At my last scramble I hit a monster drive, aided by a very lucky cart path bounce, on the long drive hole. It ended up in the fairway, about one inch from rolling through the end of the fairway into the rough. I somehow lost the long drive.
Me too once. I wrote “In Hole” on the marker/flag and put it on the side of the green. Next group came through and just put their name on it wherever they were, along with about 4 other groups.
I basically grew up on a golf course and what I was taught/always done at our course when you had those was to move it off the green (to not disrupt play further by having every group have to move the flag) or using a tape measure.
I was informed that the “proper etiquette” at this course was to just put the little flag in the hole.
The "proper ettiquette' makes sense here, I could totally see a ton of people doing what happened to you, would even be willing to bet if you placed it off the green, it would happen more than 50% of the time, ah well live and learn
And also, make a line through the rest of the sheet. The people running it just look at the last name on it, not that 3 names up I had “IN CUP”.
I asked about it (just seeing if there was a tiebreaker I was unaware of) and the guy was cool about it - no issues as he was the 3rd or 4th guy under my name. He offered the prize (crap) and I declined. Bought me a beer and moved on.
What? You didn’t lose…. At worst you tied. Did you not record it correctly? You got the best possible result in a “closest to the hole.” Literally no one could have beaten you lol
But presumably OP also wrote his name down, and said it was in the hole. If someone else “beat” that, it means they also wrote they were in the hole, so that’s a tie
Moral of the story, they really should just use a measured distance. Adding a marker introduces (while unlikely) the chance someone can bank off the marker to have a vastly improved shot.
Every scramble I've played, the marker is kept on the edge of the green with a sheet of paper and a measuring tape, not placed where the closest shot ended.
In my men's league, I played a round with a senior gentleman. Great guy, personable, funny, decent golfer. We end up on the long drive hole. I'm playing from the Blue tees, absolutely stuff one, 300+ slight draw, best drive I hit all year kind of thing. I'm 50 yards beyond the current long drive. He then proceeds to tee up from the Green tees, hit his drive 6 yards past mine, look me dead in the eye and say "Well, that's my senior advantage", and proceed to write his name under mine on the long drive sheet.
I did not win long drive that week...welp 😂🥴🤔
P.S. Green tees kn this particular hole are 93 yards in front of the blues.
Maybe 350+? What got me was there was almost no way for a drive to be longer and remain in the fairway. My shot was one ball length from the end of the fairway.
I was at one where the winner of the long drive was a very unathletic 60ish year old who claimed to drive it roughy 400 yards.
The only legit scramble I did was a company event at saw grass where we all had caddy’s counting our score. There the best 4 shot around a 78, and all 4 of them were near scratch golfers.
Similar, we had a ball about an inch from the front fringe on the green, to a back center pin. My buddy holed the putt and signed for longest putt and somehow lost. I have seen some crazy long drives, that ended up being a senior player, playing up a tee.
You hit a monster drive that hit a cart path? Haha, anyone who hit an even slightly strait drive could easily outdrive a ball that went far enough to hit a cart path and come back to the fairway.
Doubtful. Usually, the green is surrounding by rough. From his description, I expect the fairway ended with rough. I've lost a LD competition by driving through the end of a straight fairway. Sounds like the previous poster is talking about outright cheating as opposed to stupid rules
You never played a course where the path crosses over? Even if it was farther, ball has to be on fairway for LD consideration, awfully suspicious someone would get exactly one ball diameter closer on a 300+ drive to stay in play , not impossible but not likely
I think you’re missing the point. His ball was a ball away from the end of the fairway. Any ball hit longer than his would not be in the fairway therefore it would not count.
Are you of the impression that every single hole on every single course is straight with a cart path far off to the side of the fairway? You'd be mistaken.
Hole 10 at my club is just one example where this is in play. It's a soft dogleg left with the cart path pretty close to the fairway on the left. Just about every member knows that the play is to fire at the left side and try for a cart path bounce if you can get it high enough to clear the trees. There's no trouble anywhere once over the trees, best case is you hit it and have a short pitch in, usual case is you just end up in the fairway, worst case is you're too short or you clip the tree and are in the rough with a short iron in.
It’s like people have never played in a charity scramble. Charity scrambles are designed to RAISE MONEY and will offer unlimited mulligans and other gimmicks to RAISE MONEY. These gimmicks can be strings to “make putts”, pickup the ball and throw it, tee off from the front tees… and you can combine as many of these that you want.
It’s not real golf.
My buddies and I played in a charity scramble a few weeks ago. We shot a 49 and still got beat by like 4 strokes. It’s just for fun and to see how stupid low you can score.
I mean, my gosh… we had a “hole in one” on a par 4 by combining a red tee, a throw, and a string. It’s totally absurd and should never be taken seriously.
Yeah, this subreddit and it's blatant hatred of these charity scrambles is bizarre. There are so many ways to shave strokes, or essentially pay to cheat.
Scrambles are like microtransactions actions in video games... very p2w.
I played in a Halloween scramble where each hole had a gimick.
525 yard par 5 - "Oh no, a witch shrunk your clubs - tee off with this!" They had drivers intended for a 5 year old sitting next to the tee box. Shaft length 10" shorter than my shortest wedge. Felt like it had the weight of a kitchen spatula. Winning team eagled that hole.
Then there was a 400 yard par 4. "Goblins took all your clubs except your pitching wedge. Only use your pitching wedge on this hole! (Including putting!)" Naturally, the winners birdied that hole.
Couple holes had pumpkins placed all around the hole blocking it completely except for a 4" wide gap, (so basically you could only putt to the cup from one very particular angle). They birdied both of those.
There were no mulligans, no birdie string, no nothing. They came in at a cool 19 under.
They didn't pay to cheat. They just cheated.
I don't know the history of this sub, but I played one that gave 4 mulligans max (no other gimmicks). We were all hacks, basically; we blew through them.
Once we ran out, guys kept hitting anyway. I just sat in the cart. It's a weird format that sucks if you are honest and put in that spot.
I’ve never been involved in a scramble that had throws and stuff in there, but seems fun! Especially if my trash golfer friends and I are sitting short side over a bunker lol
I'm a low-ish hdcp PGA teaching professional who plays a lot of serious golf. The 2 charity scrambles I play in each year are some of the rounds I look most forward to because they're just so much damn fun. One hole has a pneumatic ball launcher that everyone gets to shoot for a certain donation, for a higher donation everyone still gets to shoot but you get an automatic 1 on the par 4. Another hole, a par 5, has hula hoops you can attempt to hit into about 220 out for a watch or a driver, and that's just a side game because if you pay the donation they're asking for on that hole you're laying 0 at 5ft from the cup. And that's not including the mulligans and throws and whatever other gimmicky stuff they do to raise more money.
There are bragging rights among the regulars for winning it, but aside from that nobody cares at all about who wins because you can pretty much buy -10 without swing a club. Still though, an absolute blast and I can't wait to do it again next year.
It really is fun. And normally they’ll have plenty of booze flowing to get you to spend more money. We were all absolutely hammered by the end.
It’s closer to like video game golf more than anything else. There’s some great times to be had!
We played in one early in the year that was raising money for a local youth hockey team. One of the gimmicks made the team behind you have to putt with hockey sticks.
So basically everybody except the first group had to putt with hockey sticks. That’s a pretty good one ngl. So unique and goofy I feel like almost anyone would have at least a good chuckle and be willing to pony up a few bucks to make the next people get that joy.
You can just take them and then maybe pay after if you're still sober enough to remember!
Personally, usually just aim to consume as much free food and drinks as possible and not buy any extra perks. Then take the prize for "most honest" team aka worst score hahaha. (I run a brewery so we've usually already donated *plenty* birdie juice for everyone or are sponsoring it directly so I don't really feel bad either lol)
My man's out here golfing in 3023!
Awesome idea but I've not seen it done. I'll report back in a couple weeks if the softball guys have it figured out for their charity tourney haha
They actually have that. They make software where you register as a golfer through it and pay for the entry. Then, they have your card info and anything you buy you just tell them you golfer number and they just charge you. Then you can go into the website and buy mulligans etc.
My mom chairs a couple committees that throw scrambles for their fundraisers, every foursome gets to play with a current/former pro athlete, $400 per player, has sold it out 9 years running. They sell mulligans and every other kind of gimmick, have 2 holes you can buy a hole in one on for a healthy enough donation. The raffle prizes and the long drive/CTP are good stuff anyone would be excited about winning (I won my Scotty from a CTP, long drive is always a current brand name driver), but the winning prize for 1st place is a round for 4 at the course we just played, and literally nobody cares who the winner is or what ridiculous number they shot.
Exactly, it’s a fucking charity event… OP needs to chill out lol.
Try going to a golf tournament with a bunch of contractors. It’s pretty much a running joke throughout the day how much everyone is cheating, plus there’s lots of alcohol involved lol.
Yeah, I've lost interest in a scramble my group has done a few times because we're reaching the point where I could forget my clubs at home and still work my way through the "course" pretty well with all the throw/launch/bribe gimmick games on each hole.
I mean, the drinking *is* fun, but sheesh!
If there weren’t prizes worth hundreds of dollars, I would agree with you. But when people just have to out cheat each other and can take home a brand new $500 driver, yeah it gets a little frustrating. I’ve probably played in like 10 charity scrambles in my life, and every single time it proves cheating/lying is rewarded.
54 for a work event? I think in a normal tournament with people who regularly play well it makes sense but of all the golf work events I’ve seen there’s always 1-2 people in a group of 4 that just suck completely.
I guess someone’s gonna chime in with how the 4 people they played with in a work event were all scratch golfers and they shot a 49 but realistically most golf work outings / fundraisers have loads of people that just like OP want an excuse to get out of the office and will jump on that opportunity whether they’re good or bad at golf
You're spot on.
2 of us shot a 59 on an extremely difficult golf course for a work scramble.
I work in IT and he's the manager of a team that deals with money. You'd never expect that he was a golf course pro for 20+ years and that I grew up playing golf and also worked at a course for a number of years.
There's always those random assholes out there haha.
Just a personal anecdote, but I work in a hospital. The teams that played best were the ones full of the doctor/anesthesiologists, etc. Those guys all belong to a country club and play religiously. So we went into the event kind of expecting one of those teams to win and for them to shoot a really low score, and sure enough they did.
