How to Play the 'Luck of the Draw' Golf Game

Want to play a game on the golf course the combines the skill of golf with the luck of a poker deal? The game named "Luck of the Draw" might be for you. This game rewards good golf scores with playing cards, and at the end of the round you try to form a better poker hand than your playing companions.

Note that there is another game that combines golf and poker called, well, Poker, and Luck of the Draw is a different game that uses a different method of creating poker hands.

Here is how Luck of the Draw works. A group of golfers (typically four, but three or even just two golfers can play this game) tees off a round of golf. You can play gross stroke play, or, if the group is mostly mid-handicappers and higher, play net stroke play.

On each hole, each golfer has the potential to earn one card or more from a standard deck of playing cards. Cards are earned in this fashion:

• If you make a par, you get one card.
• If you make a birdie, you get two cards.
• If you make an eagle, you get three cards.

(Again, you can play net scores if your group is not full of low-handicappers, as most groups aren't. Another option is to set the standards a little lower, so that, for example, a group of high handicappers might decide that a natural double bogey gets one card, a natural bogey two cards and a natural par three cards. Be careful not to make it too easy to earn cards, however, or you might run out of cards before you run out of holes.)

Each time you earn a card or cards, you add them to your poker "hand." At the end of the round, you take the cards you've earned and form the best poker hand you can (using your five best cards if you earned more than five).

The winner of Luck of the Draw is the golfer who finishes with the best poker hand. Obviously, Luck of the Draw is well-named: You might have earned twice as many cards as the next-best in your group and still lose if you drew poor cards. A golfer who earns just one card for the whole round even, theoretically, has a chance to win the Luck of the Draw pot.

For that reason — that a whole lot in this game's outcome depends on luck — Luck of the Draw is typically played in conjunction with other games, or as an add-on to a standard stroke-play contest.

Let's say you and your buddies are going to play net stroke play, or, really, any type of scoring you want to use. You can also play Luck of the Draw (so long as all putts are holed) as a bonus pot.

Luck of the Draw can be played as an extra pot in a tournament, too, with each group playing the tournament getting its own deck of cards to deal during the round. In a tournament setting, the three best poker hands are determined at the end of the round and the pot is split in a win-place-show fashion.

More golf games:

• How to play the 40 Balls format
• The Honest John golf game and handicap explained
• How to play a Worst Ball Scramble