There are several different types of games that you can play in golf apart from the conventional rules. One of the popular ones is known as the Bingo Bango Bongo which is played a lot by golfers who are looking for a game that is more laid-back and easy to calculate.
The basic concept of this game
The Bingo Bango Bongo game has quite a unique name where it is sometimes known as Bingle Bangle Bongle although the former is more commonly used. This is a game that runs on a point system and is great for groups of 2 and more. The main objective of this game is to earn as many points as possible with the player with the most points winning. What makes Bingo Bango Bongo so popular is that it allows golfers from different handicaps to play together. This is because earning points can come in various forms and it allows those who are weaker better and fairer chances.
Earning points and common practices
As mentioned, this game awards points for different situations where:
- You get a bingo point when you are the first golfer to get the ball onto the green
- A Bango point is awarded for the player whose ball is closest to the pin. This is decided once all the players have teed off and the balls are on the green
- If you are the first player to get the ball into the hole, you get a Bongo point.
- This goes on for every hole and the player with the most points accumulated wins.
Alternatively, you can put a bet for the winner who takes the pot. In some situations, players assign a value for every point value. Typically, there are in total, 54 points at stake. The common practice is to try for the Bingo and Bongo points (which are the first on the hole and first in the hole respectively). This means that you get to be the first to try for the bingo point if you are farthest from the green. If you are the weaker player in the group, you could try for the Bango point which is the ball closest to the pin of all.
Variations and important considerations
One issue that must be considered when playing Bingo, Bango Bongo is in the order of play. It is a common understanding that the player who is farthest will play first. Meanwhile, you can add in some other points to make this game more exciting.
One way is to award additional points for any player who managed to get all 3 points (Bingo, Bango, Bongo) on a particular hole. In most cases, double points are awarded which can be quite substantial when money is played.
Another popular variation is where handicaps are used to play this game. Full handicaps are used to award points and this means it becomes a lot more challenging than the usual gameplay. In this variation, a Bingo Point is awarded to you if you hit the green with the least strokes. Meanwhile, a Bango point is awarded to you if the ball you hit is closest to the pin after all the players have taken their respective shots. A bongo point meanwhile, is awarded to you if you have the lowest net score of a particular hole. For this game, a tie is awarded if the result ends with a split. This means that you get half a point in the event of a 2-way tie, a quarter-point for a 4-way tie, etc. This variation however is more suitable for the experienced players and might be challenging for beginners.