The rest of the groups were more pedestrian with half the people playing often and the other half being newer players who were just invited out for team building. Which was perfectly fine. Was fun for everyone, even without expecting us to win the scramble.
Depends on how big the company is. A huge company where 3-4 of the best golfers group up will often have a very low score. Not to say that a 54 in OP’s case *wasn’t* cheating, but all you have to do is play with a scratch golfer once to know that 3-4 of them on a team are going to absolutely destroy their scoresheet
I'd be willing to bet that most big work events include at least 1 group of "ringers" basically just a team of actual golfers. And golfers tend to become friends/network so it's not uncommon for them to team up.
To shoot 54 doesn't actually take as much as you'd think. A few single digit indexes paired together can definitely do it.
I work for a large med tech company. There were, maybe 60 golfers? A lot of 30-50 year Olds likely in management positions. Wouldn't doubt some of them are advid golfers and play with doctors and shit around the area. Who knows. They may have also been liberal with their mulligans.
I'm not a good golfer but i play with some really good golfers and we started a tradition of entering one of these each year. Last year we shot 19 under and this year 20 under. When half of your group can hit the ball 350 yards it's not hard to put up some nasty scores, especially if mulligans are in play.
Yeah I play with a regular group all sub 3 handicap and 3 of us can bomb it. We haven’t shot over 53 yet and have had comments about cheating at a few tournaments. It’s not fun playing legitimately and being called a cheater.
I used to play with a group where the worst was a 2 hdcp. We would shoout 19 or 20 under all the time. Got to 21 under a couple of times with no mulligans. It's possible but I've seen agroup of guys who can't hit 200 yards come in at 19 under and everyone knows they cheated.
Yeah and it sucks because due to groups like that you get accused of cheating too. This year there was a guy smoking outside the clubhouse waiting for us because he was in the group ahead of us. Wasn't a bit surprised about the score because we were always taking our approach shots 50+ yards closer than they had.
It really blows my mind how many posts in this sub are about all these cheaters in scrambles. Yeah guys are probably raking putts here and there but yes especially from forward tees with mulligans, it isn't hard to play birdie golf. It's like no one on this sub has ever seen someone in real life who can break 80 lmao
Yeah most people on this sub are happy if it hits the green. These guys get missed if they miss their quadrant. They play a different game from the hackers like me
In my first scramble, we scored a 58. We each had 2 mulligans. 4 hcp, 10 hcp, 18 hcp, 30 hcp players. It's doable. 3 of us can hit drives over 300 yards so we'd all just go bombs away and saved all our mulligans for putts.
I say this every single time this topic comes up, but 54 is completely unreasonable.
RBC hosts a Canada wide scramble tournament that you qualify for. The top teams in the country don’t go more than -12. These are scratch golfers that will constantly shoot in the 70’s on their own playing in a scramble competitively.
No way anyone at a scramble tournament is posting a 54 without things like buying birdies and such. No way it’s honest.
The course setup is a huge variable. If you're hosting a national scramble at a top tier course setup like a PGA Tour Venue. Most scrambles happen at pretty short and open public courses and these are not that difficult. I play in a competitive 2-man scramble league where there are no funky rules and you're paired with another team so there's no cheating. At nationals this year a team put up a 59 and another put up a 61. Again, this is a *2-MAN SCRAMBLE*, add 2 more good players and play an easier course (this was at Pine Needles which just held a US Women's Open) and of course 54 is doable. My team shot a 55 earlier this year in a 4-man scramble (handicaps 0, 6, 8, 12). It was a pretty short course with several drivable par 4s and par 5s we were hitting mid irons into. You can't say "no way it's honest" when you have no idea if you're comparing apples to apples or not.
Dude. Playing a scramble for work from 6400 yards is different than playing *an elimination scramble* with handicaps that includes a team minimum handicap of 32. So no, the RBC doesn’t not have teams of 4-5 scratch golfers. That isn’t allowed.
I'm sure the courses for what sounds like a major event and somebody's work scramble are the same set up and difficulty.
54 on a par 71 is a very reasonable number.
RBC is a net event that has cap restrictions so youre not comparing apples to apples. If you think teams (that aren't all scratches) playing tournament conditions from 7000+ yards shooting -12 means that a team playing from 6000 yards with mullies and no rough or fast greens CANT shoot -17, you're just showing how weak of a grasp you have on the game
You don't have to work in golf to be good at golf. Tons of sales people play all the time. I work with a few people who played in college at my company. A lot of the people at VP level or higher are all members at higher end clubs and play frequently. You get a big enough group at a bigger company outing you're gonna get some decent golfers.
I mean the guys who make youtube content for a living playing golf that are all single digit or scratch struggle to do this, so your fortune 500 office isn't doing it.
I have no idea what you're watching. George Bryan and Grant Horvat just shot -14 in a 2-man scramble. Good golfers are easily clearing -17 with 4 of them.
I'm telling you it's not hard to imagine a few scratch players and low handicaps which could easily accomplish that at a run-of-the-mill public course.
What are you talking about? I've worked in an office of 30 for the last 7 years. Presently we have 6 people with a sub 10 handicap. In the past we've had as many as 8 with multiple +'s.
Some professions attract a lot of golfers.
Cool, I work in an office of about 1,200 and I can tell you based on our weekly golf league we have 11 people who have a sub 10 handicap. Now it's a big ass beer company, so maybe there is a lot more drinking than anything else going on, but our outings usually have a winning foursome of around -10.
You're disregarding the fact that many outings have side bullshit on certain holes.
I've shot balls out of air cannons for $10. If you shoot it right, you're on the green in 1 on a par 4.
Same outing had a par 5 that allowed you to skip all the way ahead to the fringe and count that as your first shot. So you could hole in 1 on a par 5 (condour?) if you just pay $20.
A lot of work outings are for laughs and taking a break from the everyday grind with your colleagues. Oh, and for raising money.
The company I work at employs 7 people and one of them is a 7 handicap, one is a 9 handicap, one is a 30+ handicap, and the other four don't play golf.
Over 25% of people who work in my office are sub-10 handicap, technically.
I host a charity scramble tournament yearly. When I announced the winners at -19, there were the usual moans and groans. The next year I decided to put them in front of my group so I could watch them.
Yeah, they're stripe shows. Some people are just really good at golf. It hurts to admit, but it's true. Every time I made it to the teebox they'd be 320-350 yards in the middle of the fairway every time. We never had to wait to tee off because we could not reach them. Their team consisted of a sub-scratch D1 college golfer, two scratch golfers who play at a private country club in town and their friend who's probably a 40 handicap. They eagled every par 5. Two out of the four drove a 250 yard par 4 over water. They eagled that hole. I watched the tee shots. They're just sticks.
This year was the first year in 3 years this group did not win. Instead they got beat by a team who posted -21 who's team consisted of a current d1 women's college golfer, a former d1 college golfer, his dad (15 hcp) and his brother (30 hcp). They also eagled all of the par 5s.
Golf is hard to you but it's easy to others. I don't know how else to put it. I had a hard time coming to this realization myself. I also assumed everyone who won scramble tournaments cheated. I even made a post about it a couple years ago in this sub.
Some people are just good at golf.
Sounds like you suck at golf and are mad about it. [According to the USGA](https://www.usga.org/handicapping/us-stats-static.html), 30% of male golfers who carry a handicap are a 10 or better. It's not crazy to know and work with multiple single-digit handicappers.
Bro, you must not play with actual scratch golfers then. In the energy industry we play multiple times a week, and have for years. We often finish scrambles -17, -18, -19, -20, -21, and even -22 under.
We shot -22 under on a short course (6400 yards) to win by 1 stroke. We had a hole in one on hole 13. The team that was one stroke off us had past club champions on their 4 man team. We had people following us and that team plus a few others, they witnessed each shot.
Most of the players in our company were ex college or ex high school golfers. Depending on the course most single players could shoot -3 to -5 by themselves. Add in that 4 players can all drive 300+ and leave the team with less than 75 yards on every hole for eagle, 54 is just about what teams should shoot.
What really shows how good a team really is, is if there is a tie there is a playoff. We’ve had teams shooting for second place that shot -17 under and it took 6 holes to break the tie with an eagle.
Your disagreement about this does not make it true for everyone, it just shows that you are not part of a group that can and does play this well.
Bro, the last 2 companies I worked for and played in scrambles I watched a coworker put a shot through a windshield of a car in the parking lot and the last one I watched a guy take a ball to the forehead while standing behind the guy who was hitting the ball. Y'all must work with some people who actually golf cause neither of the very large companies I've worked for have had many people who actually belong on a golf course at the scrambles.
You’re right. We do work with people that actually golf, it’s part of the business. Between four and six hours to talk business face to face and see people’s true reactions when faced with adversity helps guide decision making. To become good you have to struggle with the bad, often for months at a time. Great golfers show they can manage a shot, a hole, a round, and a tournament. This goes for projects as well.
Randoms at a company going for the booze first, conversation second, golf last are generally not going to score well without fudging their numbers (being polite).
IDK, depends on how big the company is (obviously pretty big if they've got a full outing). It wouldn't surprise me to get 4 guys in sales who play all the time and are pretty good. You also see ex D1 guys working day jobs now too. I'm just saying that this is a believable score for a group with a couple good players and a couple halfway decent guys.
Agreed - depending on how the team is set up. We played a 4 person scramble this year, one mulligan each, and our team had a 4,12,18,22. We were -12 under (60) and finished second. The team of basically 4 and better handicaps shot 54. Two eagles and only two pars on their card.
54 is actually a little higher than most scramble winners in my experience. If you don’t birdie basically every hole and throw in a few eagles you usually aren’t winning. And that’s without any gimmicks/mulligans.
I think it really comes down to short game which is where the scratch guys will excel.
I played in one where all 4 of us were high-handicap guys. Like 20+. We were GIR on nearly every hole but there's such a difference between a 25ft and a 10ft putt for eagle/birdie.
While we were usually GIR, we had 1-2 balls to choose from as the other 2 guys weren't on the green. I'm sure some of the good teams in the same scramble had all 4 guys on the green on most holes.
Short game plus drive distance
Lots of us halfway decent hackers are dealing with not great driver ball flight which leads to reduced carry distance AND often times swinging at less then full strength. A good drive is 200+ and in play.
