How it plays
- 1Everyone plays their own ball and records a score on each hole.
- 2Rank the four scores on the hole, low net first.
- 3Award 4 to the best, 3 to the second, 2 to the third and 1 to the last.
- 4Total the points over nine holes. Highest wins.
Scoring and handicaps
- Ten points are on the table on every hole — the four prizes always add to ten.
- A tie splits the places it spans: two men tied for the lead take 3.5 each, and the third man still takes 2.
- All four tied is 2.5 apiece.
- Net play works normally — apply handicap strokes before ranking.
- Perfect nine-hole round with four players: 36 points. The floor is 9, not zero.
Over nine holes
Ten Point is the flattest format in the rotation and that is the whole point of it: last place still banks a point, so a triple bogey on the second does not end anybody's afternoon. Over nine holes the gap between first and last is 27 points at most, which is close enough that the ninth tee always matters.
How to actually win it
- Never pick up. Fourth place is worth a point and a point is a tenth of a hole.
- Because the prizes are so even, consistency beats heroics — the man who is second on all nine beats the man who wins four and comes last in five.
- It is the easiest format in the rotation to keep in your head: after each hole, four, three, two, one.
Questions people ask
How do you score the Ten Point golf game?
Ten points are awarded on every hole. Rank the players by net score: the best takes 4, the second 3, the third 2 and the last 1. Add them up over the round and the highest total wins.
What happens on a tie in Ten Point?
Tied players share the points for the places they occupy. Two players tied for the lead take the 4 and the 3 between them — 3.5 each — and the next player still takes 2. All four tied is 2.5 each.
Why does last place still score?
It keeps everyone in the round. In a format where a bad hole is worth nothing, a player two holes out of contention stops trying. Paying a point for last means the worst possible nine holes is still 9 points, and the maximum is 36 — close enough that the last hole is always live.
Watch it played
We film Ten Point live, badly, every season
Four golfers, real handicaps, nine holes, and a forfeit waiting for whoever finishes last. The board opens on every Ten Point week and the full round card is here the day the episode drops.