Stymies – The Best Competitive Putting Game Known to Man (Ep.37)

Stymies putting game

Got questions or want to be on the show?

Email me or hit me up through Twitter (@caseybourque) or social media and I’ll make sure I help you out. Look for live Q&A sessions and call-ins. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to get Golf Essentials every day.


More Players the Better

Stymies is a vicious competitive putting game that is best played with as many people as you can wrangle up. Find 10 people and you’ll have a blast.

It’s a total strokes game played on the practice putting green…usually with some fun people that don’t mind beating each other up a little bit.

How you Play:

  1. Draw straws to determine who goes first – it’s super important to keep the order
  2. After the first hole, use golf’s honor system to set order of play – low score on previous hole leads off
  3. Player with the honor chooses the hole
  4. All players putt in order, leaving their ball in place
  5. If a ball strikes another ball, the player who putted incurs a 1-stroke penalty
  6. The player farthest from the hole ALWAYS goes first.
  7. No finishing out whatsoever – including 1″ putts – in fact, the point is to get in everyone’s way if you don’t hole out.
  8. Low score wins

We used to play this game for $1 per stroke…which can get pretty hefty. Go with what you feel comfortable with, but I highly suggest some value per stroke to keep everyone engaged the entire time on every shot…otherwise, people get silly when they know they’ve lost.

Good luck