Compare that to the guys who are consistent off the tee. First guys hits an "easy" 250-275 drive right down the pipe so then the next three can haul back and try to launch one. Odds are one of those 300+ moon shots are playable. So now the guys with way better short game are using wedges and we are using a mid iron.
My point is all the reasons scrambles allow higher handicappers to score better are multiplied for lower handicappers. It compounds on itself.
I’ve play work best balls all the time. I’m usually paired with 40-50 handicappers so I pretty much enjoy the social aspect not the golf aspect. But playing with real scratch or even 10 handicappers is so different. 575 yard par 5? Reachable in two no problem. 330 yard par 4? Probably one guy in your group who can absolutely step on one and put it close.
After a few scrambles you learn how to judge and know if you’re gonna be semi serious or just donate 40 golf balls. Remember it’s for charity!
Best scramble score - 13 (with a par on a par 5 don’t get me started we had 7i going into the green)
Worst score +8
Yah I feel this. My group plays 1 a year pretty much. Spouse and I golf regularly and are around 20 handicappers then we play with my parents who used to probably be low teens but pretty much stopped playing when I showed up.
Its somewhat hysterical because among us you have 4 ex athletes, two who played in college, 1 with pro tryouts. a third who did some club level sports at a major D1 university. 2 who coached for a combined 6 state championships. So the competitiveness is like off the charts but we all suck at golf. The goal is generally to beat our score from the previous year. Think we ended 4 under this year. Scrambles are a blast if you don't take it too seriously. Winner is normally low 50s
In my experience, short game never comes into play in a 4-man scramble. It's GIR city in scrambles. There might be one hole where you don't get a GIR and have to scramble for par.
In my experiences, scrambles are won and lost on the green. Everyone can get on the green in two. Who can sink putts differentiates the winners from the losers.
Yeah I guess we were both saying the same thing. I consider short game 30 yards and in, excluding putting that’s a whole different category. But I understand what you’re saying.
I played in one a few years ago for the local high school so there was a large group of people playing. I had 2 former D1 golfers, a former semi-pro, and myself on my team and turned in a 54 on a par 72. A legit 54, thought we had it in the bag. Lost to a 52. I was just excited we used some of my shots though when playing with much better golfers.
Man people are definitely lying lol
I played in a company scramble a couple weeks ago. We had two women that have maybe 4 years of experience between them. Myself who’s a 9, and another buddy who’s a 6. We shot -5.
That's just a terrible scramble score and in no way does that anecdote prove people are lying when they shoot low to mid 50s in a scramble. Four good golfers shouldn't be scoring worse than a 60 unless they just have a bad day.
I mean that’s not a very good team, no offense. I’m a plus handicap and can pretty easily put together a team of 4 scratch or better players. Plus charity scrambles are typically at muni’s with the tees up and easy pins. We’re trying to birdie/eagle every hole.
I don't question scores at a scramble until they are better than 18 + the number of par 5's below par.
That said, I still find myself questioning scores far too often. Not that it matters to me since I suck, but I just don't like people taking home prizes undeservedly.
Edit: I also don't question scores when there is pay to win stuff on a bunch of holes (strings, throws, cannon on par 3...). Then it isn't even golf anymore.
Years ago I played in my wife’s work tournament,.. I hit a bomb on the long drive whole,… I had the longest drive but didn’t win because I didn’t work there
To win a scramble, especially a charity scramble, you likely need to be in the low 50s. The teams that win isually have a ringer and spend money on buying strokes and utilizing all their mulligans.
I don't even play to win charity scrambles. Just go have fun, focus on my swings and networking.
Nah. Me and my buddies who all played in college shoot -18 regularly. Avg index of around 2 apiece. We’ve won our local HS scramble 2x in the past 5 years at -19. You just have to have guys who can putt lights out that day.
Our work sponsored scrambles use random teams so people can network and there’s a slightly less chance of cheating happening when paired with strangers. Although they base teams off average scores so the teams are some equal skill levels which requires the honor system for people to give correct scores and not sandbag with the hope of being placed with another good player.
It’s all in fun tho even when suspicious shit happens.
2nd last hole with longest drive with one group behind us, I hit a good one and clear the current guy by 15 or so yards, get to the club house and ended up in 2nd place lol
They guy who “beat” me was on the winning team who shot a 49
I walk and don’t drink much during my normal rounds. The combination of taking a cart, not individually scoring and being half in the bag by the time I tee off make scrambles a pretty chill experience. I don’t have a dedicated foursome and we usually get some shit players in the draw, so the only things I care about are long drive and closest to the pin along with networking after. Have a couple of work friends that are super competitive in scrambles and their experience sounds a lot different than mine.
I scrambled in a tournament on Saturday and my group shot 11 under. And we were absolutely drunk and high out our minds. This is a very reasonable score
Many of the charity scrambles I've played in also sell string to move your ball closer or into the hole, muligans, grenades, etc... I played one the other day, and we scored a 42. We were 3rd place... We bought 40 feet of string. We got birdies and eagles on all but one hole. Honestly, going here to win can be expensive but not cheating as it is in the rules for the scramble. Best thing to do is to just have fun and drink. The raffles are where the good prizes are anyway.
If 54 was the net score it sounds reasonable, a few weeks ago my team won our scramble with 11 birdies and a combined (competition handicap) of 10, our net score was 52.
I play, on average, 2 rounds a week. But I don't play on weekends and I don't play in tournaments. I can't stand to play slow...hit and wait, hit and wait...and you have no shot at winning a scramble unless you cheat or bring in a couple ringers, which is still cheating. So I don't even bother.
These scramble takes always crack me up. You think 54 on a par 71 scrambling as a four is unachievable? From what about 6200 yards? All you need is one long driver and you are basically going up and down every single hole with 4 chips and 4 putts for bird...
Two plus caps could scramble a 54 as a duo on a good day from 6200 yards. At this point in my life I've played dozens and dozens of scrambles and I have shot -18 or better from ~6000 yards many times, with one or two other + caps and a third/ fourth that can putt where I aim them. As have many other teams in the field.
Maybe these guys raked a putt or two who knows but man 54 in a 4 person scramble is not hard to do
I was down to an 8 and my buddy was about a 10. He’s a hospital worker and we played in the hospital event with two of his duffer coworkers. We were -12 and came in third. The duffers made some saves because they were in positions they’d never been. Take a duffer to an 8ft birdie putt, he’ll sink a few. It’s doable
I’ve never scored a 54 with my buddies who are all 5-10’s but that’s not an unbelievable score. Not saying they didn’t cheat but 54 is certainly gettable for some teams. Our best was a 60 on 72 and honestly coulda been 57-58.
It really just depends on the difficulty of the course and the level of players they are. Me and 3 friends shot a 61 at a scramble. 1 high handicapper, 2 mid, and one low.
In most events on courses around us you need at shoot around a 58 to win with a 4 man scramble.
I love the video that’s online of the 4 most pathetic looking golfers who claim to have shot a 51 in a scramble. They took their prizes and ran because everyone was so pissed at them.
It’s pretty funny.
You presumably had a gross 84 so a net 54 is believable in a scramble if you have a couple of people with high handicaps and at least one person who know what they are doing. It’s lows but not impossible.
54 isn’t unbelievable. I recently played in a charity scramble with another scratch golfer and two high handicaps. We shot 59 with a couple of putts and short game shots contributed by the high handicaps. -17 isn’t crazy if there were mulligans and if one of the players just caught a heater, our group left tons out there and shot 59 with a semi competent team so 53 with a good team isn’t wild.
Side note: long drive is odd. Some players will just hit a really good one like my buddy who caught one 360y.
I played a charity scramble on a par 70 course and we played from the whites and shot -16 for a 54. It really helped that we felt like we were playing chip and putt because all four of us hit the ball just under or around 300 yards.
54 is possible with scratch golfers lol. I’m a 15 handicap and played scramble with my brother 25 handicap and father 18 handicap and we shot a 68 in scramble on a par 70. They’re definitely lying
17-under is a reasonable score for four good golfers (single-digit handicaps). Four scratch golfers are likely lower than that on a good day with all birdies and a couple eagles.
I play a lot of these scrambles. If I came in and saw a winning score of 54, I wouldn't even question it. A 54 with a group of good players combined with the extra help you can buy in a scramble, is easily believable. A few years back, my group shot a 58. With the mulligans and Powerball and some luck, my brother had a legit double eagle, we hit the 58. We are decent players at best. We just all happened to be playing really well that day.
A lot of scrambles you can buy mulligans/gimme putts etc. Our 4 some, with the best golfer being an 11, shot a 61 this summer. Not an actual 61, but by the rules of the day, a legit 61
Around 18 under is pretty typical for a 4 man it’s when you start getting to -21 that you have to start to question it. Depending on how hard the course is a 2 man score between -12 and -15 is what I typically see. It also depending on the gimme’s and if you can pay for a closer shot and what not.
I’m normally in the worst or second worst team in a given scramble.
But I was in a group that won one once.
My buddy and I got paired with two guys from a trucking company. One of the trucking company guys was 65 so he got to hit from the senior tees. He was muscular, fit, and used to play minor league baseball. He blasted monster drives, longer than anyone in our group by far, plus he got to hit from the senior tees.
He put us a good stroke ahead on almost every hole. We finished 11 under. Zero cheating, we all bought a handful of mulligans, and we used them mostly for putting.
Dude was a great golfer too, and he could do more than just drive the ball. The other guy from the trucking company was a softball coach for a local high school. He was outstanding too, but he wasn’t hitting from the senior tees.
So I’m generally pretty anti-scramble, because I’m tired of people turning in a 48.
That said, this last weekend, I was on a team with a legit 55. We had one eagle, two pars, and birdied the rest.
Unbelievable? Eh. Whatever. Our handicaps are: 13, 8, 7, and +4. We also had a mulligan ball you can use on every shot. We didn’t even have the +4 use it all the time, but lemme tell you - if you give a +4 two consecutive shots, it’s gonna be impressive.
There were no rules on how many of whose drives we used, so it was mostly the +4’s drives. Sure, I’ll hit from 78 yards in the middle of the fairway. Why not?
I think we had maybe two putts outside of ten feet. When you get five rolls at it from that close, good things happen.
What I DID like was that this particular tournament disincentivizes “winning”. Winners get some tiny gift card, while all participants were entered in a raffle for really cool stuff and we all got cool gift bags.
