantages over time.
With four players — call them A, B, C, and D — the three six-hole pairings rotate like this:
Notice that player A partners with B, then C, then D in order. B partners with A, then D (opponents), then C. Each player partners with each other player exactly once across the three segments.
The pairings are fixed in advance — unlike Wolf, there's no choosing partners on the fly. You know who your partner is for each segment before the round starts. This simplicity makes the format easy to explain and easy to track.
Each six-hole segment is scored using Best Ball match play — same as a standard 2v2 Nassau. On each hole, the two teammates use their better (lower) net score and compare it to the opposing team's better net score. The team with the lower Best Ball score wins the hole. Win more holes in the six-hole segment, win that segment's bet.
A six-hole segment ends after hole 6, 12, or 18 respectively. The winning team collects the segment bet from the losing team. The bet amount is set before the round — common choices are $5, $10, or $15 per segment.
At the end of the round, you have three separate winners/losers from the three segments. A player could win the first segment (good partners), lose the second (tougher pairing), and halve the third. The final settlement is a net calculation across all three.
Presses work the same as in Nassau — when a team is 2 or more holes down in a segment with at least 2 holes remaining, they can call a press to start a side bet for that same dollar amount. Some groups play with auto-presses. Either way, this is where the tracking gets complicated — and where Settle Up Golf earns its keep by doing the math automatically.
The format's great strength is that it maintains engagement throughout the full round. In a standard Nassau or stroke play game, if one team goes up big on the front, the back nine can feel meaningless. In Sixes, each segment is a fresh start with fresh teams — being down 3 holes in segment one doesn't mean anything when segment two begins with new partners on hole 7.
This also means the format is naturally self-correcting. A strong player paired with a weak partner in one segment faces a tougher team configuration next time. A player who makes a big number on one hole can't drag their team down for the rest of the round — each six-hole contest stands alone.
Another advantage: social dynamics. By the end of 18 holes, you've been everyone's partner and everyone's opponent. The post-round conversation is naturally richer — "remember when you made that birdie to save our segment on 11?" rather than "we beat those two guys all day."
Sixes is designed precisely for four players. The math works out perfectly — three segments, three unique pairings, everyone plays with and against everyone.
You can adapt it for different group sizes, but it loses the elegance. With five players, you'd have one player sitting out per segment or play with unequal teams, which most groups prefer to avoid. With three players, there's no two-versus-two, so the format doesn't apply in its traditional form.
If you regularly play in threesomes, check out Nines (5-3-1) — it's the threesome equivalent of a rotating format, giving everyone something to play for on every hole.
With a larger group playing in two separate foursomes (eight players total), Sixes can be applied within each foursome independently — or you can use tournament mode to run cross-group competition.
Sixes plays extremely well alongside skins. The skins game runs independently, tracking the best individual score on each hole regardless of team context. A player might lose their six-hole segment but still clean up on skins by making two birdies that nobody else matched. The two games don't interfere with each other at all.
Some groups also layer a stroke play overall bet on top — whoever shoots the best net 18-hole score wins a separate pot regardless of how the team segments went. This rewards consistent scoring throughout the full round.
If you want head-to-head team betting for the full 18, consider Nassau with fixed teams instead. The choice between Sixes and Nassau usually comes down to whether your group wants fresh team dynamics every six holes or prefers a consistent rivalry for the full round.
Write down the pairings before hole 1. It sounds obvious, but mid-round confusion about who was partnered with whom on holes 7–12 is a real argument starter. Take 30 seconds to write or screenshot the rotation before teeing off.
Decide on net vs. gross before the first tee. Net sixes (using course handicaps) is more competitive when the group has a handicap spread. Gross sixes is simpler but can be lopsided. Most recreational groups benefit from net play.
Track segments as you go. Don't wait until hole 18 to reconstruct who won which segment. Either keep a running tally on the scorecard or use an app. By hole 15 you'll want to know whether the third segment matters for settlement.
Use Settle Up Golf to handle the payout math. With three segments, potential presses, and handicap strokes, the final settlement calculation can involve eight or more separate bets. The app tracks all of it and shows each player exactly what they owe or are owed at the end.
Settle Up Golf tracks every bet, calculates every payout, and tells you exactly who owes what — so you can focus on your game.