Hammer Golf Game Rules

Hammer is the nerve game: a hole starts at a set stake, and at any moment either side can throw the hammer to double it. Match the new bet or fold — and the stake can double again, and again, until somebody blinks.

The setup

1. Pick a base stake for the hole (say $20) and a cap on how many hammers each side can throw per hole.
2. Split into two sides. Two players go head-to-head, three play one versus a pair, and four play two-on-two best ball.
3. Every hole opens fresh at the base stake — the doubling resets each time you tee off.

How a hole plays

1. Play the hole. When you like your position, throw the hammer — the stake doubles on the spot.
2. The other side must match (accept the doubled stake and play on) or fold (concede the hole right there).
3. After a match, either side can hammer again — each double stacks on the last, so $20 becomes $40, then $80, then $160.
4. Scores settle on net score (handicaps count); teams use best ball. Low score wins the full stake. A tie pushes — no money moves.

The payouts

A worked example

Two players, $20 base stake (net scores on a par 4):

• Off the tee both are even. Pat stuffs an approach to three feet and throws the hammer — stake jumps to $40.
• Sam matches it. Now sitting 20 feet for par, Sam holes the putt and hammers back — stake doubles again to $80.
• Pat, staring at that three-footer, matches. Both make par — but Pat nets a 3 to Sam's 4. Pat wins $80.

Replay the last beat: if Pat had folded instead of matching the hammer back, Pat pays only the $40 that was on the line before Sam's hammer. That's the whole game — every double forces a clean choice between courage and the smaller loss.

Strategy

The hammer is pure leverage: throw it when you're sitting pretty and watch the other side sweat a bet they didn't want. But the threat cuts both ways — hammer too early and a good chip or long putt lets your opponent hammer right back at twice the price. Use your fold as a real tool, not an admission of defeat: paying the pre-hammer stake to kill a runaway hole is often the disciplined play. And mind the cap — once a side is out of hammers, that pressure valve is gone.

Who Hammer is for

Built for gamblers who love a dare. It's tightest as a 1v1 grudge match, but scales to a threesome or a two-on-two best ball for a foursome. It runs happily alongside Skins or Wolf when you want a second layer of action.

Keeping the books straight

Hammer is brutal to track by hand: a stake that doubles unpredictably, hammers and matches and folds flying around, per-side hammer caps, and a separate running total on every hole — all on net best-ball scores. Miss one double and the whole hole is wrong. SideAction Saloon tracks every hammer, every match and fold, the live stake on each hole, and settles the round automatically — so you argue about the shots, not the math.