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Hollywood: The Golf Bet Where Your Bad Front Six Doesn't Follow You Home
Mike says it on the first tee like it's obvious. "Let's play Hollywood." Dave looks at him like he just spoke a different language. Jim says isn't that the same as Sixes, the one they played at his brother-in-law's member-guest? And now you're standing over your opening drive with three guys arguing about a game nobody's actually explained yet.
Here's the short version: Hollywood is a foursome betting game where you rotate partners every six holes, so one 18-hole round turns into three separate six-hole matches. You partner with each of the other three players exactly once — usually playing best ball, where the lower of the two partner scores counts — and each six-hole segment gets scored and paid out on its own. A miserable front six doesn't ruin your day, because you get two more segments and two new partners to fix it.
That's the whole appeal, and it connects to something every weekend golfer already knows in their bones: you're always just one round away from turning it around. Hollywood just shrinks the round to six holes and hands you a new partner to do it with.
So What Exactly Is Everyone Arguing About?
Nothing, really — they're all describing the same game. Hollywood goes by at least four other names depending on which course you learned it at, which is exactly why every foursome has one guy insisting he's never heard of it right before describing it perfectly under a different name.
Sixes. Round Robin. Rotation. 6-6-6. Occasionally C.O.D. Different grips, private clubs, and buddy groups have all landed on their own name for the same structure, and none of them are wrong. The game is old enough and informal enough that it never got a single official name, which is part of why it feels like folklore instead of a rulebook — somebody's uncle taught it to somebody's dad, and the name that stuck was whatever that particular group happened to call it.
I'm not totally sure why "Hollywood" is the one that stuck for our group specifically, but it's the name Jim's college roommate used, and Jim's college roommate has never been wrong about a betting game in his life, so Hollywood it is. If your group calls it Sixes or Round Robin, you're playing the exact same thing — don't let the naming argument eat into your tee time.
How Do You Actually Split Into Partners?
This is the part that actually matters, because getting it wrong is how you end up with a group member spending 12 holes playing with his least favorite partner instead of six.
With four players — call them A, B, C, and D — the round breaks into three six-hole segments, and each player partners with each of the other three exactly once:
- Holes 1–6: A + B vs. C + D
- Holes 7–12: A + C vs. B + D
- Holes 13–18: A + D vs. B + C
Every golfer plays six holes with every other golfer in the group, no repeats, and by the 18th green everybody's had a partner and an opponent in every possible combination. That's the whole mechanic — the rest is just deciding who's paired with whom first.
Most groups flip a tee to set the order on the first hole and let the rotation run from there. Some groups pre-assign it based on who's hot lately, or who hasn't beaten who in a while — that's less "official rule" and more "whatever keeps the group from feeling stale." From what I've noticed playing this with the same three guys for years, letting the order be random keeps it honest. The second someone starts choosing partners strategically, the game turns into something else entirely.
How Do You Score It?
This is where the "three bets in one" part becomes real money instead of just a nice sentiment. Each six-hole segment is its own contest, scored and settled independently — you're not waiting until the 18th green to find out if your whole day was a win or a loss.
The standard scoring method is best ball, sometimes called four ball: on every hole, only the lower of the two partners' scores counts for the team. Whoever has the better ball wins the hole for the pair, and whoever wins more holes in that six-hole stretch wins the segment. Some groups play it as straight match play per segment — up 2, down 1, that kind of thing — and settle at a flat rate per segment win. Others assign a point value to each hole and tally points across all 18, which spreads the scoring out but keeps the same partner-rotation structure underneath it.
Because each segment is its own bet, you agree on stakes per segment before you start — not one number for the whole round. A common setup is a flat dollar amount per six-hole segment, paid out to whoever wins that stretch, win, lose, or push. If your group already has a system for settling bets without drama, Hollywood slots right into it — you're just settling three smaller things instead of one big thing.
💰 What to Decide Before the First Tee
- ⭐ Partner order — flip a tee or set it, but agree on it before hole one
- 💡 Scoring method — best ball per hole, match play per segment, or points across all 18
- 💰 Stakes per segment — a flat number for each six-hole stretch, not one lump sum for the round
- 🚫 Whether you're using handicaps — some groups play it straight, some don't, just don't decide mid-round
Why This Game Is Perfect for a Mixed-Handicap Foursome
Every group has one guy who's genuinely good, one guy who's fine, and two guys who are out there for the beer cart and the company. Games that lock in the same two teams for all 18 holes tend to expose that gap and keep exposing it, hole after hole, until somebody's checked out by the back nine.
