3 Ball Scramble

PARlance

Only other thread I could find was 5 years old and lacking detail:

A few quick questions around this lads, appreciate any other pointers outside of the questions below.
(It'll be my first team event and I am down on a slot with two other players that I don't know, so I'd don't want to be asking them these on the first tee... might not inspire confidence .... I'll let them see me for a few holes before they lose faith)

Ok, so we are 6, 14, and 17 HC.
What would be our HC for the comp or how is HC worked out?

I think I get the general rules.
3 drives, pick best one, place on the fairway and drop in the rough (as per local rules etc)
Play the best positioned ball throughout.

What order do you hit your non tee shots?
i.e is there any etiquette around this or do is it best to let the high guys go first so the low guy can play aggressively on the off chance we get close to the pin.

How do you mark the ball?
Do you just mark to one side, or "close enough"

If there's anything else I should know, I'd appreciate the heads up, thanks

spacecoyote

Pretty sure they usually do 1/10 of the combined handicap

It'll be 3 drives, pick best one & every plays from there, pick best, same again....

Chances are you'll have to use a minimum of 3/4 drives from each player & be able to distinguish this on the card (mark one card, put names in player A, B, C and maybe put the score for each hole in the corresponding line that matches the person that hit the tee shot. So if you're Player B & they use yours on the first, put the 1st in Col B, etc...)

For non tee shots. Whoever hit the ball usually has to play theirs first, then the remaining players in any order. It would probably make sense for the higher handicaps to hit before the lower as if they find a green, it takes the pressure off the low guys & they can take on the pin.

On the green, mark to one side of the ball and if you putt first & leave it dead, don't hole it out, mark it so the others can hit their shots. Once the ball is in the hole, thats the score on the card.

PARlance

spacecoyote wrote: »

Pretty sure they usually do 1/10 of the combined handicap

It'll be 3 drives, pick best one & every plays from there, pick best, same again....

Chances are you'll have to use a minimum of 3/4 drives from each player & be able to distinguish this on the card (mark one card, put names in player A, B, C and maybe put the score for each hole in the corresponding line that matches the person that hit the tee shot. So if you're Player B & they use yours on the first, put the 1st in Col B, etc...)

For non tee shots. Whoever hit the ball usually has to play theirs first, then the remaining players in any order. It would probably make sense for the higher handicaps to hit before the lower as if they find a green, it takes the pressure off the low guys & they can take on the pin.

On the green, mark to one side of the ball and if you putt first & leave it dead, don't hole it out, mark it so the others can hit their shots. Once the ball is in the hole, thats the score on the card.

Thanks Space,

So at a combined of 37, we are playing off 3.7?
(I'm sure the other 2 lads would have preferred a lower guy so, a 5 Handicapper playing instead of me and the would have only lost a shot )

A group of low handicaps really must thrive in this format so? (3 guys of 5 each would be playing off 2 versus our group with only 1 low guy playing off 4)
Good to see the low guys getting the rub of the green I suppose.

Took me a while to get the scorecard but I get it now...simple really...forget my pen.

Thanks for the tip, I'm never in any rush on the tap ins so they'll have plenty of time to shout at me as I'm doing a Sexton on it and freezing over it....harsh

ForeRight

I played recently in a 3 man scramble and we had to use 4 drives of each.

Everyone had to have a drive on a par 3,4 and 5 too which was a nice feature I hadn't seen before.

It was 1/10th combined handicap too.

ronjo

I played a two person scramble and they took 50% of each handicap......... Ok it was supposed to be a fun tournament but absolutely ridiculous

spacecoyote

Its definitely a competition that favours low Handicap golfers.

Say a 1, 4 & 5 handicap play together, they'll have a handicap of 1

Three 28 play together they'll have 8.4

To me theres a lot more that 7 shots between those 2 teams.

I'm playing on Sunday with a team of 12, 13 & 20 I think, which would give us 4.5.

One other thing to think about is making sure that you get the mandatory tee shots out of the way as early as possible. Last thing you want is to need one guy still to hit drives on 2 of the last 3 holes, adds a lot of pressure on to that player

ssbob

Make sure aswell to keep the scorecard ticking over with par's, make sure that one guy plays safe always to allow the next two guys have a rattle at the pin or hole.

ForeRight

As a guide to what low handicappers can score in these the one I played in we actually won.

The handicaps were 1,3 and 5.
We had 12 birdies and 6 pars gross.

They are perfect for low lads without a doubt

Ben1977

I find that all handicaps are suited to scrambles. My opinion is you might need a low man to steady the ship. The format allows you to be more aggressive with chips and putts. Only of course if one lad is in for a safe par.

Last scramble I played in was a 4 man scramble. We were all high enough handicaps 13,17,18 and 25. We were 6 under and with a combined HC of 7.4 we shot a 57.6, I think or something like that. Was never good at maths.

Didn't get near the prizes.

Senecio

1/10th seems very harsh to me. I've not played a scramble here but back in Oz it went:

2 ball - 1/4 of combined
3 ball - 1/6 of combined
4 ball - 1/8 of combined

They seem fairer to me for players if all levels.

3 balls were usually won by a team of 2 low single figure players 1 high handicapper. At 1/10th however it's definitely a low markers competition.

Senecio

ForeRight wrote: »

As a guide to what low handicappers can score in these the one I played in we actually won.

The handicaps were 1,3 and 5.
We had 12 birdies and 6 pars gross.

They are perfect for low lads without a doubt

The lowest I've personally been involved in was -17 gross. That was a team of 1, 4 & 6 (me) handicaps. We had 2 eagles on the day, one was a hole out from around 130yds.

denishurley

Senecio wrote: »

1/10th seems very harsh to me. I've not played a scramble here but back in Oz it went:

2 ball - 1/4 of combined
3 ball - 1/6 of combined
4 ball - 1/8 of combined

They seem fairer to me for players if all levels.

3 balls were usually won by a team of 2 low single figure players 1 high handicapper. At 1/10th however it's definitely a low markers competition.

I thought it was less than 1/10 alright if fewer than a fourball, but I suppose there are no hard and fast rules.

Not a massive fan of scrambles anyway, a bit too boring for my liking.

GreeBo

we usually play a format where the person who's shot you choose doesn't hit the next one.

m r c

Interesting thread here for me anyway, four of us are going to Rosapenna on Saturday to play this format in fourball.
I had never played this way before and from a quick read on here we are the cannon fodder :-)
It's 1/10th the h/c btw

ronjo

m r c wrote: »

Interesting thread here for me anyway, four of us are going to Rosapenna on Saturday to play this format in fourball.
I had never played this way before and from a quick read on here we are the cannon fodder :-)
It's 1/10th the h/c btw

Dont think of it like that.
Go and enjoy the day and see how many birdies you can rack up

Wichita Lineman

In any of these scramble events that I played over the years I have found the major difference between the high and low handicappers really comes into play on the green. It's usually the low man left until last who bails out the iffy putters

I like playing this format every now and again but I wouldnt like it every week.

spacecoyote

ronjo wrote: »

Dont think of it like that.
Go and enjoy the day and see how many birdies you can rack up

Thats, it, its nice to shoot a round of golf under par gross (even if you're getting 3/4 attempts at every shot )

m r c

Fantastic day up in Rosapenna, great weather and far from cold we shot 62 nett prob not in the prizes but very happy and a lovely format will definitely play it again.