Nassau is the most-played bet in golf, and it's really three bets in one. You're playing a match for the front 9, a separate match for the back 9, and a third for the overall 18. Three bets, so one bad nine never sinks the whole day.
At its core, Nassau is match play with the 18 holes split into three scored segments.
Agree on a number, say $20. That's a "$20 Nassau": $20 on the front 9, $20 on the back 9, $20 on the overall 18. Each segment is its own $20 bet. Sweep all three and $60 changes hands.
Low score on the hole wins it. Whoever wins more holes is "up." Tie a hole and it's halved, no change. You're not counting total strokes; you're counting holes won.
To keep it fair across abilities, players get strokes on the hardest holes based on their handicap. A stroke turns a 5 into a net 4 on that hole. Or play it gross if everyone's close.
At the turn the front 9 is decided. At 18 the back 9 and the overall settle. Win the front and overall, drop the back, and you net one segment up, plus or minus any presses.
The press is what makes Nassau dangerous. Fall behind and you can start a brand-new bet on the holes that are left, a fresh chance to win it back, stacked on top of the original.
The convention: when you go two holes down in a segment, you can press, open a new side bet, usually for the same stake, covering only the remaining holes. Win those and you claw the press money back even if you still lose the original segment.
By the back nine a heated match can have the original bet plus two or three presses all running at once. That's the fun, and the trouble.
The trailing player calls the press when they want one. Old-school, with a little gamesmanship: pressing at the right moment matters.
A press fires on its own the moment someone goes two down. No arguing, no forgetting. The stakes just escalate.
A last-ditch extra bet added late in the round, often on the final holes, giving a trailing side a chance to claw some of the loss back.
FLOG runs every head-to-head matchup in your foursome at once and tracks each segment and press hole by hole.
The Indies tab. Every head-to-head matchup in the foursome, each segment and press tracked hole by hole. Tap a row to open the full scorecard.
Pressing when you're two down isn't desperation; it's math. The remaining holes are a coin flip, and a press lets a hot stretch pay you twice. The mistake is pressing into a player who's clearly striping it.
FLOG runs all six matchups in your foursome, fires the presses, and tells you exactly who owes who at 18.