Sixes: Three Matches, Three Partners, One Round
Every foursome has run into the same problem: teams get picked on the first tee, one pairing is obviously stronger, and by the seventh hole two people are playing out a round they've already lost. Sixes fixes it structurally. You partner with everyone, for exactly six holes each, and nobody can blame the draw.
It goes by several names — Sixes, Round Robin, Hollywood, 6-6-6, or Split Sixes depending on who taught it to you. The rotation is the same everywhere.
The rotation
Four players, labeled A, B, C, D. Three six-hole matches:
- Holes 1–6: A + B vs. C + D
- Holes 7–12: A + C vs. B + D
- Holes 13–18: A + D vs. B + C
That's every possible pairing, exactly once. Each player spends six holes with each of the other three. There is no fourth combination — this is the complete set, which is why the format is so clean.
Each six-hole segment is its own match, played better ball (best net score on each side wins the hole). Settle each segment as a standalone bet, and add a small bonus for the player with the best overall record if you want a season-long feel in one afternoon.
Scoring: two ways to do it
Match style. Play each six as a straight match — up, down, or all square, settled at a fixed amount per segment. Simplest to run, closest to a Nassau in feel, and each segment can carry a press.
Points style (Split Sixes). Six points are on the table each hole, split by finishing position between the two teams:
- Team wins the hole outright: 4–2
- Hole is halved: 3–3
- Some groups award 5–1 when a team wins with both players beating both opponents
Points accumulate individually — you keep the points you earned in every segment, not just the segment result. That version rewards consistent play across all three partnerships rather than one hot stretch, and it makes the last few holes matter to everyone rather than only to the trailing team.
Pick one before the round. Mixing "we're playing matches" and "wait, are we counting points?" halfway through is how a friendly round turns into a debate.
Handicaps
Sixes is a better-ball format, so handicaps apply the normal way: allocate strokes off the low player's course handicap, hole by hole, using the card's stroke index. A player getting six shots gets them on the six hardest holes — which means their strokes are unevenly distributed across the three segments, and that's fine. It's the same for everyone over 18 holes.
Where groups go wrong is recalculating allowances at each segment change. Don't. Set the strokes once at the start of the round from the same baseline and leave the card alone. If you need a refresher on index versus course handicap and how strokes fall on the card, start here.
Why the format works
- The best player can't hide. In a fixed-team match, the strongest player rides one partnership all day. In Sixes he carries each of the other three in turn, and his results reveal whether he was actually the reason.
- Nobody plays out a dead round. A blowout front six is over at hole 7. New partner, new match, level score. Compare that to being 5 down through 11 in a straight 18-hole match.
- It's socially self-correcting. No one gets stuck for five hours with the guy who's having the bad day, and nobody has to negotiate teams on the first tee.
- It stacks with anything. Sixes only uses the better-ball result on each hole, so junk bets, a skins pot, or closest-to-the-pin all run underneath it without interference.
Variants
- Nines (Threesome round robin). Three players, nine points per hole split 5-3-1 by score. The natural version when you're a player short.
- Escalating segments. Segment one at 1x, segment two at 1.5x, segment three at 2x. Keeps the finish live without anyone having to press.
- Sixes with presses. Allow one press per segment, expiring at the end of that six. Short leash, short match — presses stay contained instead of compounding.
- Trip-length Sixes. On a multi-day trip, run Sixes each day and track cumulative points across the whole weekend for a trip champion. Slots straight into a buddies trip format.
The bookkeeping problem
Sixes has one real cost: it's three separate ledgers, and the partnership changes twice mid-round. If you're playing the points version, you're tracking four individual totals plus two team results per hole — and unlike a single match, there's no running "2 up" in anyone's head to check the math against.
Two practices keep it clean. Announce the new pairings on the 7th and 13th tees, out loud, before anyone hits — every group has had someone play three holes on the wrong team. And write down the hole result as you leave the green rather than reconstructing segments later, so the round ends with one number per person instead of three matches to relitigate.