Tournament Scores

[justnred]

I played in a tournament yesterday.  It was a "shamble" format, so you play the best tee shot of the group and everyone plays out from there, and the top two scores are recorded.  This was a work tournament and I played with 3 guys from my office who all were in the 30-40 handicap range (and for 1 guy that was pretty generous) but  I was actually pretty happy with how I played.  I hit some shots that were not great, but overall I played pretty well.  When my group finished up we headed into the dinner area and turned in our scorecard, as expected we were nowhere near the top of the leader board.  In fact we were near the bottom, which again didn't surprise me.  What surprised me was that the leader at the time, and eventual winning team shot a 102. 

 

Now I know there were some good golfers out there based on guys I saw on the range, but I was pretty blown away that two guys from one team would've had to eagle 3 holes and birdie the other 15 holes to get that score.  There could've been more eagles and perhaps a par mixed in, but that's how the score worked out.  When playing best ball I wouldn't be blown away by a team scoring a 51, I've seen that done, but this blew me away.  

 

Now I'm not saying that these guys lied on their score card, if anything I'm a little upset I wasn't near their group to watch some really good golfers play.  They must've been playing some pretty amazing golf! I am, however, curious as to how honest in general you think people are you when playing in a "fun" tournament?

 

We put up a crappy score as a team, but we owned it and counted every stroke and can say that we turned in an honest score.  So at the end of the day I was happy that I was out out of the office golfing on the company dime, and even got free food and drinks out of the deal as well.  Can't beat that right???

[GolfJunkie302]

That is how scrambles (and shambles) often work. When there is nobody from another team to hold you accountable, some shady stuff happens. You just have to let it go. It's just for fun anyway!

 

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[justnred]

I totally get that there are shady things that happen, but the whole idea of that just kinda cracks up me up.  The fact that people feel the need to lie to make themselves look better during a "fun" round of golf.  I'm a pretty competitive person, but I apparently have nothing on some guys out there.  

[STUDque]

This seems like a really fun format. I'm not sure I'd choose it for a work outing since that's the ONLY round of golf of the year for most of the participants. Could really see some exciting competition if you got a group of avid golfers together for one of these as it would definitely make for a nice league outing.

 

Just going out on a limb here, but was the second place team double digit shots away from the lead? My guess would be the winners didn't understand the rules and scored incorrectly. If they were actively cheating....just wow.

 

That's one thing I don't quite get about people that cheat golf, why make your score so ridiculously good that you're setting tour records? It's just sloppy IMO. In my scrambles, I tend to play with decent players (mid caps) and we're lucky to even have more than 2 balls on the green to choose from.

 

 

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[TheWahoo]

Several years ago, I played in a two man "Florida Scramble".   On the par 3s, each player played their own ball, on the par 4s, the best drive was selected and each played their own ball from there, and on the par 5s, the best first 2 shots were selected and each played their own ball from there.  I had the good fortune that my partner was a young buck, that could hit the ball a mile, however his short game and putting skills were a bit lacking.   I, on the other hand, had no distance, but my short game was reasonably good and my putter was my best friend at the time.   In short, I really only needed to bring clubs from about a 7 iron down.  On the par 5s, my contribution was to make the eagle putt or assure a birdie. I felt like the starship Enterprise because I was hitting from places that I had never been before.  Frankly, I have no idea how the handicaps were calculated for net purposes, but to us it didn't matter, because it was about the only time that I was on a winning low gross team.  

[justnred]

That sounds like a great format! I will have to get some friends together and do a little mini scramble with the 3, 4, 5 rules.  

[Golfspy_CG2]

Gurantee you they either played the wrong format like Stud said or they just blatantly cheated.

 

A couple years ago I used to play in one or two Shamble events a year with the exact same format, two best scores, and we had several scratch golfers in the tournament as well and hardly anybody above a 18 or 20.   The winning score was almost always around 120 to 125.   

 

Hopefully you at least enjoyed a day away from the office and a nice course?    Curious what the first place prize was and as Stud mentioned how far off the second place they were.

[justnred]

I believe the second place group was 111, and then a few in the teens, followed by a bunch in the 120' and 130's.  They got trophies and then some gift cards, but I don't remember how much was on each card.  They raffled away some pretty sweet prizes (autographed warriors jersey, ping g400 driver etc) so I would imagine the gift cards were for a pretty good amount. 

[Golfspy_CG2]

I believe the second place group was 111, and then a few in the teens, followed by a bunch in the 120' and 130's. They got trophies and then some gift cards, but I don't remember how much was on each card. They raffled away some pretty sweet prizes (autographed warriors jersey, ping g400 driver etc) so I would imagine the gift cards were for a pretty good amount.

You touched on something Im a big proponent of. In all these hit and giggle or hit and cheat scrambles, I advice my clients to give away a small insignificant trophy or plaque to each member of the 1st place team. I even had one guy go as far as having

2016

XYZ charity golf outing

1st Place Cheaters

 

Engraved on the plaque. It got a roar from the crowd and some scowls from the team before they cracked up as well. It just shows these are supposed to be all about fun and raising money. If you cheat to win these, you've got it all wrong.

 

Then save the high dollar gift cards and clubs for the raffle drawing prizes. It's less incentive to cheat and you may sell a few more raffle tickets when people see the prize.

 

 

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[justnred]

That's AWESOME!!! Including "charity" and "cheaters" on the trophy is a nice touch!!!

[Kor.A.Door]

The old Texas Scramble. They cheated, no way they posted that score, you can take 4 scratch golfers and not get close to that score.

[Golfspy_CG2]

That's AWESOME!!! Including "charity" and "cheaters" on the trophy is a nice touch!!!

Actually I was just substituting the word chaiity in place of the actual chairity name.

 

But yeah that was the gist the planner was trying to get across to everyone. It had gotten so rampant, he was tired of it and hearing the complaints. Ha

 

 

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[cohuck2018]

Played in one today...winning team shot a 49. Now each player got 1 red tee and 1 mulligan but seriously a 49. They called the winning score and everyone laughed and scoffed.

 

 

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[Zylem]

When I play in these kinds of tournaments I am doing it to have fun out on the course or to help a good cause.

 

"In a charity scramble, the best wood you can use is a pencil with an eraser on it"

 

I may of actually heard that quote here.

 

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[palvord]

Playing in scrambles/shambles is always fun for me to see the level of creativity in the scoring department. I never expect to win because I actually turn in the real score. Most scramble events I play in are for charity so my desire to win is very minimal.

 

At one of the better events I played in, the top 3 prizes were cash. All 3 winning teams gave the money back to the charity. Was a very classy move and helped set a precedent for how winners acted at the future events.

 

 

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[bens197]

These folks have no integrity. Many of the local charity events have eliminated gaudy prizes for the top teams to keep them from embellishing scores. A decent bottle of wine from a local winery is common place and that's ok.

 

Shamble sounds like a ton of fun.

 

 

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