One-and-Done Golf Pool: Rules and Strategy for a Friends’ Pool

One-and-done is the easiest golf pool to explain and the hardest to play well. One golfer per tournament; once you've used him, he's gone for the season. Nobody loses a one-and-done pool on a bad pick. They lose it in March, by spending a golfer they needed in June. This is a guide to running one for a group of friends and not being that person.

The rules that matter

• Which tournaments count. The whole season is 30-plus events and a slog; the majors plus the signature events (about 12) is the sweet spot for a friends' pool. Decide up front and publish the list.
• How a week scores. Traditional pools use prize money, which tilts everything toward the majors. Points by finish inside your pool - lowest score wins the week, everyone earns points by placement - treats a great pick at the Valspar the same as one at Augusta. Either is fine; write it down.
• Missed cut. Zero (money pools) or a penalty score that keeps the golfer last for the week (points pools). Withdrawals the same or worse.
• Deadline. First tee time Thursday. This is the rule people break, so the commissioner's real job is reminders.
• Season tiebreak. Most weekly wins, then earliest entry. Say it now.

Strategy: it's a budget, not a pick

Count your bullets

List the tournaments, then list the golfers you'd genuinely trust to contend. If you have 12 events and 8 names, you already know four weeks will be a reach. Decide which four now, while you're calm.

Spend the stars where they're most alone

Scheffler at the Masters is the obvious play, which is exactly why he's worth less there: half the pool uses him and your week is a wash. The star is most valuable at the event where the field is deep and your rivals are likely to spend him elsewhere - or in a points pool, at the event where your second-best option is weakest.

Course history beats form

In a weekly pool you can chase form because you get a new pick next week. Here you get one shot at each name, so the golfer who has finished top-10 at a course four years running is a better bullet than the one who won last week and has never played it.

Differentiate when you're behind, not ahead

Leading with three weeks left, take the chalk - you want the same result as the people chasing you. Trailing, you need a different result, so use the name nobody else has left. Check who your rivals have burned; in a one-and-done pool that's public information, and it's the whole game.

Running it without a spreadsheet

The three chores that kill one-and-done pools by hand are tracking who's used whom, catching a reused golfer before the deadline, and posting standings every Monday. Moving Day's One-and-done format does all three: the roster page marks golfers a member has already used and won't let them be picked again, deadline reminders go out automatically, and season points land on the leaderboard the moment a tournament finishes.