It’s time for yet another major! A lot of offices take advantage of the four majors as it's a great way to get the competitive juices flowing. The best part about a golf pool is that you don't even have to know any players, you can just pick at random and still have a chance. There are several different ways to make your office pool fun, and this four-step guide will help you run it successfully. 

Step 1. Create a list of all the players in the field and separate them into “divisions”.

You will need to know all the players in the field so that everyone is picking the correct players. Once you have the field list set, break up the players into divisions. For example, put the top 10 golfers in the world in division A and then the next 50 golfers in division B. To make it more fun, put all the amateurs in division C and then all the seniors (over 50 years old) in division D. 

Step 2. Picking

This is the fun part, and where you make the big bucks. You must pick one player from division A, two players from division B, one player from division C, and one player from division D, for a total of five players. To get a good picture of what this will look like, I have created an example below:

• Division A - Jordan Spieth
• Division B - Marc Leishman & Xander Schauffele
• Division C - Matt Parziale
• Division D - Freddy Couples

Step 3: Scoring

There are several different ways to score a golf pool but in my opinion there is one way that is far superior than the others. To score the pool, you take all the prize money that the players win and combine them for your “total purse”. This is an easy, yet effective way to score the pool so all participants are not asking questions. Additionally,  if one of your players misses the cut, they earn $0. Also, since amateurs cannot win money, if they make the cut, for the purpose of the pool they will get $50,000. I went ahead and provided another example below to give you a better idea.

• Division A - Jordan Spieth (1st Place) - $1.2 Million
• Division B - Marc Leisman (MC) & Xander Schauffele (14th Place) $450,000
• Division C - Matt Parziale (56th Place) - $50,000
• Division D - Freddy Couples (MC)

So after the tournament is over, my selections earned me a total of $1.7 Million. You will then calculate everyone's selections and see who finished with the most money. If all your players make the cut, you will have a great chance of finishing at the top of the pool, as all your players would have won money for the tournament.

Step 4: Payout

Depending on how many of your co-workers, friends, or family entered the pool, you will need to decide how many people will receive money at the end of the tournament. In the past, it made the most sense to pay out top 3 participants. That way, the top participant isn't winning all the money. An example is given below to provide you an idea of how to pay out the money to the top finishers.

• 1st Place Finisher - 60% of all the money in the pot
• 2nd Place Finisher - 30% of all the money in the pot
• 3rd Place Finisher - 10% of all the money in the pot

Follow this guide and you should have a very successful golf pool and best of luck to all participants! If you don't have enough people for a pool but still want to get in on the action? Here are some tips for golf gambling.