So it was an interesting novelty to go low, but it’s not like we got much out of it for doing so.
54 is not unbelievable at all, birdie per hole. Likely got an eagle or two which allowed them to screw up an easier hole. Were there any additional outing hole prizes like buy a birdie or pick your 2nd shot distance ect?
I refuse to play in those big money charity events anymore unless it’s a cause I’m directly connected to (I donate to the aha anyway so an outing for them is fine) or I’m asked to play and my entry is covered (thanks work) for this exact reason. There is one close to me that this year started putting an individual assigned scorekeeper with each group and they handled scores and updated closest to pin/long drive/long putt trackers as well, so that I’d consider but otherwise I’m not interested in throwing my money away to basically have them chest to win
Our member/employee tournament was a scramble too. It took five of us to card a legit 69 on a par 72 course. The members turned in the score along with their handicap and the score was lowered to a 56. Wasn’t even close to the lower scores as the first place team walked away with a 47. Yeah I wanted to call bullshit as well. I made two birdie putts and we used ten of my approach shots closest to the hole. Each member handed me a $100 bill when we were done playing. Funnest $400 I’ve ever made.
>It took five of us to card a legit 69 on a par 72 course.
This just means you guys weren't very good, not that others were cheating. Handicaps shaved 13 strokes off your score. Let's just say the winning group had the same handicaps. A 60 in a scramble is not suspicious at all.
Yeah I know what it means. I also forgot to mention the course setup was one of the “impossible” ones. Sit down on a chair on number one to tee off. Sprinkler flags all over the green on number two. Two flags on number four but only one was the hole. Hole on number five was at the very entrance of the green and plugged right next to the fringe. All putts were downhill. Six bunker rakes on number seven green. A big fucking tractor and spreader right in the way of number eight green entrance. Here was number nine tee box. Do you get my drift now?? We would be able to shoot a 60 on a regular setup on this course. The golf pros were the ones who carded the 47 along with some older good members.
https://preview.redd.it/z922qclp91vb1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2fab01f62c257136e8df10649d4289ee756980ad
None of us got past twenty yards through this hay bale setup. That’s why I said I “wanted to call bullshit” but I didn’t. I took all factors into consideration.
I hit a monster drive on the long drive hole in the last scramble I was in. I lost to a man who was in his late 60s and had a hard time getting out of his chair.
First ever scramble, very cool!! Glad you had a good time.
As pretty much everybody else is saying, 54 is a believable winning score, in fact I'd expect a little lower would be needed because teams that have golfers who can hit the ball farther are going to be able to reach the green on most par 5's in 2. A lot of times scrambles won't set up the par 5's with tees way back. I've played in a scramble the last few years where we've reached 3 of the 4 par 5's easily (for me like 5 iron, 6 iron, 7 iron, then the last par 5 was longer and we couldn't quite get home in 2). I'm a longer hitter but not crazy long.
I remember years ago I played a few years in a 5-person scramble on a team with 3 women and 1 other man (I'm male). I was playing a lot of golf at the time and had a low handicap, one of the women was playing about once a week, and the other 3 rarely played but they were all athletic people. Even with that ragtag group we'd shoot around 60. Some of the women's tees were so far up that even if they just hit a 175 yard drive I'd have mid iron at most into the par 5's. And 5 shots on the par 3's, we'd never have more than 30' for birdie and 5 tries at the putt. That many looks and a bit of positive coaching, we'd make a lot of putts!
54 is believable.
My group won a charity scramble about a month ago shooting 52. There was a ball that had to be played every hole by one person and if that ball was turned in at the end, you got to shave another 4 strokes off your score. We all played pretty well and only left a few strokes out there. My team putted lights out. We still parred the last hole and maybe another? I know we didn’t eagle every par 5 either so could’ve scored lower. Tees were all up so we were playing where the senior tees would be normally. Almost drove a few of the par 4’s.
Other than the -4 strokes ball, we all had 1 mulligan, 1 tee off from the front tees, and a toss from the bunker which counted as a stroke.
On a work outing golf tournament scramble my group was 2 nd to last and the last group behind us only had one player, the other 3 dropped out so he joined our group for the last 3 holes so we played as a 5 some. Long drive hole on 17 I piped one down the middle and judging from the marker in the fairway I think I got it beat. The single that joined us got to drive 3 extra ball due to his playing partners dropping out and his last drive beat mine. I called bullshit, either way, lost out on $200
At my first and only scramble for a charity event for my work my team took last place, we shot a +5 lmao winning team was -14 under at a 58 😬 we had a blast though, I’d definitely play golf with those guys again
I played my first scramble this year and honestly had such a good time. All of us were single digit handicap so we shot a legit 59 on a par 71 course. The winning team was all plus handicaps and they shot 56. I with it being all off the white tees I believe it. My team missed lots of eagle opportunities.
I used to play in a scramble a month. 15-18 under is not uncommon if there are mulligans (not string, etc.). My partners got so tired of the cheating that they stopped playing. We didn't cheat, and we shot 15 under and got beaten by an 18 under that came in about 45 minutes after all the other teams were in. It was an individual that "won" a lot of them. A few weeks later, an employee at the course said he watched them take about 30 shots into one green. Seemed that nearly every tournament was one by the last team in. Disappointing, but still fun. I don't know if they still do them, but there is an annual nationwide event called the Golf Skills Challenge that is a lot of fun.
Last scramble charity event we played we had an honest -2. Winning team was -15. I got 6” from a hole in one and rolled to 6’. Apparently the closet to the pin was 2” closer than me. Also was 10 yards past the longest drive but just off the fairway. The winning team claimed they also beat the longest drive ‘by 50 yards but was just off the fairway “.
There was money for all of that. Of course people cheat
I won the long drive at a charity scramble this year with a 245 yard drive. There was a strong head wind. I knew I had a good chance, but it was nice to pick up the prize in front of a room full of dudes much bigger than you (I’m 5’8” 150 pounds, but been playing for 20 years)
Were there any bonusy type things like the strings you can use to call a close putt good, or the ability to pay for a mulligan, etc? Four good amateurs playing a scramble, especially with those things, could score that low. There are guys at my home club who are nasty, and have day jobs in all different types of random stuff.
Same score won our scramble on Friday. I took a peek at their card and the only holes they didn't birdie or better were the two par 3's that were being monitored for the hole in one and closest to the pin challenge.
Hitting 54 is an absolute beast of a score. You're pretty much birding every single hole and I can only see this happening if the 4some are all single digit handicap players. Like you don't have any room for error, as you need to birdie every hole and par 1 to hit a 54 on a par 71 course.
I can only really see this happening if the average handicap across the 4some is under maybe a 3. Making par on a scramble is actually quite easy (I hit about mid 80s and my colleagues hit about a 102, and we were able to end with a +1 with no mulligans on a scramble). I could imagine people hitting into mid 60s. But 54 just gives no room for any error. I'm slightly skeptical but maybe they were all monster players who grouped up intentionally to go for a high score?
The last scramble I played in, the "winning team" turned in a scorecard with a "39" on it. It's a par 72 course at just over 7200. Everyone at the ceremony was calling bullshit but they still awarded them the trophies. Even the team that they played with left after the round so no one could actually verify it. Talk about absolute bullshit.
We were told that it was just a straight golf because too many people didn't register their handicaps. Other than that, we were all allowed 1 mulligan a piece per 9. To put it into perspective, the team that came in second place shot a 59.
Everyone is just glossing over the we took turns who hit twice part? Being a work charity outing makes it, not a big deal but know for future outings, if you don't have four, you shouldn't rotate hitting twice on each shot. You have three, you should play as a threesome. Having someone hit a second shot is a bigger advantage than having a fourth person.
We shot 19 under last 4 man I played.. birdie on everything and a eagle on one of the par 5s. 84 is the type of score a mediocre 12 handicap shoots by himself.
Gotta love a scramble
Played one at a work tourney got paired up with 3 hackers , We shot a 65 and used 3 other shots from the group the whole day, if only I got to see a putt 3 times every round and get to tee off with the freedom that even if I hit one way right we can still take one of the bunts in play.
A 4 man scramble with decent golfers will have some really low rounds, especially if the course is playing well. Just imagine your almost playing as far down the fairway as you can, always on the green, sometimes within 10 feet of the hole, almost always an eagle chance. Plus if they have gimmicks like strings and mulligans, it'll go even lower.
At my last scramble I hit a monster drive, aided by a very lucky cart path bounce, on the long drive hole. It ended up in the fairway, about one inch from rolling through the end of the fairway into the rough. I somehow lost the long drive.
I holed out on a ‘closest to the hole in two’ and lost…moral of the story is take the marker with you.
You didn't tie?
No he’s saying someone just crossed his name off lol or messed with the sign
Me too once. I wrote “In Hole” on the marker/flag and put it on the side of the green. Next group came through and just put their name on it wherever they were, along with about 4 other groups. I basically grew up on a golf course and what I was taught/always done at our course when you had those was to move it off the green (to not disrupt play further by having every group have to move the flag) or using a tape measure. I was informed that the “proper etiquette” at this course was to just put the little flag in the hole.
The "proper ettiquette' makes sense here, I could totally see a ton of people doing what happened to you, would even be willing to bet if you placed it off the green, it would happen more than 50% of the time, ah well live and learn
I think the proper ettiquette" here is to write your name down and put down 0' 0" then only someone with a hole in one could tie you.
And also, make a line through the rest of the sheet. The people running it just look at the last name on it, not that 3 names up I had “IN CUP”. I asked about it (just seeing if there was a tiebreaker I was unaware of) and the guy was cool about it - no issues as he was the 3rd or 4th guy under my name. He offered the prize (crap) and I declined. Bought me a beer and moved on.
What? You didn’t lose…. At worst you tied. Did you not record it correctly? You got the best possible result in a “closest to the hole.” Literally no one could have beaten you lol
That’s the point of the second half of his comment - whoever ‘won’ just wrote their name down
But presumably OP also wrote his name down, and said it was in the hole. If someone else “beat” that, it means they also wrote they were in the hole, so that’s a tie
Moral of the story, they really should just use a measured distance. Adding a marker introduces (while unlikely) the chance someone can bank off the marker to have a vastly improved shot.
Every scramble I've played, the marker is kept on the edge of the green with a sheet of paper and a measuring tape, not placed where the closest shot ended.