Hollywood fixes that by design. Everybody gets six holes carrying the best player and six holes carrying somebody who needs carrying. Over the full round, the talent gap evens itself out instead of deciding the whole day in the first hour. It's one of the few betting games that actually works across a wide handicap range without anyone needing a spreadsheet to make it fair.
There's a manifesto principle buried in this somewhere: making your foursome better isn't about being the best player in it. It's showing up ready to be a good partner for whoever you're paired with, including the guy who just found the water twice. Hollywood forces that on you three separate times in one round, whether you're in the mood for it or not.
What Happens When One Segment Goes Sideways?
You lose the front six. Your new partner for holes 7–12 has never met you before today and doesn't know your putter runs hot. That's fine — that's the whole point. You're not stuck.
Because each segment settles independently, a bad six holes costs you exactly what that segment was worth, not the whole round. This is different from a straight Nassau, where a rough front nine still lets one comeback front-nine bet ride into the back — with Hollywood, the slate wipes clean at hole seven and again at hole thirteen, new partner and all. If your group likes the drama of a mid-segment comeback, pressing within a segment works the same way it would in any match — you're just pressing a six-hole bet instead of a nine-hole one.
Handicaps are optional and genuinely a group preference, not a rule. Some crews play it dead straight, no strokes, pure best ball — that's actually how it's traditionally been played in a lot of clubs. Others fold strokes in exactly like they would for any match play format. Whichever way your group leans, settle it before the first tee shot, not after somebody's three-putted their way into an argument about it.
We had a round a couple summers ago where I got stuck with the worst front six of my life — three-putted twice, found a bunker I didn't know existed, the whole disaster. Old-format thinking would've had me mentally checked out by hole four. Instead I knew exactly where the day reset: hole seven, new partner, clean slate, brand-new six-hole bet with nothing riding on the front. My guess is that's the actual reason this game holds up better than a straight Nassau for a group that plays together often — it doesn't let one bad stretch decide how the whole day feels.
The Variation Everyone Argues About: Points vs. Match Play
Here's where Hollywood splits into two camps, and I genuinely don't think either one is wrong.
Camp one plays it as three separate match play contests — each six-hole segment is its own up-and-down match, settled and paid at the turn of each rotation, completely independent of the other two. Camp two plays it as a running point total: two points on offer every hole (often for low ball and high ball combined, not just low ball), tallied across all 18, with the partner rotation just determining who's teamed with whom while the score keeps accumulating. A version of that second style even builds in a small mercy rule — if a pair falls behind by four or more points, each of them picks up a stroke on the next hole, which keeps a blowout segment from turning into a checked-out back nine.
Could be luck, but our group settled on straight match play per segment years ago, mostly because it's easier to explain to a new guy on the first tee than a running point system with a mercy rule attached. Dave asked what we'd changed the first time we tried the point version, and the honest answer was "nothing, we just like being able to say 'we're up two on this stretch' instead of doing math."
Either way you score it, the underlying structure — three segments, three partners, three settlements — stays the same. Pick the version that matches how your group already likes to keep score, not the version some article insists is the "real" one.
Who Should Play This Instead of Wolf or Nassau?
Every game in the rotation has a personality, and Hollywood's is specifically for groups that are tired of the same two teams all day. If you've read our breakdown of Wolf vs. Nassau, you already know Nassau keeps you locked with one partner for the whole round and Wolf changes partners hole by hole based on who calls it. Hollywood sits in between — enough partner variety to keep things fresh, without the constant decision-making Wolf demands on every single tee shot.
It's also a genuinely good answer for a group that plays together often enough to have "usual" partnerships that have gone a little stale. If Wolf feels like too much math for a Saturday morning and Nassau feels like the same old pairing you've had for two years, Hollywood is the move. For a group that wants the points to keep accumulating hole by hole instead of settling in three chunks, something closer to Chicago's running point structure might scratch that itch better. And if your foursome genuinely likes leaning on teamwork over individual scoring, Scotch is worth a look too — different mechanic, same spirit of making the format fit the group instead of the other way around.
