[lesso73]

I play with a large group that plays at least 3 times a week and we never play individual skins with handicap for all the reasons you're stating. There is no way to make that really fair. One day each week we do play team skins similar to what MarcH discussed with ABCD players, and sometimes we will use handicaps in that format. The fairest individual game we play is a points quota game where you earn 3 points for birdie, 2 for par, 1 for bogie, 0 for double bogie and -1 for triple or above. Points quota is determined by taking one's handicap from 36, i.e. 36-14 handicap would have to pull 22 points for the 18 holes. Winner(s) determined on who ends up most plus to quota. We play other games for variety, but I'd say the points game is our "regular" game.