The 'One on One' Points Game Explained

"One on One" is the name of a points game that is usually played by two golfers who are competing, well, one vs. one. This game awards points based on the length of your drive, the length of the approach shot that gets you onto the green, and the length of the putt with which you hole-out.

The name of the game is borrowed from basketball, where the free throw is worth one point, closer-in field goals are worth two points, and farther-away field goals are worth three points.

Points Off the Tee

This is how you earn points off the tee in One on One:

Hit your drive at least 100 yards, up to 150 yards: 1 point
Hit your drive from 151-250 yards: 2 points
Hit your drive 251 or more yards: 3 points

But your ball must be in the fairway to get those points. So even if you hit a terrible, pop-up drive that only goes 101 yards, if it's in the fairway, you get a point. If you miss the fairway, even if your ball flew 280 yards, zip.

Points Approaching the Green

Hit the green from more than 200 yards out: 3 points
Hit the green from 100-200 yards: 2 points
Hit the green from inside 100 yards: 1 point

You do not have to record a green in regulation to earn points (points are awarded based on the stroke that gets you on the green, whether that is your second or your fifth). And it doesn't matter from where that stroke is played (fairway, rough, bunker, apron, whatever).

While it is possible to fail to earn the off-the-tee point and/or the on-the-green point, everyone, on every hole, will earn at least 1 point whenever they finally get onto the green. Unless they just pick up without making the green.

Points on the Green

For the purposes of this game, any stroke played with a putter (even from well off the green) counts as a putt.

Sink a putt from inside 3 feet: 1 point
Make a putt from 3-20 feet: 2 points
Make a putter longer than 20 feet: 3 points

Your score on the hole doesn't matter in earning that putting point(s) — whether it's your first putt or your sixth putt on that hole, your last putt, the one that gets your ball into the hole, earns you at least a point. The only way not to earn the putting point(s) is to hole-out from off the green, or to pick up without holing out.

While One on One is a game best played by two golfers, it can be played by more — by three or four golfers, or by four golfers who pair off into two teams (the partners combine their scores on each hole). It's possible this game will require frequent use of rangefinders, or pacing off putts, though. So if you play it with more than two golfers, always be mindful of good etiquette and don't hold up any golfers playing behind your group.

At the end of the game, the golfers add up their points. You can wager with the winner getting an agreed-upon amount, or you can assign a value to each point and pay out the difference in points earned.

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Sources:
Rodriguez, Chi Chi, and Anderson, John. Chi Chi's Golf Games You Gotta Play (affiliate link), 2003, Human Kinetics

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