Koreans love to gamble while playing golf. There are some Koreans who gamble high stakes very seriously. I have heard of some foursomes that use chips per stroke gained/lost per hole to keep track and each chip can be worth $10k (10m krw), etc. so hundreds of thousands of dollars can change hands after a round, etc.
But that’s some serious gambling and is actually not allowed at most golf courses. I have never heard of a golf course kicking people out for excessive gambling especially since it’s usually old and long time members who gamble like that. But some country clubs will have a sign that say “No gambling allowed” and will just turn a blind eye to low stakes gambling. Or some places will have a more honest sign that says “No excessive gambling allowed.”
Most Koreans practice low stakes gambling and nobody really has a problem with this. If it’s high stakes it can lead to emotion, arguments, fighting, etc. and an overall bad time so I am in favor of banning high stakes gambling at the golf course. There are even stories of golfers getting drugged so that they will play poorly and lose money, etc.
But anyway…back to the normal low stakes gambling that most Korean like…
Common
Buy-in is usually 100k krw. It’s best if you have 10 x 10,000 krw bills. Most country clubs even have a change machine in the main lobby to change your 50k bills to 10k bills! So it’s best to prepare 10x10k krw bills for gambling. If you don’t have 10k bills, it’s usually ok as the team can make change for your 50k bills. If everyone has 50k bills only then you’re in trouble.
Each player will receive a single 10k bill to start. This is your starting money and is also in case someone gets a birdie…you will pay the 10k to that person to congratulate them for their birdie. 10k sometimes also usually goes to the caddie as a tip to start. Caddie usually acts surprised that they are included but they are pretty much always included.
One person is usually designated the banker and will hold onto the pot of cash (350k in 10k bills). There is usually a clip in the cart that is used for this purpose. Since I’m a foreigner, I’m rarely the banker. One of the local Koreans is usually designated banker. However, if I play with other foreigners then I am sometimes the banker if I happen to be more knowledgeable on games than them (which would be kind of sad actually since I don’t know that much).
Games are designed to hand out 10k or more to players as they “win” holes. As the game is played, 10k bills will be moved from the central pot over to players who win. Usually at the end of the round there is enough money to cover most or all of the caddie fee (150k or 160k, etc.). If the pot is short, the players who has the most money will usually chip in, etc.
The pot can run low of money so there is OECD for players who win a lot of money to give back to the pot to help replenish the pot (described below).
Some games start by paying out from the pot but then move to players paying each other from their winnings.
At a par 3, there is sometimes a 10k krw prize of the “near” (i.e., whoever gets their ball closest to the pin). The winning ball must be on the green and the player much get a par (or better). So if you 3 putt, you don’t get the “near” bonus. If your ball is near but it’s not on the green, then you lose to any ball that is on the green. If nobody get their ball on the green off the tee, then nobody wins the bonus.
Most games are set up to reward good players but there’s also an element of luck involved so players who aren’t very good can still win some money.
Games are generally pretty easy to play once you start playing but writing down the rules make the games seem more complicated then they actually are.
OECD
For games where payment is made from a single pot, in order to prevent the pot from running low, if a player accumulate 60,000 krw, the player then falls under OECD. This is a play on OECD countries and it means you’re rich so you need to help out by putting some money back into the pot. You put in 10k back into the pot for every 3 putt, OB, hazard, or double bogey.
Ties
If there is a tie in the game, usually the pot is just doubled for the next hole.
Common Games
Pick ’em (뽑기)
This is the most common Korean golf game. There is a small canister in each golf cart that contains 5 plastic straws. Each straw has a color at the bottom of the straw of while 2 are red, 2 are green, and 1 is black. The black one is called the “Joker.” Each straw also has a number from 0, 1, 2, …, 5. The numbers are not used in this game.
While there are variations of the joker, usually the joker means a score of “4” on the hole regardless of your actual score (for the game – on your scorecard you will record your actual score).
Since there are 4 players, each player pick a straw. The players with the same colors are on the same team so you combine their scores and the team with the lowest score wins.
Example 1 – players A, B are red and players C, D are green
The lowest score when combining players A+B and C+D wins. Winning team members each get 10k.
Example 2 – players A, B are red, player C is green, player D is black (joker)
The lowest score when combing players A+B and C+4 wins.
As you can see, getting the joker can be great (4 is a birdie on a par 5!) but can be bad (it’s a bogey on a par 3).
