The Nassau is one of the most popular golf tournament formats and golf bets. It’s essentially three tournaments (or bets) in one: the front nine, back nine and 18-hole scores all count as separate tournaments or bets.
A Nassau is sometimes called Best Nines, or 2-2-2 when referring to a $2 Nassau.
Nassau Tournament
In a Nassau tournament, the player (or team) winning the front nine wins a prize, the player (or team) winning the back nine gets a prize, and the player (or team) winning the overall 18-hole round wins a prize.
The type of scoring in use is up to the tournament organizers and just about anything is possible: Stroke play or match play? Scramble, alternate shot, best ball? Single players, two-person teams? Full handicaps, partial handicaps, no handicaps? There are no “official” rules for most of the formats and betting games golfers play, outside of the handful covered in the Rules of Golf.
But the key thing is that a Nassau tournament is three tournaments in one: front nine, back nine, overall.
The Nassau Bet
Nassaus are more common as wagers among friends. As a bet, the most common form is the $2 Nassau. The front nine is worth $2, the back nine is worth $2 and the 18-hole match is worth $2. A player or team sweeping all three wins $6.
Again, the Nassau can run with just about any type of scoring format or competition format (although match play is most common for the betting game), and the use of handicaps is something those participating in the bet need to clear up before play begins.
While the $2 Nassau sounds innocent enough, winnings can pile up if a higher initial bet is made (5-5-5 means each bet within the Nassau is worth $5, for example), or if a lot of “pressing” takes place.
So Nassau wagers can become quite complicated and lucrative (or costly, to the loser) if golfers want them to.
Set a limit on total losses, set a limit on the number of presses allowed, or simply agree that you’ll stick with $2 for each of the three bets and no more.
Why Is It Called ‘Nassau’?
Many golfers believe the name “Nassau,” for either the tournament format or the betting game, is related to The Bahamas. Nassau is the capital city of The Bahamas.
It’s not. The name “Nassau” derives from Nassau Country Club in Glen Cove, New York, on Long Island. That’s where, in 1900, the Nassau system was invented by Nassau Country Club captain John B. Coles Tappan.
In 2014, the Golf Channel interviewed Nassau CC’s club historian Doug Fletcher about the origins of the Nassau format. Fletcher explained how the format came about, and how it originally worked:
So the Nassau format began as a way for rich people to avoid the embarrassment of a lopsided loss.
