Vegas is the wild one. Your team's two scores don't add up, they pair into a number, lowest digit first. A solid hole is a small number; one blow-up balloons it fast. Then birdies flip the other team's number into the stratosphere. Big swings, fast settles, and nobody's ever safe.
One rule does the heavy lifting: you pair your team's scores into a number, you don't add them.
Split the foursome into two partnerships. You can keep the same partners all 18, or rotate every six holes so everyone partners with everyone.
Each hole, put your team's two scores together with the lower one first. A 4 and a 5 is 45, not 9. A 4 and a 6 is 46. The good news: the better ball sits in the tens, so a single big number only hurts in the ones spot, until it doesn't.
Compare the two team numbers. The lower one wins the hole, and the gap between them is the points won. 45 against 46 is a 1-point hole. 45 against 67 is 22 points. The margins move quick.
Set a dollar value per point. Add up the points over 18 and settle. In FLOG, each player wins or loses the full point total, so a team up 60 points at a dollar a point means each winner is plus 60 and each loser minus 60.
Vegas is simple until the birdies start flying. These are the rules that make it Vegas.
Make a birdie when the other team doesn't, and you flip their number so the higher digit goes first. Their 46 becomes 64. It can turn a close hole into a blowout, or flip a loss into a win.
An eagle flips the other team's number and doubles the point difference on top. The single biggest swing in the game. Make one and you can win the round on a hole.
If someone makes a 10 or worse, it goes first, so a 5 and a 10 reads 105, not 510. It keeps one disaster from being a total wipeout. (The team number is just the smaller way to arrange the digits.)
Decide whether only real (gross) birdies flip, or net birdies count too. If you allow net, a gross birdie still beats a net birdie when both teams card one.
Play three 6-hole segments with rotating partners so everyone teams with everyone, or lock the same partners for all 18.
At the halfway point, the team that's behind can double the stakes for the rest of the segment. A chance to claw it back, once, from that hole forward.
FLOG pairs the numbers, flips on birdies, handles the doubling at the turn, and settles the points so nobody has to do the mental math.
Scott's birdie on 4 flipped Brian & Dave's 46 to a 64. The trailing team doubled at the turn, so the doubled back six (+$62) outweighs the front (−$3): each winner banks $59 off a 28-point segment.
Vegas rewards a team that always gets one ball in the fairway and one putt to flip. The tens digit is your partner's good score, so someone making par is worth a fortune in damage control. Then the birdie is the kill shot.
FLOG does the Vegas math hole by hole, handles the flips and the doubling, and settles the points to the dollar.