If it’s a tie, then nobody gets paid and you move to the next hole and the winners takes double (20k each).
Grade and Classroom (1학년 1반)
This is an interesting game where the best score and the second best score can get paid after each hole. You start the game a 1-1 (1st grade, classroom 1) so first place will get 10k krw and second place will get 10k krw. So for example, if the scores for 4 players are par, bogey, double bogey, double bogey then the par and bogey players will each get 10k and the next hole will be 1-1 (1st grade, classroom 1).
However, if the scores were par, bogey, bogey, double bogey then the first place player will get paid 10k. However, second place was a tie so nobody is paid but will have the 10k applied to the next round so the game will then move on to 1-2 (1st grade, classroom 2). If on the second hole, there is only one player in 2nd place, the 2nd place player will win 20k krw (and then the game will revert back to 1-1).
The canister with straws is not used in this game.
Kkanbu (buddies?)
This is a game inspired by Squid Game where the old man calls the main character his “kkanbu” or his buddy. It’s similar to other games except you start with 100k krw each and the teams are set up 1423 so 1st and 4th place on the previous hole are team 1 and 2nd and 3rd place are team 2. The winning team picks a straw and each member of the winning team wins the # * 10,000 krw on the straw. So if they pick a straw that is 3, then each player wins 30,000 krw. The #4 straw is removed for this game so the canister starts with 4 straws in it instead of 5. Sometimes the #4 straw is left in but if selected, the team simply loses and you move on to the next hole (4 is “death” in Korea because of the Chinese character that sounds like “Sah”). If a joker is selected, then the opposite team can pick a straw instead and win money (if that teams also picks a joker, then the original team will pick a straw again). To make it more interesting, you can remove straws…e.g, get rid of #3 so there are only 3 straws in the canister (joker, 1, 2) so the chances of joker is 1 in 3, etc. The winning teams start by winning money from the bank but once the bank runs out of money, the winning team takes from the losing team members. If a losing team member doesn’t have the money to pay the winner (because he/she is out of money), then the other team member pays the share owed by the loser with no money (because they are buddies…buddies cover each other’s debts).
Many times there is a rule where if a player gets a birdie, that team automatically just wins. If both teams get a birdie, I guess it’s an automatic tie.
For par 3 holes, there is a “near” so whichever player hits their ball closest to the pin wins so that team will win 10k per player. However, the player with the “near” ball must make a par or better to win the “near ball” money.
Hussein
This game is inspired by Saddam Hussein and the war in Iraq. It was popular in 2019 or 2020 but it’s not played as much anymore. For each hole, the 2nd place player from the previous hole is deemed “Hussein” and the other 3 players are deemed “UN troops.” To determine the winner of the hole, the Hussein multiplies his score by 3 and the UN troops add their 3 scores together. The winner picks a straw from the canister and wins the number drawn (multiplied by 10,000 krw) and this is won by each player. If the Hussein wins, he/she wins 3X the amount. So for example, if a 2 is drawn, the Hussein will win 60,000 krw. If the UN troops win, each player on the UN troops team will win 20,000 krw. This game can be played with 3 players, 5 players, etc. You simply change the multiple for Hussein. There is OECD since money is paid out from the pot.
Double bogey elimination
In this game, everyone puts in their 100k in the pot and no money is taken out of the pot so there is 400k in the pot.
The players play golf and a player is eliminated if the player gets a double bogey (or worse) on a hole. The last player remaining after all players get a double bogey is the winner. There are ties though (e.g. if there are 2 players left and they both double bogey the next hole) and for a tie they will just carry over to the next hole. If there are too many ties, rules can be modified to a bogey instead of double bogey to quicken the pace of play.
After a player wins, you start over again. Usually you can get through 3 rounds or so over 18 holes.
This game is generally not very popular because usually the best golfer will win and there is little luck involved. Although sometimes the best golfer will have a bad hole and eliminate himself early.
Chips
There are golf chips that look like poker chips that can be purchased on coupang, etc. There are 7 chips and these chips are distributed to the players as evenly as possible (due to the odd numbers of chips, if there are 4 players you will have 2 chips each with 1 player having only 1 chip). Each chip has a penalty written on it such as 3 putt, ob, lake, tree, etc. If a player commits the foul on the chip, the player is given the chip. After the front 9, each player must pay 10k krw per chip that the players is holder. Chips are then re-distributed for the back 9 so the game is played in 2 rounds (pot will get 140k total).