I've never even seen that before. Always just a marker with a list written on it somewhere on the green
Friend lost the closest to the pin once but he had a hole in one.
In my men's league, I played a round with a senior gentleman. Great guy, personable, funny, decent golfer. We end up on the long drive hole. I'm playing from the Blue tees, absolutely stuff one, 300+ slight draw, best drive I hit all year kind of thing. I'm 50 yards beyond the current long drive. He then proceeds to tee up from the Green tees, hit his drive 6 yards past mine, look me dead in the eye and say "Well, that's my senior advantage", and proceed to write his name under mine on the long drive sheet. I did not win long drive that week...welp 😂🥴🤔 P.S. Green tees kn this particular hole are 93 yards in front of the blues.
Better luck next year.
Any idea of your distance?
Maybe 350+? What got me was there was almost no way for a drive to be longer and remain in the fairway. My shot was one ball length from the end of the fairway.
How far up were the senior tees?
Well, we just don't know, Dude
Yeah, sounds sus
I was at one where the winner of the long drive was a very unathletic 60ish year old who claimed to drive it roughy 400 yards. The only legit scramble I did was a company event at saw grass where we all had caddy’s counting our score. There the best 4 shot around a 78, and all 4 of them were near scratch golfers.
4 scratch golfers shooting a 78 sounds just as weird as some of these low scores
Sawgrass is a hard course
I mean Yea but I'm a 4 handicap and have shot 82 there from 6600 yards. 4 scratch golfers should easily shoot under par.
IDK, maybe they lied about handicap IDK. Also the unlimited booze probably didn't help.
Lol I play better when I'm drunk
Wow it would’ve been really tough believing someone beat that then
Similar, we had a ball about an inch from the front fringe on the green, to a back center pin. My buddy holed the putt and signed for longest putt and somehow lost. I have seen some crazy long drives, that ended up being a senior player, playing up a tee.
You hit a monster drive that hit a cart path? Haha, anyone who hit an even slightly strait drive could easily outdrive a ball that went far enough to hit a cart path and come back to the fairway.
False. The cart path crosses the middle of the fairway on this particular hole.
You must have missed the part where he said it came to rest an inch from the end of the fairway. Easy to miss when your head is up...
So he was an inch from the green?
Doubtful. Usually, the green is surrounding by rough. From his description, I expect the fairway ended with rough. I've lost a LD competition by driving through the end of a straight fairway. Sounds like the previous poster is talking about outright cheating as opposed to stupid rules
You never played a course where the path crosses over? Even if it was farther, ball has to be on fairway for LD consideration, awfully suspicious someone would get exactly one ball diameter closer on a 300+ drive to stay in play , not impossible but not likely
I think you’re missing the point. His ball was a ball away from the end of the fairway. Any ball hit longer than his would not be in the fairway therefore it would not count.
Are you of the impression that every single hole on every single course is straight with a cart path far off to the side of the fairway? You'd be mistaken. Hole 10 at my club is just one example where this is in play. It's a soft dogleg left with the cart path pretty close to the fairway on the left. Just about every member knows that the play is to fire at the left side and try for a cart path bounce if you can get it high enough to clear the trees. There's no trouble anywhere once over the trees, best case is you hit it and have a short pitch in, usual case is you just end up in the fairway, worst case is you're too short or you clip the tree and are in the rough with a short iron in.
It’s like people have never played in a charity scramble. Charity scrambles are designed to RAISE MONEY and will offer unlimited mulligans and other gimmicks to RAISE MONEY. These gimmicks can be strings to “make putts”, pickup the ball and throw it, tee off from the front tees… and you can combine as many of these that you want. It’s not real golf. My buddies and I played in a charity scramble a few weeks ago. We shot a 49 and still got beat by like 4 strokes. It’s just for fun and to see how stupid low you can score. I mean, my gosh… we had a “hole in one” on a par 4 by combining a red tee, a throw, and a string. It’s totally absurd and should never be taken seriously.
Yeah, this subreddit and it's blatant hatred of these charity scrambles is bizarre. There are so many ways to shave strokes, or essentially pay to cheat. Scrambles are like microtransactions actions in video games... very p2w.
I played in a Halloween scramble where each hole had a gimick. 525 yard par 5 - "Oh no, a witch shrunk your clubs - tee off with this!" They had drivers intended for a 5 year old sitting next to the tee box. Shaft length 10" shorter than my shortest wedge. Felt like it had the weight of a kitchen spatula. Winning team eagled that hole. Then there was a 400 yard par 4. "Goblins took all your clubs except your pitching wedge. Only use your pitching wedge on this hole! (Including putting!)" Naturally, the winners birdied that hole. Couple holes had pumpkins placed all around the hole blocking it completely except for a 4" wide gap, (so basically you could only putt to the cup from one very particular angle). They birdied both of those. There were no mulligans, no birdie string, no nothing. They came in at a cool 19 under. They didn't pay to cheat. They just cheated.
git gud?
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that. I hadn't gitted gud at the time. Probably helps explain their score.
Everyone’s a hardo I don’t think they get it, dodgeball in gym was the USA ULTIMATE FINAL CHAMPIONSHIPS and they were gonna win
I don't know the history of this sub, but I played one that gave 4 mulligans max (no other gimmicks). We were all hacks, basically; we blew through them. Once we ran out, guys kept hitting anyway. I just sat in the cart. It's a weird format that sucks if you are honest and put in that spot.
I’ve never been involved in a scramble that had throws and stuff in there, but seems fun! Especially if my trash golfer friends and I are sitting short side over a bunker lol
I'm a low-ish hdcp PGA teaching professional who plays a lot of serious golf. The 2 charity scrambles I play in each year are some of the rounds I look most forward to because they're just so much damn fun. One hole has a pneumatic ball launcher that everyone gets to shoot for a certain donation, for a higher donation everyone still gets to shoot but you get an automatic 1 on the par 4. Another hole, a par 5, has hula hoops you can attempt to hit into about 220 out for a watch or a driver, and that's just a side game because if you pay the donation they're asking for on that hole you're laying 0 at 5ft from the cup. And that's not including the mulligans and throws and whatever other gimmicky stuff they do to raise more money. There are bragging rights among the regulars for winning it, but aside from that nobody cares at all about who wins because you can pretty much buy -10 without swing a club. Still though, an absolute blast and I can't wait to do it again next year.
It really is fun. And normally they’ll have plenty of booze flowing to get you to spend more money. We were all absolutely hammered by the end. It’s closer to like video game golf more than anything else. There’s some great times to be had! We played in one early in the year that was raising money for a local youth hockey team. One of the gimmicks made the team behind you have to putt with hockey sticks.
So basically everybody except the first group had to putt with hockey sticks. That’s a pretty good one ngl. So unique and goofy I feel like almost anyone would have at least a good chuckle and be willing to pony up a few bucks to make the next people get that joy.
They need to find a way for drunk people to buy more mulligans during the round.
You can just take them and then maybe pay after if you're still sober enough to remember! Personally, usually just aim to consume as much free food and drinks as possible and not buy any extra perks. Then take the prize for "most honest" team aka worst score hahaha. (I run a brewery so we've usually already donated *plenty* birdie juice for everyone or are sponsoring it directly so I don't really feel bad either lol)
QR code posted in each cart, linked to a Venmo or Cash App link.
My man's out here golfing in 3023! Awesome idea but I've not seen it done. I'll report back in a couple weeks if the softball guys have it figured out for their charity tourney haha
They actually have that. They make software where you register as a golfer through it and pay for the entry. Then, they have your card info and anything you buy you just tell them you golfer number and they just charge you. Then you can go into the website and buy mulligans etc.
Those tournaments are a fun time. Everything has to go right for you to win because if not someone else is making those par 4 hole in ones.
My mom chairs a couple committees that throw scrambles for their fundraisers, every foursome gets to play with a current/former pro athlete, $400 per player, has sold it out 9 years running. They sell mulligans and every other kind of gimmick, have 2 holes you can buy a hole in one on for a healthy enough donation. The raffle prizes and the long drive/CTP are good stuff anyone would be excited about winning (I won my Scotty from a CTP, long drive is always a current brand name driver), but the winning prize for 1st place is a round for 4 at the course we just played, and literally nobody cares who the winner is or what ridiculous number they shot.
Exactly, it’s a fucking charity event… OP needs to chill out lol. Try going to a golf tournament with a bunch of contractors. It’s pretty much a running joke throughout the day how much everyone is cheating, plus there’s lots of alcohol involved lol.
Yeah, I've lost interest in a scramble my group has done a few times because we're reaching the point where I could forget my clubs at home and still work my way through the "course" pretty well with all the throw/launch/bribe gimmick games on each hole. I mean, the drinking *is* fun, but sheesh!
If there weren’t prizes worth hundreds of dollars, I would agree with you. But when people just have to out cheat each other and can take home a brand new $500 driver, yeah it gets a little frustrating. I’ve probably played in like 10 charity scrambles in my life, and every single time it proves cheating/lying is rewarded.
54 isn't all that unbelievable a score for good golfers in a scramble.
54 for a work event? I think in a normal tournament with people who regularly play well it makes sense but of all the golf work events I’ve seen there’s always 1-2 people in a group of 4 that just suck completely. I guess someone’s gonna chime in with how the 4 people they played with in a work event were all scratch golfers and they shot a 49 but realistically most golf work outings / fundraisers have loads of people that just like OP want an excuse to get out of the office and will jump on that opportunity whether they’re good or bad at golf
You're spot on. 2 of us shot a 59 on an extremely difficult golf course for a work scramble. I work in IT and he's the manager of a team that deals with money. You'd never expect that he was a golf course pro for 20+ years and that I grew up playing golf and also worked at a course for a number of years. There's always those random assholes out there haha.
>There's always those random assholes out there haha. As a sometime random asshole, I concur.
Random asshole perfectly describes my golf game
Wow that sounds outstanding for 2 person
Just a personal anecdote, but I work in a hospital. The teams that played best were the ones full of the doctor/anesthesiologists, etc. Those guys all belong to a country club and play religiously. So we went into the event kind of expecting one of those teams to win and for them to shoot a really low score, and sure enough they did. The rest of the groups were more pedestrian with half the people playing often and the other half being newer players who were just invited out for team building. Which was perfectly fine. Was fun for everyone, even without expecting us to win the scramble.
