How to Play the Duffer's Defense Golf Game

Duffer's Defense is the name of a points game for groups of three or four golfers in which one golfer on each hole is the designated "duffer." The duffer's goal is to avoid losing the hole. And on each hole, only the designated "duffer" earns or loses points.

First, anyone playing this game will have to get over being called the "duffer" (a term that usually implies poor skills). The duffer's role is to "defend" the hole — to beat, or at least not lose to, each of the other golfers in the group. The designated duffer earns points this way:

• 2 points for each golfer he beats on the hole.
• 1 point for each golfer he ties on the hole.
• And the "duffer" loses 1 point for each golfer in the group to whom he loses the hole.

So let's say the "duffer" defending the third hole scores 4. The other golfers score 5, 5 and 3. The duffer earns three points: She gets 2 points each for beating the 5s, and loses a point for losing to the 3.

How is the duffer on each hole decided? It's the standard hole-by-hole rotation: Golfer A on Hole 1, Golfer B on Hole 2, Golfer C on Hole 3, Golfer D on Hole 4, back to A on Hole 5, B on Hole 6, and so on. (Which members in your group correspond to A, B, C and D you'll have to decide among yourselves: draw lots, flip tees or coins, or any other method you like.)

If playing Duffer's Defense with a group of four, each golfer will be the "defender" four times. And with foursomes, you'll have two holes left over, so you can either start the game on the third hole, or end it after the 16th hole. If your group has three golfers, you can play the game for the full 18 holes, with each golfer getting six turns as the designated duffer.

Note that Duffer's Defense is very similar to another game called Defender (those two game names are sometimes, but often not, synonyms). The game called Hog is also in the same category.

More golf games:

• How to play the Trifecta game
• The Whack and Hack format explained
• How to play a Round Robin