Being the Boss - Brief Article

MY FRIEND HACKER (YES, THAT'S his real last name) has invented a game, which he calls Boss. He and I played it with our friend Ray not long ago, and it's a good one. It's a supplemental game--something you play in addition to your nassau, skins game or whatever else you've got going. It shares the most important feature of all truly worthwhile golf games: astonishing complexity. Here's how it works.

Each player arrives at the first tee with a stake of 18 $1 bills. The players in the group then establish a playing order--one through four in a foursome--by calling coin tosses, chipping toward a tee marker or any other simple method.

The first player in the order becomes the Boss for the first hole. In our match, that was me. As the Boss, I got to pick a rule that would be in play for that hole--with a dollar at stake for each player. My rule: Anyone who drives into a fairway bunker owes a buck to anyone who doesn't. No one did, so our money stayed in our pockets, and Ray (No. 2) took over as the Boss on the second tee.

The key to winning money in Boss is to create rules that reward your strengths, penalize your opponents' weaknesses or both. Ray's rule for the second hole--anyone who reaches the green in (net) regulation wins a dollar from anyone who doesn't--played to his strength. Ray hits the ball farther and straighter than Bob and I do. Bob and I didn't reach in regulation, so we each had to pay a buck to Ray, who did.

Bob, the No. 3 player, was the next in line to be the Boss, but, because he had lost money on the previous hole, he had to skip his turn. I had lost money, too, so I was passed over as well--meaning that Ray got to be the Boss again.

We came up with some pretty interesting rules that day: three-putt pays; shortest drive in the fairway gets paid (on a hole where the longest drive had the best chance of winning a skin); anyone left of the fairway pays anyone who isn't (on a hole where right was death); anyone in any hazard pays; closest to the hole off the tee (on a par 3) pays.

Naturally, the biggest winner buys the first round.

COPYRIGHT 2002 New York Times Company Magazine Group, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group