I’m still a little broke after my latest “free” trip to Vegas. Yes, perhaps I need to look in the mirror to see if “sucker” is tattooed on my forehead…

In the spirit of Vegas, gambling and my favorite ball maker (casino chips), here’s a post about Lucky 7 Golf. Lucky 7 Golf has a fun golf game you can play on the course, using nice casino style chips.

The Concept

12 casino style chips with different positive or negative “events” on each, come in a small golf bag mounted bag with an instruction sheet. Two or more players agree on a monetary amount to assign to each chip before the round. In my group it’s $1.00 per chip. Positive chips result in getting paid and negative chips result in paying out. The events are as follows:

Positive Chips

1. Birdie: If a player birdies a hole, he gets the birdie chip. A subsequent birdie results in “stealing” the chip from the first player (and the accompanied bragging rights or trash talking). In my group of good players, this chip changes hands a good 4-6 times per round.

2. One Putt: One putting a hole gets you this chip. Nothing was specified in the instructions regarding this chip. My pals and I decided that being rewarded for a quadruple bogey one-putt wasn’t appropriate. So we added the requirements that the one-putt must be for par or better.

3. Green Ball: This is a “greenie” chip. Get on a green in regulation closest to the pin and receive this chip. In my group we added a stipulation to this chip which we always have for greenies: You must one or two-putt to “validate” the greenie. Three-putting with a greenie results in losing the greenie.

4. Eagle: Eagle and hole and this chip is yours. This chip is seldom in play and if you get it, you can probably count on collecting.

5. Chip-In: Self explanatory. If you chip in you get this chip. My friends and I have agreed that chipping in for par or better is required. We don’t think rewarding someone for chipping in for a quadruple bogey is appropriate.

6. Sand Save: Get up and down (par or better in my group) and you get this chip.

Negative Chips

7. Bunker: Land in a bunker, get the bunker chip. If no other player takes the chip from you by getting in a bunker, you pay your opponents.

8. 3-putt: This is a chip you don’t want. In my group 3-putting is rare and usually results in some…. emontional baggage. There’s nothing better than being able to dump this chip on your opponent.

9. Double Bogey: Depending on the group you play in, this chip may move around a lot or not much. In my group of single digit players, getting this chip usually results in hanging onto it all round and paying at the end.

10. Tree: Hit a tree and get this chip. Just hope you don’t play on a links course which only has one tree, because you’ll hit it. Then you’ll know you’ll be paying at the 19th hole!

11. Water/OB: On my home course, there are literally water hazards in almost all directions on every hole. On a windy day, this chip changes hands almost every hole and can even change hands several times on one hole.

12. Triple Bogey: You just don’t want this chip.

Critiques

With 12 chips in the game, it can be quite time consuming to exchange this many chips on every hole. Let’s say you hit a greenside bunker in two on a par-5. You then hole out from the bunker. You’d receive the bunker chip, eagle chip, greenie chip and sand save chip. Sometimes changing so many chips can take away on the focus of playing the actual game of golf.

The one-putt and green-ball chips change hands on literally every hole in my group. These chips are essentially “who is lucky enough to end up with them on the 18th hole” chips. But in a group of higher handicaps this won’t be the case.

Conclusion

Lucky 7 Golf Hold ‘Em is a lot of fun to play on the course. You may need to adjust some of the criteria of the game to fit your group’s ability level. The chips are very high quality and classy looking.

It’s very entertaining to hand your opponent the 3-putt chip when he takes it from you. It’s equally less entertaining to have to give up the green-ball or birdie chip.

Lucky 7 Golf Hold ‘Em would be a great golf gift, for Christmas or any other occasion.

Gallery

Click here to go the HOG Lucky 7 Gallery for more images.