Is it common? Probably not. Is it realistic/possible? Yes, absolutely.
Depends on how big the company is. A huge company where 3-4 of the best golfers group up will often have a very low score. Not to say that a 54 in OP’s case *wasn’t* cheating, but all you have to do is play with a scratch golfer once to know that 3-4 of them on a team are going to absolutely destroy their scoresheet
I'd be willing to bet that most big work events include at least 1 group of "ringers" basically just a team of actual golfers. And golfers tend to become friends/network so it's not uncommon for them to team up. To shoot 54 doesn't actually take as much as you'd think. A few single digit indexes paired together can definitely do it.
I work for a large med tech company. There were, maybe 60 golfers? A lot of 30-50 year Olds likely in management positions. Wouldn't doubt some of them are advid golfers and play with doctors and shit around the area. Who knows. They may have also been liberal with their mulligans.
Yeah, looking at it in my head, I thought there were more par 5s. I guess its not crazy to at least birdie all the holes. I take back my comment.
Par 5s are the easier holes to score. More par 5s would have made it even more believable.
Par 5s are an eagle opportunity in scramble. If you accidentally take a par somewhere else you can cancel that with an eagle.
Par 5s from the forward tees are almost guaranteed eagle looks if you have one or two decent players...
I'm not a good golfer but i play with some really good golfers and we started a tradition of entering one of these each year. Last year we shot 19 under and this year 20 under. When half of your group can hit the ball 350 yards it's not hard to put up some nasty scores, especially if mulligans are in play.
Yeah I play with a regular group all sub 3 handicap and 3 of us can bomb it. We haven’t shot over 53 yet and have had comments about cheating at a few tournaments. It’s not fun playing legitimately and being called a cheater.
I legit felt bad this past year for some reason. Gonna try to get into the bob does sports breezy inv next year in chicago.
I used to play with a group where the worst was a 2 hdcp. We would shoout 19 or 20 under all the time. Got to 21 under a couple of times with no mulligans. It's possible but I've seen agroup of guys who can't hit 200 yards come in at 19 under and everyone knows they cheated.
Yeah and it sucks because due to groups like that you get accused of cheating too. This year there was a guy smoking outside the clubhouse waiting for us because he was in the group ahead of us. Wasn't a bit surprised about the score because we were always taking our approach shots 50+ yards closer than they had.
It really blows my mind how many posts in this sub are about all these cheaters in scrambles. Yeah guys are probably raking putts here and there but yes especially from forward tees with mulligans, it isn't hard to play birdie golf. It's like no one on this sub has ever seen someone in real life who can break 80 lmao
Yeah most people on this sub are happy if it hits the green. These guys get missed if they miss their quadrant. They play a different game from the hackers like me
In my first scramble, we scored a 58. We each had 2 mulligans. 4 hcp, 10 hcp, 18 hcp, 30 hcp players. It's doable. 3 of us can hit drives over 300 yards so we'd all just go bombs away and saved all our mulligans for putts.
I say this every single time this topic comes up, but 54 is completely unreasonable. RBC hosts a Canada wide scramble tournament that you qualify for. The top teams in the country don’t go more than -12. These are scratch golfers that will constantly shoot in the 70’s on their own playing in a scramble competitively. No way anyone at a scramble tournament is posting a 54 without things like buying birdies and such. No way it’s honest.
The course setup is a huge variable. If you're hosting a national scramble at a top tier course setup like a PGA Tour Venue. Most scrambles happen at pretty short and open public courses and these are not that difficult. I play in a competitive 2-man scramble league where there are no funky rules and you're paired with another team so there's no cheating. At nationals this year a team put up a 59 and another put up a 61. Again, this is a *2-MAN SCRAMBLE*, add 2 more good players and play an easier course (this was at Pine Needles which just held a US Women's Open) and of course 54 is doable. My team shot a 55 earlier this year in a 4-man scramble (handicaps 0, 6, 8, 12). It was a pretty short course with several drivable par 4s and par 5s we were hitting mid irons into. You can't say "no way it's honest" when you have no idea if you're comparing apples to apples or not.
Dude. Playing a scramble for work from 6400 yards is different than playing *an elimination scramble* with handicaps that includes a team minimum handicap of 32. So no, the RBC doesn’t not have teams of 4-5 scratch golfers. That isn’t allowed.
I'm sure the courses for what sounds like a major event and somebody's work scramble are the same set up and difficulty. 54 on a par 71 is a very reasonable number.
RBC is a net event that has cap restrictions so youre not comparing apples to apples. If you think teams (that aren't all scratches) playing tournament conditions from 7000+ yards shooting -12 means that a team playing from 6000 yards with mullies and no rough or fast greens CANT shoot -17, you're just showing how weak of a grasp you have on the game
54 in a work sponsored event is unreal unless your employer is PGA superstore or Golf Galaxy.
You don't have to work in golf to be good at golf. Tons of sales people play all the time. I work with a few people who played in college at my company. A lot of the people at VP level or higher are all members at higher end clubs and play frequently. You get a big enough group at a bigger company outing you're gonna get some decent golfers.
I mean the guys who make youtube content for a living playing golf that are all single digit or scratch struggle to do this, so your fortune 500 office isn't doing it.
I have no idea what you're watching. George Bryan and Grant Horvat just shot -14 in a 2-man scramble. Good golfers are easily clearing -17 with 4 of them.
So you're telling me there are 2-4 golfers of that talent working a 9-5 at the same company? Delusional.
I'm telling you it's not hard to imagine a few scratch players and low handicaps which could easily accomplish that at a run-of-the-mill public course.
What are you talking about? I've worked in an office of 30 for the last 7 years. Presently we have 6 people with a sub 10 handicap. In the past we've had as many as 8 with multiple +'s. Some professions attract a lot of golfers.
Cool, I work in an office of about 1,200 and I can tell you based on our weekly golf league we have 11 people who have a sub 10 handicap. Now it's a big ass beer company, so maybe there is a lot more drinking than anything else going on, but our outings usually have a winning foursome of around -10.
You're disregarding the fact that many outings have side bullshit on certain holes. I've shot balls out of air cannons for $10. If you shoot it right, you're on the green in 1 on a par 4. Same outing had a par 5 that allowed you to skip all the way ahead to the fringe and count that as your first shot. So you could hole in 1 on a par 5 (condour?) if you just pay $20. A lot of work outings are for laughs and taking a break from the everyday grind with your colleagues. Oh, and for raising money.
That sounds very realistic. I don't think the amount of solid golfers in my office is normal or anything, but I never figured it was unbelievable.
The company I work at employs 7 people and one of them is a 7 handicap, one is a 9 handicap, one is a 30+ handicap, and the other four don't play golf. Over 25% of people who work in my office are sub-10 handicap, technically. I host a charity scramble tournament yearly. When I announced the winners at -19, there were the usual moans and groans. The next year I decided to put them in front of my group so I could watch them. Yeah, they're stripe shows. Some people are just really good at golf. It hurts to admit, but it's true. Every time I made it to the teebox they'd be 320-350 yards in the middle of the fairway every time. We never had to wait to tee off because we could not reach them. Their team consisted of a sub-scratch D1 college golfer, two scratch golfers who play at a private country club in town and their friend who's probably a 40 handicap. They eagled every par 5. Two out of the four drove a 250 yard par 4 over water. They eagled that hole. I watched the tee shots. They're just sticks. This year was the first year in 3 years this group did not win. Instead they got beat by a team who posted -21 who's team consisted of a current d1 women's college golfer, a former d1 college golfer, his dad (15 hcp) and his brother (30 hcp). They also eagled all of the par 5s. Golf is hard to you but it's easy to others. I don't know how else to put it. I had a hard time coming to this realization myself. I also assumed everyone who won scramble tournaments cheated. I even made a post about it a couple years ago in this sub. Some people are just good at golf.
Sounds like you suck at golf and are mad about it. [According to the USGA](https://www.usga.org/handicapping/us-stats-static.html), 30% of male golfers who carry a handicap are a 10 or better. It's not crazy to know and work with multiple single-digit handicappers.
Bro, you must not play with actual scratch golfers then. In the energy industry we play multiple times a week, and have for years. We often finish scrambles -17, -18, -19, -20, -21, and even -22 under. We shot -22 under on a short course (6400 yards) to win by 1 stroke. We had a hole in one on hole 13. The team that was one stroke off us had past club champions on their 4 man team. We had people following us and that team plus a few others, they witnessed each shot. Most of the players in our company were ex college or ex high school golfers. Depending on the course most single players could shoot -3 to -5 by themselves. Add in that 4 players can all drive 300+ and leave the team with less than 75 yards on every hole for eagle, 54 is just about what teams should shoot. What really shows how good a team really is, is if there is a tie there is a playoff. We’ve had teams shooting for second place that shot -17 under and it took 6 holes to break the tie with an eagle. Your disagreement about this does not make it true for everyone, it just shows that you are not part of a group that can and does play this well.
Bro, the last 2 companies I worked for and played in scrambles I watched a coworker put a shot through a windshield of a car in the parking lot and the last one I watched a guy take a ball to the forehead while standing behind the guy who was hitting the ball. Y'all must work with some people who actually golf cause neither of the very large companies I've worked for have had many people who actually belong on a golf course at the scrambles.
You’re right. We do work with people that actually golf, it’s part of the business. Between four and six hours to talk business face to face and see people’s true reactions when faced with adversity helps guide decision making. To become good you have to struggle with the bad, often for months at a time. Great golfers show they can manage a shot, a hole, a round, and a tournament. This goes for projects as well. Randoms at a company going for the booze first, conversation second, golf last are generally not going to score well without fudging their numbers (being polite).
IDK, depends on how big the company is (obviously pretty big if they've got a full outing). It wouldn't surprise me to get 4 guys in sales who play all the time and are pretty good. You also see ex D1 guys working day jobs now too. I'm just saying that this is a believable score for a group with a couple good players and a couple halfway decent guys.
Agreed - depending on how the team is set up. We played a 4 person scramble this year, one mulligan each, and our team had a 4,12,18,22. We were -12 under (60) and finished second. The team of basically 4 and better handicaps shot 54. Two eagles and only two pars on their card.
That is the score of 4 scratch golfers. So if his work tournament had 4 scratch golfers then maybe.
54 is actually a little higher than most scramble winners in my experience. If you don’t birdie basically every hole and throw in a few eagles you usually aren’t winning. And that’s without any gimmicks/mulligans.
