Nothing better to amp up a round with your buddies than by putting a little juice on your games, whether you're of similar playing abilities, or pairing low handicappers and high handicappers.  We've played a host of competition games in our golf groups that include the following:

1) Closest to the pin on par 3's.  Surprisingly, most were won by high handicappers!  I guess that follows the "even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then" rule.  Send your first group out with red flags with an attached index card or piece of paper, and whoever's closest on the par 3's from that group, place the flag.  The last group collects the flags and the winners are announced over beers.

2) Modified handicapped.  I can't find the name of this game anywhere, but it was started by our golf group leader, Bruce Alphin.   It's actually pretty simple.  Before the round, you have the club shop pick two holes on the front and two holes on the back and circle them.  DON'T TELL ANYONE. 

 At the end of the round, you total up everyone's scores except on those four holes - where you automatically award pars.  This has a tendency to reward the poor players while really killing the guys who shot birdies on that hole.  Overall, my experience indicates that the better players will prevail in this game - it's not a total equalizer, but it's still fun when the guy who shot a snowman gets four strokes removed from his score and the low handicappers lose birdies!

Here's some useful links we found to other games that are applicable for groups.  Feel free to tell us

http://www.thegolfexpert.com/golf-on-course-betting.asp

http://www.betheball.com/bettinggames.htm