You shake hands on the first tee. "Nassau, $20," someone says. And then the bet just... floats there. Hanging over the round like cloud cover.
By the 9th hole, nobody remembers who was winning. By the 18th, you're arguing about whether the press on 16 counted. And a week later, that $20 Venmo request is still sitting there. Unpaid. Awkward.
That's the problem with golf wagers. They're supposed to add stakes. Make the 15-foot putt matter. But the tracking of them? That's where it falls apart.
The Aha Moment
We didn't set out to build a wagering system. We set out to solve the post-round awkwardness.
You know the scene. You're at the 19th hole. Nobody can remember exactly how the Nassau played out. Was the front nine a push? Did anyone carry over on 16? "Wait, I thought I had that hole."
The friend who always "forgets" to pay? He's not forgetting. He knows you'll never chase him for $18.
We wanted something where the bet just... works. Where you pick your game, set the stakes, and the math handles itself. No spreadsheets. No IOUs. No arguments.
Try it yourself → — set up a round with your group and add wagers in seconds.
The Formats, The Real Way
Here's what nobody tells you about building this: the game formats are brutal.
A Nassau isn't one bet — it's three. Front 9, back 9, and overall. Lose the front, win the back, lose the overall? You're down one bet. But win the front, lose the back, and edge the overall by a hole — now you're up two and down one. Someone has to do that math, and nobody wants to be that person while everyone's waiting to tee off.
Skins should carry over automatically. Match play needs real-time hole-by-hole tracking. Stableford rewards aggressive play differently than stroke play. And handicap adjustments? Different teeboxes have different pars. The math gets ugly fast.
So instead of a feature list, here's how we thought about it:
Nassau — The classic. Three bets, tracked automatically. No more "wait, what did we have on the front?"
Skins — Win a hole, win a skin. Tie a hole and the skin carries to the next one, so the pot grows. Someone finally wins a hole outright? They take everything that's built up. Tracked, visible, automatic.
Match Play — Head-to-head, hole by hole. Dormie situations are obvious. The math is real-time.
Stableford — Points-based. Aggressive play gets rewarded. The leaderboard shows exactly where everyone stands.
Best Ball — Team format. One guy carrying the group? Everyone can see it.
Stroke Play — Gross or NET. The NET adjustment happens automatically based on who played from where.
Why Blockchain (Honestly)
People ask why we went blockchain. Here's the real answer: it's easier than the alternatives.
Venmo and PayPal have no escrow — someone still has to be trusted to actually pay up. Bank transfers are slow and need account details nobody wants to share at the turn. With blockchain, the smart contract holds the money. No trust required. No "hey, can you send that?" texts after the round.
It's also instant. Winner takes. The money shows up immediately. Loser sends, winner receives, everyone moves on.
We charge 5% on settled wagers. Free rounds have no fees. Today, test rounds use cfUSD. The point is still simple: dollar-denominated stakes, no crypto volatility messing with your week.
The Social Thing
The actual issue was never the math. It was the friction.
When you settle bets immediately and automatically, something changes. The $20 Nassau becomes fun instead of awkward. You play more aggressively because the stakes feel real but the process is frictionless.
Arguments about scoring disappear. The friend who "forgets" gets automatically settled. You're left with what actually matters — the stories about what happened on the course.
Pick your game. Set the stakes. Invite your group. The app handles the rest.