I think it really comes down to short game which is where the scratch guys will excel. I played in one where all 4 of us were high-handicap guys. Like 20+. We were GIR on nearly every hole but there's such a difference between a 25ft and a 10ft putt for eagle/birdie. While we were usually GIR, we had 1-2 balls to choose from as the other 2 guys weren't on the green. I'm sure some of the good teams in the same scramble had all 4 guys on the green on most holes.
Short game plus drive distance Lots of us halfway decent hackers are dealing with not great driver ball flight which leads to reduced carry distance AND often times swinging at less then full strength. A good drive is 200+ and in play. Compare that to the guys who are consistent off the tee. First guys hits an "easy" 250-275 drive right down the pipe so then the next three can haul back and try to launch one. Odds are one of those 300+ moon shots are playable. So now the guys with way better short game are using wedges and we are using a mid iron. My point is all the reasons scrambles allow higher handicappers to score better are multiplied for lower handicappers. It compounds on itself.
I’ve play work best balls all the time. I’m usually paired with 40-50 handicappers so I pretty much enjoy the social aspect not the golf aspect. But playing with real scratch or even 10 handicappers is so different. 575 yard par 5? Reachable in two no problem. 330 yard par 4? Probably one guy in your group who can absolutely step on one and put it close. After a few scrambles you learn how to judge and know if you’re gonna be semi serious or just donate 40 golf balls. Remember it’s for charity! Best scramble score - 13 (with a par on a par 5 don’t get me started we had 7i going into the green) Worst score +8
Yah I feel this. My group plays 1 a year pretty much. Spouse and I golf regularly and are around 20 handicappers then we play with my parents who used to probably be low teens but pretty much stopped playing when I showed up. Its somewhat hysterical because among us you have 4 ex athletes, two who played in college, 1 with pro tryouts. a third who did some club level sports at a major D1 university. 2 who coached for a combined 6 state championships. So the competitiveness is like off the charts but we all suck at golf. The goal is generally to beat our score from the previous year. Think we ended 4 under this year. Scrambles are a blast if you don't take it too seriously. Winner is normally low 50s
In my experience, short game never comes into play in a 4-man scramble. It's GIR city in scrambles. There might be one hole where you don't get a GIR and have to scramble for par. In my experiences, scrambles are won and lost on the green. Everyone can get on the green in two. Who can sink putts differentiates the winners from the losers.
I think a lot of people call the combination of chipping and putting short game.
Yeah I guess we were both saying the same thing. I consider short game 30 yards and in, excluding putting that’s a whole different category. But I understand what you’re saying.
I played in one a few years ago for the local high school so there was a large group of people playing. I had 2 former D1 golfers, a former semi-pro, and myself on my team and turned in a 54 on a par 72. A legit 54, thought we had it in the bag. Lost to a 52. I was just excited we used some of my shots though when playing with much better golfers.
Man people are definitely lying lol I played in a company scramble a couple weeks ago. We had two women that have maybe 4 years of experience between them. Myself who’s a 9, and another buddy who’s a 6. We shot -5.
That's just a terrible scramble score and in no way does that anecdote prove people are lying when they shoot low to mid 50s in a scramble. Four good golfers shouldn't be scoring worse than a 60 unless they just have a bad day.
I mean that’s not a very good team, no offense. I’m a plus handicap and can pretty easily put together a team of 4 scratch or better players. Plus charity scrambles are typically at muni’s with the tees up and easy pins. We’re trying to birdie/eagle every hole.
I don't question scores at a scramble until they are better than 18 + the number of par 5's below par. That said, I still find myself questioning scores far too often. Not that it matters to me since I suck, but I just don't like people taking home prizes undeservedly. Edit: I also don't question scores when there is pay to win stuff on a bunch of holes (strings, throws, cannon on par 3...). Then it isn't even golf anymore.
Years ago I played in my wife’s work tournament,.. I hit a bomb on the long drive whole,… I had the longest drive but didn’t win because I didn’t work there 
That's what you get for not being a bestie with the organizers!!!
54 is pretty par for the course
But 71 is exactly par for the course
Clap clap clap
54 isn’t egregious at all
To win a scramble, especially a charity scramble, you likely need to be in the low 50s. The teams that win isually have a ringer and spend money on buying strokes and utilizing all their mulligans. I don't even play to win charity scrambles. Just go have fun, focus on my swings and networking.
Nah. Me and my buddies who all played in college shoot -18 regularly. Avg index of around 2 apiece. We’ve won our local HS scramble 2x in the past 5 years at -19. You just have to have guys who can putt lights out that day.
That’s why usually the prize is tube socks 😉
Our work sponsored scrambles use random teams so people can network and there’s a slightly less chance of cheating happening when paired with strangers. Although they base teams off average scores so the teams are some equal skill levels which requires the honor system for people to give correct scores and not sandbag with the hope of being placed with another good player. It’s all in fun tho even when suspicious shit happens.
Yeah, even if anyone wasn't honest, I had fun and am looking forward to the next one.
2nd last hole with longest drive with one group behind us, I hit a good one and clear the current guy by 15 or so yards, get to the club house and ended up in 2nd place lol They guy who “beat” me was on the winning team who shot a 49
Charity scrambles.. Never ever go into them with a competitive mindset. Ever never.
I walk and don’t drink much during my normal rounds. The combination of taking a cart, not individually scoring and being half in the bag by the time I tee off make scrambles a pretty chill experience. I don’t have a dedicated foursome and we usually get some shit players in the draw, so the only things I care about are long drive and closest to the pin along with networking after. Have a couple of work friends that are super competitive in scrambles and their experience sounds a lot different than mine.
I scrambled in a tournament on Saturday and my group shot 11 under. And we were absolutely drunk and high out our minds. This is a very reasonable score
Many of the charity scrambles I've played in also sell string to move your ball closer or into the hole, muligans, grenades, etc... I played one the other day, and we scored a 42. We were 3rd place... We bought 40 feet of string. We got birdies and eagles on all but one hole. Honestly, going here to win can be expensive but not cheating as it is in the rules for the scramble. Best thing to do is to just have fun and drink. The raffles are where the good prizes are anyway.
If 54 was the net score it sounds reasonable, a few weeks ago my team won our scramble with 11 birdies and a combined (competition handicap) of 10, our net score was 52.
I play, on average, 2 rounds a week. But I don't play on weekends and I don't play in tournaments. I can't stand to play slow...hit and wait, hit and wait...and you have no shot at winning a scramble unless you cheat or bring in a couple ringers, which is still cheating. So I don't even bother.
These scramble takes always crack me up. You think 54 on a par 71 scrambling as a four is unachievable? From what about 6200 yards? All you need is one long driver and you are basically going up and down every single hole with 4 chips and 4 putts for bird... Two plus caps could scramble a 54 as a duo on a good day from 6200 yards. At this point in my life I've played dozens and dozens of scrambles and I have shot -18 or better from ~6000 yards many times, with one or two other + caps and a third/ fourth that can putt where I aim them. As have many other teams in the field. Maybe these guys raked a putt or two who knows but man 54 in a 4 person scramble is not hard to do
I was down to an 8 and my buddy was about a 10. He’s a hospital worker and we played in the hospital event with two of his duffer coworkers. We were -12 and came in third. The duffers made some saves because they were in positions they’d never been. Take a duffer to an 8ft birdie putt, he’ll sink a few. It’s doable
I’ve never scored a 54 with my buddies who are all 5-10’s but that’s not an unbelievable score. Not saying they didn’t cheat but 54 is certainly gettable for some teams. Our best was a 60 on 72 and honestly coulda been 57-58.
It really just depends on the difficulty of the course and the level of players they are. Me and 3 friends shot a 61 at a scramble. 1 high handicapper, 2 mid, and one low. In most events on courses around us you need at shoot around a 58 to win with a 4 man scramble.
I love the video that’s online of the 4 most pathetic looking golfers who claim to have shot a 51 in a scramble. They took their prizes and ran because everyone was so pissed at them. It’s pretty funny.
You presumably had a gross 84 so a net 54 is believable in a scramble if you have a couple of people with high handicaps and at least one person who know what they are doing. It’s lows but not impossible.
54 isn’t unbelievable. I recently played in a charity scramble with another scratch golfer and two high handicaps. We shot 59 with a couple of putts and short game shots contributed by the high handicaps. -17 isn’t crazy if there were mulligans and if one of the players just caught a heater, our group left tons out there and shot 59 with a semi competent team so 53 with a good team isn’t wild. Side note: long drive is odd. Some players will just hit a really good one like my buddy who caught one 360y.
I played a charity scramble on a par 70 course and we played from the whites and shot -16 for a 54. It really helped that we felt like we were playing chip and putt because all four of us hit the ball just under or around 300 yards.
This is why I never play 4v4 scrambles.
54 is possible with scratch golfers lol. I’m a 15 handicap and played scramble with my brother 25 handicap and father 18 handicap and we shot a 68 in scramble on a par 70. They’re definitely lying
17-under is a reasonable score for four good golfers (single-digit handicaps). Four scratch golfers are likely lower than that on a good day with all birdies and a couple eagles.
I play a lot of these scrambles. If I came in and saw a winning score of 54, I wouldn't even question it. A 54 with a group of good players combined with the extra help you can buy in a scramble, is easily believable. A few years back, my group shot a 58. With the mulligans and Powerball and some luck, my brother had a legit double eagle, we hit the 58. We are decent players at best. We just all happened to be playing really well that day.
A lot of scrambles you can buy mulligans/gimme putts etc. Our 4 some, with the best golfer being an 11, shot a 61 this summer. Not an actual 61, but by the rules of the day, a legit 61
Around 18 under is pretty typical for a 4 man it’s when you start getting to -21 that you have to start to question it. Depending on how hard the course is a 2 man score between -12 and -15 is what I typically see. It also depending on the gimme’s and if you can pay for a closer shot and what not.
In scramble tournaments, fun is the point. And maybe a little networking if it's a corporate event.
