Golf Games: Blind Nine

In blind nine, only nine of the eighteen holes in a round count. The catch is that you don’t know which nine until the round is over.

This game can be played in virtually any stroke play format, including individual scores and scrambles. Players record their scores according the rules of the play format throughout the eighteen. At the end of the round, nine random holes are selected to count.

You can randomize the holes in one of several ways. First, you could put eighteen numbered slips of paper into a cup and pull out nine. That’s the best method.

If you’ve got a newspaper handy, you could use the first two decimals on stock quotations, running in alphabetical order until you get your nine. For example, in my newspaper today, if I run down the list in alphabetical order, I get .50; .88; .83; .24; .04—there’s one—and so on. Ultimately, I got .04; .06; .01; .05; .15; .09; .13; .16 and; .11, with lots of numbers in between. Those, however, are the first that match hole numbers. You could do a similar thing with baseball batting averages.

Another option is to start on hole one and flip a coin for each. Count the first nine holes that come up heads. If you don’t nine by the end of eighteen, start over with the first unassigned hole. This isn’t as good because there’s a better chance that the selection will be front-weighted.

Finally, since everyone seems to have a smartphone these days, you could go to Random.Org and use the list randomizer.