Strategy with Scrambles

[MissionMan]

27 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

It’s a format I like because it forces everyone to be involved in all aspects of the round. It requires some good thinking about who’s shot to use and when.

Most of the guys I’ve played scrambles with were guys I played with almost weekly so we all knew each others game and rarely did we play on a course none of us were familiar with. Sometimes we ended up having to take a bad tee shot on a or 3 to get someone’s drive in

The only problem we picked up is handicaps can be a problem. We had a group of 4 sub-5 handicaps that had a gross of 50. The problem with 4 x 1 handicap is that their handicap translates to a 0.25 handicap which isn't really a big drop when you consider what 4 near scratch handicaps could produce on an scramble day, vs 4 x 10 handicaps = 5 handicap. Are a group of 4 x 10 handicaps only 5 shots worse than a group of 4 x 1 handicaps?

[RickyBobby_PR]

9 minutes ago, MissionMan said:

The only problem we picked up is handicaps can be a problem. We had a group of 4 sub-5 handicaps that had a gross of 50. The problem with 4 x 1 handicap is that their handicap translates to a 0.25 handicap which isn't really a big drop when you consider what 4 near scratch handicaps could produce on an scramble day, vs 4 x 10 handicaps = 5 handicap. Are a group of 4 x 10 handicaps only 5 shots worse than a group of 4 x 1 handicaps?

That’s always something that can happen in a scramble when a stacked group shows up. A guy I worked with had a group that would play in scrambles and they were all around scratch but the scrambles didn’t ask for or use handicaps. Most scrambles I have played in handicaps weren’t used.

5 shots probably not in one round. 
 

a group of 10 handicaps in most scrambles are at a disadvantage to start with. My group 10–12 was probably the highest at any time. The rest were all sub 10 and our games complimented each other 

Edited May 1 by RickyBobby_PR

[HikingMike]

That's a good point. I'll have to see what happens Saturday with one coming up, but I'll suggest we have one of our decent putters and not the worst one go first. 

On 4/30/2024 at 9:48 AM, Golf2Much said:

It also complicates the "would of/should of" post round lamenting.  That's because not only do you kick yourself for missing a critical putt, but on the flip side you can kick yourself for making one. 

Haha, so true. That happened to my group last year when we played fairly well and made it into the bottom of B flight with no winnings 

For my groups usually long driver goes last because there are definitely different line choices to try depending on the course.

[PrismFlopper]

A friend and I play scrambles together. Typically my buddy will tee off first due to his driver not being long but it’s on average pretty straight, I’ll hit second cause I hit it pretty long so if i know it’s safe then I can swing away. Once off the tee then I hit first due to my iron game on average just being much better than his and if I’m in a safe position then he can take the risky shot. Putting really depends on which one of us are rolling it well that day. Has worked pretty well for us the past year. Were just work well as a team. 

[Philpug]

Buy as many mulligans as allowed

We had our longest driver go 3rd and our most consistant go last ... If our number 3 didn't have a good shot, our last guy usually did ... but not as far. We had a few holes where number 4 didn't even get his club out because he knew.