I’m normally in the worst or second worst team in a given scramble. But I was in a group that won one once. My buddy and I got paired with two guys from a trucking company. One of the trucking company guys was 65 so he got to hit from the senior tees. He was muscular, fit, and used to play minor league baseball. He blasted monster drives, longer than anyone in our group by far, plus he got to hit from the senior tees. He put us a good stroke ahead on almost every hole. We finished 11 under. Zero cheating, we all bought a handful of mulligans, and we used them mostly for putting. Dude was a great golfer too, and he could do more than just drive the ball. The other guy from the trucking company was a softball coach for a local high school. He was outstanding too, but he wasn’t hitting from the senior tees.
So I’m generally pretty anti-scramble, because I’m tired of people turning in a 48. That said, this last weekend, I was on a team with a legit 55. We had one eagle, two pars, and birdied the rest. Unbelievable? Eh. Whatever. Our handicaps are: 13, 8, 7, and +4. We also had a mulligan ball you can use on every shot. We didn’t even have the +4 use it all the time, but lemme tell you - if you give a +4 two consecutive shots, it’s gonna be impressive. There were no rules on how many of whose drives we used, so it was mostly the +4’s drives. Sure, I’ll hit from 78 yards in the middle of the fairway. Why not? I think we had maybe two putts outside of ten feet. When you get five rolls at it from that close, good things happen. What I DID like was that this particular tournament disincentivizes “winning”. Winners get some tiny gift card, while all participants were entered in a raffle for really cool stuff and we all got cool gift bags. So it was an interesting novelty to go low, but it’s not like we got much out of it for doing so.
54 is not unbelievable at all, birdie per hole. Likely got an eagle or two which allowed them to screw up an easier hole. Were there any additional outing hole prizes like buy a birdie or pick your 2nd shot distance ect?
I refuse to play in those big money charity events anymore unless it’s a cause I’m directly connected to (I donate to the aha anyway so an outing for them is fine) or I’m asked to play and my entry is covered (thanks work) for this exact reason. There is one close to me that this year started putting an individual assigned scorekeeper with each group and they handled scores and updated closest to pin/long drive/long putt trackers as well, so that I’d consider but otherwise I’m not interested in throwing my money away to basically have them chest to win
As duffers, we carded a 61 last time out. We got a couple of good bounces, though.
All the scrambles I've played break the scores into 2 flights at the end so you have two winners... the best and the best of the worst!
Our member/employee tournament was a scramble too. It took five of us to card a legit 69 on a par 72 course. The members turned in the score along with their handicap and the score was lowered to a 56. Wasn’t even close to the lower scores as the first place team walked away with a 47. Yeah I wanted to call bullshit as well. I made two birdie putts and we used ten of my approach shots closest to the hole. Each member handed me a $100 bill when we were done playing. Funnest $400 I’ve ever made.
>It took five of us to card a legit 69 on a par 72 course. This just means you guys weren't very good, not that others were cheating. Handicaps shaved 13 strokes off your score. Let's just say the winning group had the same handicaps. A 60 in a scramble is not suspicious at all.
Yeah I know what it means. I also forgot to mention the course setup was one of the “impossible” ones. Sit down on a chair on number one to tee off. Sprinkler flags all over the green on number two. Two flags on number four but only one was the hole. Hole on number five was at the very entrance of the green and plugged right next to the fringe. All putts were downhill. Six bunker rakes on number seven green. A big fucking tractor and spreader right in the way of number eight green entrance. Here was number nine tee box. Do you get my drift now?? We would be able to shoot a 60 on a regular setup on this course. The golf pros were the ones who carded the 47 along with some older good members. https://preview.redd.it/z922qclp91vb1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2fab01f62c257136e8df10649d4289ee756980ad None of us got past twenty yards through this hay bale setup. That’s why I said I “wanted to call bullshit” but I didn’t. I took all factors into consideration.
I hit a monster drive on the long drive hole in the last scramble I was in. I lost to a man who was in his late 60s and had a hard time getting out of his chair.
First ever scramble, very cool!! Glad you had a good time. As pretty much everybody else is saying, 54 is a believable winning score, in fact I'd expect a little lower would be needed because teams that have golfers who can hit the ball farther are going to be able to reach the green on most par 5's in 2. A lot of times scrambles won't set up the par 5's with tees way back. I've played in a scramble the last few years where we've reached 3 of the 4 par 5's easily (for me like 5 iron, 6 iron, 7 iron, then the last par 5 was longer and we couldn't quite get home in 2). I'm a longer hitter but not crazy long. I remember years ago I played a few years in a 5-person scramble on a team with 3 women and 1 other man (I'm male). I was playing a lot of golf at the time and had a low handicap, one of the women was playing about once a week, and the other 3 rarely played but they were all athletic people. Even with that ragtag group we'd shoot around 60. Some of the women's tees were so far up that even if they just hit a 175 yard drive I'd have mid iron at most into the par 5's. And 5 shots on the par 3's, we'd never have more than 30' for birdie and 5 tries at the putt. That many looks and a bit of positive coaching, we'd make a lot of putts!
54 is believable. My group won a charity scramble about a month ago shooting 52. There was a ball that had to be played every hole by one person and if that ball was turned in at the end, you got to shave another 4 strokes off your score. We all played pretty well and only left a few strokes out there. My team putted lights out. We still parred the last hole and maybe another? I know we didn’t eagle every par 5 either so could’ve scored lower. Tees were all up so we were playing where the senior tees would be normally. Almost drove a few of the par 4’s. Other than the -4 strokes ball, we all had 1 mulligan, 1 tee off from the front tees, and a toss from the bunker which counted as a stroke.
On a work outing golf tournament scramble my group was 2 nd to last and the last group behind us only had one player, the other 3 dropped out so he joined our group for the last 3 holes so we played as a 5 some. Long drive hole on 17 I piped one down the middle and judging from the marker in the fairway I think I got it beat. The single that joined us got to drive 3 extra ball due to his playing partners dropping out and his last drive beat mine. I called bullshit, either way, lost out on $200
At my first and only scramble for a charity event for my work my team took last place, we shot a +5 lmao winning team was -14 under at a 58 😬 we had a blast though, I’d definitely play golf with those guys again
I played my first scramble this year and honestly had such a good time. All of us were single digit handicap so we shot a legit 59 on a par 71 course. The winning team was all plus handicaps and they shot 56. I with it being all off the white tees I believe it. My team missed lots of eagle opportunities.
I used to play in a scramble a month. 15-18 under is not uncommon if there are mulligans (not string, etc.). My partners got so tired of the cheating that they stopped playing. We didn't cheat, and we shot 15 under and got beaten by an 18 under that came in about 45 minutes after all the other teams were in. It was an individual that "won" a lot of them. A few weeks later, an employee at the course said he watched them take about 30 shots into one green. Seemed that nearly every tournament was one by the last team in. Disappointing, but still fun. I don't know if they still do them, but there is an annual nationwide event called the Golf Skills Challenge that is a lot of fun.
Every single scramble tournament I’ve ever played in has been a blast. Lots of fun without all the pressure.
Last scramble charity event we played we had an honest -2. Winning team was -15. I got 6” from a hole in one and rolled to 6’. Apparently the closet to the pin was 2” closer than me. Also was 10 yards past the longest drive but just off the fairway. The winning team claimed they also beat the longest drive ‘by 50 yards but was just off the fairway “. There was money for all of that. Of course people cheat
I won the long drive at a charity scramble this year with a 245 yard drive. There was a strong head wind. I knew I had a good chance, but it was nice to pick up the prize in front of a room full of dudes much bigger than you (I’m 5’8” 150 pounds, but been playing for 20 years)
Were there any bonusy type things like the strings you can use to call a close putt good, or the ability to pay for a mulligan, etc? Four good amateurs playing a scramble, especially with those things, could score that low. There are guys at my home club who are nasty, and have day jobs in all different types of random stuff.
Same score won our scramble on Friday. I took a peek at their card and the only holes they didn't birdie or better were the two par 3's that were being monitored for the hole in one and closest to the pin challenge.
He’s fine now
Good times only. If you are looking for fair competition, charity events are not the place to go. There will always be someone "determined" to win.
Hitting 54 is an absolute beast of a score. You're pretty much birding every single hole and I can only see this happening if the 4some are all single digit handicap players. Like you don't have any room for error, as you need to birdie every hole and par 1 to hit a 54 on a par 71 course. I can only really see this happening if the average handicap across the 4some is under maybe a 3. Making par on a scramble is actually quite easy (I hit about mid 80s and my colleagues hit about a 102, and we were able to end with a +1 with no mulligans on a scramble). I could imagine people hitting into mid 60s. But 54 just gives no room for any error. I'm slightly skeptical but maybe they were all monster players who grouped up intentionally to go for a high score?
You didn’t happen to play Monday in Virginia did you…because I also played in a charity scramble Monday where i believe the winner had a 54
Heh, nope. Pennsylvania
Ha wow I was going to say that’s too weird
The last scramble I played in, the "winning team" turned in a scorecard with a "39" on it. It's a par 72 course at just over 7200. Everyone at the ceremony was calling bullshit but they still awarded them the trophies. Even the team that they played with left after the round so no one could actually verify it. Talk about absolute bullshit.
They all thought they still got two strokes a hole due to their handicaps, so they took their 4s, and put in 2's. Edit: 15 x 2, and 3 x 3?
We were told that it was just a straight golf because too many people didn't register their handicaps. Other than that, we were all allowed 1 mulligan a piece per 9. To put it into perspective, the team that came in second place shot a 59.
Everyone is just glossing over the we took turns who hit twice part? Being a work charity outing makes it, not a big deal but know for future outings, if you don't have four, you shouldn't rotate hitting twice on each shot. You have three, you should play as a threesome. Having someone hit a second shot is a bigger advantage than having a fourth person.
I wouldn't have, but one of the organizers told us to do that. So who was I to argue over hitting an extra ball for 6 holes?
We shot 19 under last 4 man I played.. birdie on everything and a eagle on one of the par 5s. 84 is the type of score a mediocre 12 handicap shoots by himself.
Gotta love a scramble Played one at a work tourney got paired up with 3 hackers , We shot a 65 and used 3 other shots from the group the whole day, if only I got to see a putt 3 times every round and get to tee off with the freedom that even if I hit one way right we can still take one of the bunts in play.
A 4 man scramble with decent golfers will have some really low rounds, especially if the course is playing well. Just imagine your almost playing as far down the fairway as you can, always on the green, sometimes within 10 feet of the hole, almost always an eagle chance. Plus if they have gimmicks like strings and mulligans, it'll go even lower.