Side game · 2–4 players
How to play Defender
Also called: defender golf game · king of the hill
Win a hole and you hold the crown. You collect from everyone on every hole you keep winning — until somebody takes it, or a tie knocks it off you.
The rules
- The player with the lowest net score on a hole becomes the Defender.
- On each following hole the Defender wins outright, they collect one unit from every other player.
- A tied hole pays nothing AND clears the Defender slot. The crown is empty until someone wins outright again.
- Whoever next wins a hole outright becomes a fresh Defender from scratch.
A worked example
Setup. $2 a unit, four players.
- B wins hole 1 and becomes Defender.
- Nobody beats B on holes 2, 3 or 4, so B collects $6 a hole — $18.
- On hole 5 C posts a lower net.
Result. C is the new Defender and starts collecting from hole 6 onward.
This is exactly how Bagpipe Golf settles it: hole by hole, zero-sum, no arguing at the 19th.
Variations and house rules
- Some groups let the Defender keep the crown through a tie. The app clears it, which stops a hot start from paying all afternoon.
- Others escalate the unit for each hole successfully defended. Not in the app.
How it works in the app
- Add Defender at setup with a unit value.
- Enter scores; the crown and the collections come off the nets.
- Settlement shows who held it on each hole and what it paid.
Defender FAQ
- Does a tie keep the Defender?
- No — a tie pays nothing and clears the slot. That is deliberate: without it one good hole early can earn money for the rest of the round with no defending required.
- Is it net or gross?
- Net by default so handicaps matter. Switch it in the game settings if your group plays gross.