One requirement that trips people up: this only works cleanly with exactly four players. Try to stretch it to five or six and the "everyone partners everyone once" math falls apart — that's a different game entirely, not a Hollywood variant.
The Mistakes That Turn Hollywood Into a Fight
The rotation itself is simple. Most Hollywood arguments come from somewhere else entirely.
The biggest one is not settling stakes per segment before you start, and then trying to negotiate mid-round once somebody's already down. Agree on the number for all three segments up front, the same way you would for any other bet — not after the front six is already in the books.
The second is confusing best ball scoring for something more complicated than it is. Only the lower of the two partner scores counts on each hole — full stop. I've seen groups burn ten minutes on the fourth green trying to average two scores together or add them, and neither of those is Hollywood. If you want that kind of combined-score format, that's a different game with a different name.
The third is letting one player quietly pick favorable partner orders instead of setting the rotation randomly. The entire fairness argument for Hollywood rests on nobody choosing who they're stuck with. The moment someone starts angling for the best player as their first partner, you've lost the thing that made the game worth playing in the first place.
There's a fourth one that only shows up with newer groups: forgetting the rotation halfway through. Six holes is long enough that by hole nine or ten, somebody's genuinely forgotten who they're supposed to be partnered with for the middle segment, especially if the round's had a couple of beverage-cart stops along the way. Jim asked me once why I bother writing the three pairings on the scorecard before we even tee off, and the answer is exactly this — it costs ten seconds on the first tee and saves an argument on the tenth green about whether Dave was supposed to be with Mike or with you this whole time.
🏌️ What You Need Before You Say "Let's Play Hollywood"
- ⛳ Exactly four players — this format doesn't stretch to five or six
- ⭐ Three six-hole segments, each with a new partner — every player teams with every other player once
- 💡 Best ball is the standard scoring method — lower partner score counts, no averaging, no adding
- ✅ Stakes agreed per segment, before hole one — not renegotiated mid-round
You're always just one round away from turning your game around — Hollywood just makes that literal three times over. A bad front six doesn't have to define your Saturday when a new partner and a clean scorecard are waiting at the seventh tee.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hollywood the same game as Sixes or 6-6-6? Yes. Hollywood, Sixes, Round Robin, Rotation, and 6-6-6 all describe the same format — a foursome rotating partners every six holes across three segments. The name just depends on where your group first learned it.
How many players do you need to play Hollywood? Exactly four. The rotation only works because each player partners with each of the other three exactly once across the three segments — five or six players breaks that math entirely.
Do you need handicaps to play Hollywood? No. Plenty of groups play it straight with no strokes at all, and it's traditionally been played that way at a lot of clubs. If your group wants to fold in strokes, that's a fine variation too — just agree on it before the first tee, not partway through.
What's a fair amount to bet per segment? That depends entirely on your group's comfort level, and our full breakdown of how much to actually bet with friends covers how to land on a number that stays fun instead of stressful. The key with Hollywood specifically is picking one number and applying it to all three segments evenly.
Can you press within a Hollywood segment? Yes — a press works the same inside a six-hole segment as it would in any other match. If you're down in the current segment, you can call a press to start a smaller secondary bet within that same stretch, the same logic as pressing in a Nassau, just on a shorter runway.
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Keep Reading Before Your Next Tee Time
- Golf Group Games — the full library of formats worth trying
- Game Formats A-Z — every betting game your group hasn't tried yet
- Wolf vs. Nassau — which one actually keeps a foursome happy
- Nassau, Explained — the classic three-bet format
- How to Settle Golf Bets Without Anyone Getting Mad
Johnny is a 25-year weekend golfer who's double-booked tee times, forgotten his clubs an hour from the course, and made pretty much every other trip-planning mistake there is — so you don't have to. Guided by The Golfeaser Manifesto, he started Golfeaser.com to prove that weekend golfers are a special, funnier breed who improve the experience, not just the scorecard. He's also the guy behind The Weekend Golfer's Social Playbook — a three-step system for finding your people, running trips that actually come together, and earning the right to brag at the 19th hole.
