Scramble
Everyone hits. Take the best ball. Everyone hits from there. Repeat until it drops. One team score.
Suits charity days and mixed abilities
Every format,
drawn up
as a play.
Golf team formats sound alike and play nothing alike. This playbook draws each one up so the group knows the assignment before the first tee. It is for the captain with a clipboard and the player who just wants to know whose ball we are playing.
Seven plays
Circle is a player. Blue line is the ball. Read the play, check who it suits.
Best ball
Everyone plays their own ball, all the way in. The lowest score on the team counts for the hole.
Suits pairs. The standard partner format
Alternate shot
One ball per team. Partners take turns hitting it. Tee shots alternate too, odd holes and even holes.
Suits couples who want to test the marriage
Shamble
Everyone tees off. Take the best drive. From there, everyone plays their own ball in. Count the best one or two.
Suits groups who want a scramble start and an honest finish
Stableford
Points against par on every hole. Par is two, birdie three, bogey one. Highest points wins. A blowup hole costs nothing more than zero.
Suits a big field and a fast pace
Match play
Hole by hole against one opponent or one pair. Win the hole, go one up. The match ends when nobody can catch up.
Suits two players or two pairs
Todak's 7 Iron Scramble
Teams of two to five. Scramble rules. Every shot with the seven iron, and that includes the putts. A real format inside the Big Fairways app.
Suits anyone who wants to laugh for four hours
Pick the play
Three questions. Answer them and the format picks itself.
- How many
- Two is best ball or alternate shot. Four is scramble or shamble. Twelve or more is Stableford.
- How good
- Mixed abilities want a scramble. Even abilities want best ball or match play.
- How serious
- Serious wants alternate shot. Not serious wants the seven iron.
Call it on the first tee
- Strokes
- Who gets them, and how many. In a scramble, most groups cut the handicap down hard.
- Tees
- Everyone from the same set, or say who moves up. Say it once.
- Ties
- Card playoff, back nine, or sudden death. Decide before anyone is tied.
One play nobody else runs
Every playbook has a scramble. Only one has Todak's 7 Iron Scramble. It is a real format inside Big Fairways: teams of two to five, scramble rules, every shot with the seven iron, putting included. The app keeps one card for the whole team, and anyone can follow the round hole by hole. Skins, Nassau and the other side games run at the same time, with clean math. Free, and the account takes about twenty seconds. Run the play on Big Fairways.
Send a play
A format your group runs that is not on the board. Draw it up in words. Good ones get chalk.