So it’s not good to hold chips…you want to get rid of them. If you are holding a 3 putt chip and another player 3 putts, you can gladly give it to them at the conclusion of the hole. If multiple players 3 putt then you give it to the last player who 3 putted (so order can be important).
This can be a fun game because it forces you to pay attention to other players. It’s also fun when someone hits a tree because every can yell “oh…i heard a tree!” The pot is then used to pay the caddie fee.
Unique (a.k.a. 양아치)
In this game, whoever gets a unique score wins. The pot per hole is 20k. If multiple unique scores are achieved, then the 20k is split (so 2 unique scores will get 10k each). If all 4 players get a unique score, then it’s a tie and the money is just added to the next hole.
For example, if player A gets a par and players B, C, D get bogeys then player A gets 20k. If player A gets a par, players B and C get bogeys, and player D gets a double bogey then players A and D get 10k each. If players A and B get pars and players C and D get bogeys then nobody gets money and 20k is added to the next hole (so 40k will be given to the unique score on the next hole).
It is also called “양아치” because even terrible scores like double-par can win money since it’s unique.
This game is nice because it’s easy to understand and you don’t necessarily have to be a very good player to win money.
Tournament
This is a game played in tournament form. For holes 1-15, the winner of the hole gets 20k krw and the 2nd place gets 10k krw. There are no ties so the last person who gets the score is the winner (if 3 players all par, the last par wins 20k and the second to last par wins 10k). So putting order is important (or you can say the person who had their last putt closest to the pin wins since they would have putted last).
At hole 16, the 3rd and 4th place players play to decide who wins the hole. The loser gives the winner all of his/her money. So at the conclusion of hole 16, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place all have money. 4th place has no more money. You then reset who is 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place (since 3rd place might have more money than 2nd place after taking all the money from 4th place).
At hole 17, the 3rd and 2nd place players play to decide who wins the hole. The loser gives the winner all of his/her money. So at the conclusion of hole 17, 1st and 2nd place have money while 3rd and 4th place have no more money.
At hole 18, 1st and 2nd place play to decide who wins the hole. The winner takes all.
So at the conclusion of the tournament you have 1 player who wins money and the other 3 have no money. The winner will then buy lunch or dinner, etc.
There is a side rule that allows eliminated players to participate in holes 17 and 18 by giving up one stroke. So if you get a birdie on hole 18 for example, you give up one stroke so you got a par. You might beat out the other players and “steal” money in the end…
Gangster (조폭)
This game is usually played on the last few holes if someone wants the potential to win a lot of money quickly. Sometimes they go to this game for hole 18 only but usually it’s the last few holes since money can change hands rapidly. For this game, it’s important to do well in the end. If you do well in the beginning it’s almost meaningless since you’ll likely lose whatever you make.
But the game itself is relatively straightforward. Each hole has a pot (say 30,000 krw) and the winner of the hole gets the money. If there is a tie, it’s rolled over to the next hole (so the next hole winner will get 60k krw). If there are more ties, the winning pot just keeps growing until someone wins.
However, there are 2 rules that are interesting:
- If a player gets a birdie, the player is then able to take all of the money from any one other player. Usually the person who gets a birdie will just take all of the money from whoever has the most money. So that player will go to zero.
- If a player scores a double bogey, that player will forfeit 1/2 of his/her stash and this will go to the winner of the hole. If a player scores a triple bogey, that player will forfeit his/her entire stack to the winner. Again, if there is no winner, this pot will transfer to the next hole.
Conclusion of Gambling
At the end of the round, in most games with a pot, the banker will count how much money is left in the pot to give to the caddie to pay the caddie fee. If there is money left over, the banker will usually ask to see how much money the players won and will hand out some extra money to the player who didn’t win very much money.
If there is not enough money to pay the caddie, the banker will usually tell the players that we’re short X and the players who won the most money will usually chip in money from their winnings to pay the caddie fee.
And finally, if a player won a lot of money, sometimes the player who won a lot will hand back some cash to players who didn’t win much money. This helps everyone leave on a good note since the intention is not really to gamble to win money but to just have fun with it. Sometimes rather than handing back and redistributing money, the winner will buy dinner after the round, etc.