2 Man scramble is a refreshing change

[MtlJeff]

My group has an annual 2 on 2 grudge match, where we do 6 holes of best ball, 6 holes of scramble, and 6 of alternate shot

 

It's a lot of fun.

[Hellstorm]

I am playing in my first 2 man scramble this weekend. I am really looking forward to it, not because me or my partner are that great, but because I think it will be a lot of fun. They do it every year and it's a tough job to get into the tournament because it fills up fast. I am hearing that 2 or 3 under seems to win it every year with one exception being a 65 a few years ago.

I have branched out a lot this year with formats. I played my first one man scramble a few weeks ago and I really liked that. It was a lesson in how playing more conservative can bring the scores down and make the game a little more enjoyable...except when you put the ball in the hazard on two shots in a row.

[Stonewalled]

Our men's league is a 2 man best ball weekly. Me and my partner enjoy the format, playing with a different group each week adds to the fun, 99% of the time. Our average for the weekly 9 is +3 so we are in the middle of the pac in the first flight. Our end of the year 18 hole tournament is always fun to play in weather permitting. We were partnered up with the team one place in front of us in the standings. One fellow is very nice and quiet and the other has done and seen it all and can't seem to shut up during our time to hit. Lots of gamesmanship going on from him as well, we had some laughs but I was very glad when it was all said and done. My partner and I had 7 birds but ended up -3, they were -2 for the day but I didn't want them complaining that they lost to us so I made sure the scores were tied after 18 holes.

 

My partner and I usually have no shot at winning so we just go out and play and have fun, we were quite surprised that -5 won the day. We left a few shots out there so we were thinking hey we will definitely have to try a little harder next year. Hopefully with a different 2 some to play against.

[Mudguard]

I have changed clubs and they have a two man ambrose (scramble) each Friday for nine holes. It will be interesting to see how it goes as I've only every played in four man versions. I think there are couple things that get done differently to improve an experience in a scramble. Play in two teams, so that you're not marking your own card, I mean it's a long day, the eight doesn't make it that much worse. Or for just a four ball a really good rule I've seen is, whomever's shot was taken, cannot play the next shot. Unless putting. So it kind of rules out having a low marker and taking all their shots.

Either way you know it's a crap shoot. I played in one with two pros, and two single figure handicaps, we were 18 under off the stick and lost by two. It's just the way it goes.

[driveandputtmachine]

I have played in a ton of 4 man scrambles. I have played in some with another low or scratch guy and two guys around 10 handicaps and shot 10-13 under. Biggest thing is how long of a course you are playing.

 

One time it was myself and three other college players one of which was a lady from UNC. We shot 20 under and there was no pencil whipping, she could hit it 265 off the tee and she played the women's tees and the guys played the whites and there were numerous par 4's that we drove and all four par 5's we hit mid to short irons into.

 

The problem is when someone sees a tournament with a stacked team like this and then decides that they want to win with a bunch of 9-10 handicappers and they pencil whip the scorecard. We saw the team in front of us two putt a ton of times never reach a par 5 in two and turned in an 18 under scorecard.

[Mych]

> @driveandputtmachine said:

> I have played in a ton of 4 man scrambles. I have played in some with another low or scratch guy and two guys around 10 handicaps and shot 10-13 under. Biggest thing is how long of a course you are playing.

>

> One time it was myself and three other college players one of which was a lady from UNC. We shot 20 under and there was no pencil whipping, she could hit it 265 off the tee and she played the women's tees and the guys played the whites and there were numerous par 4's that we drove and all four par 5's we hit mid to short irons into.

>

> The problem is when someone sees a tournament with a stacked team like this and then decides that they want to win with a bunch of 9-10 handicappers and they pencil whip the scorecard. We saw the team in front of us two putt a ton of times never reach a par 5 in two and turned in an 18 under scorecard.

 

The problem is that the groups who cheat make it hard to believe it when people shoot a legitimately low round. I have no problem losing (even getting pummeled) if I feel that everybody's scores are legit. That was much easier for me to believe in the 2 man scramble format than in the 4 man scramble format.

[Naptime]

Lots of fun. We often do it in our own foursome for a dollar Nassau. Keeps everyone in the mix. We basically pair the high/low vs the mid/mid. Individually we are all around 90-100 most of the time, but it was nice to shoot 74.

[nova6868]

The thing that really kills me in 4-man pencil whipping is the putting. When the winning score is 18-20 under (outside of lady bomber as described above) you're basically claiming that the 4 of you made every single putt that you looked at.

 

Assuming the average putt length is about 15 feet that is about 20% for professionals and what for amateurs? 10%? So with 4 tries at it and knowing the line the team could maybe make 50% of those putts? I'm even skeptical about 50%. I think most of the cheating happens on the greens - "We could have made that one, mark us down for a birdie."

 

[mci711]

My wife and I play in a bunch of 2-mans. I'm a mid single digit and she is a 0.5 hdcp. Having a girl that can hit it 240+ off the tee in a 2 person scramble from the reds is a great advantage.

 

The club I used to work for we ran 3 man scrambles and had them paired with another group. It was quicker than the charity tournaments that ran in 4s even though it was technically a 6 and you had another team keeping your score.

[driveandputtmachine]

> @Mych said:

> > @driveandputtmachine said:

> > I have played in a ton of 4 man scrambles. I have played in some with another low or scratch guy and two guys around 10 handicaps and shot 10-13 under. Biggest thing is how long of a course you are playing.

> >

> > One time it was myself and three other college players one of which was a lady from UNC. We shot 20 under and there was no pencil whipping, she could hit it 265 off the tee and she played the women's tees and the guys played the whites and there were numerous par 4's that we drove and all four par 5's we hit mid to short irons into.

> >

> > The problem is when someone sees a tournament with a stacked team like this and then decides that they want to win with a bunch of 9-10 handicappers and they pencil whip the scorecard. We saw the team in front of us two putt a ton of times never reach a par 5 in two and turned in an 18 under scorecard.

>

> The problem is that the groups who cheat make it hard to believe it when people shoot a legitimately low round. I have no problem losing (even getting pummeled) if I feel that everybody's scores are legit. That was much easier for me to believe in the 2 man scramble format than in the 4 man scramble format.

 

Much easier in a 2 man event because, hopefully, the pairings are random. People are less likely to cheat when someone they don't know is also playing against them in the same group. I even mentioned at the scorers tent about the group in front of us two putting constantly and not hitting a single par 5 in two and turning in an 18 under scorecard. I asked the guy in my group, "how does a group that never birdied a par 3(the waits out there were horrible so we saw them play each par 3) and never hit a par 5 in two shoot 18 under?" One of the guys on that team was standing there and took offense. Like hugely took offense, so I offered to settle it easily, all eight of us could meet and we could exchange numbers and we could go out and play for $1,000 or $5,000 as an eight-some with both foursomes playing the same captains choice format if he was so positive that I didn't know what I was talking about and that my team had cheated and were just mad that they legitimately shot their score. Yes he accused us of cheating, which is the first thing a person who didn't cheat would do, LOL. He got more upset and left the scoring area and the head pro writing the scores on the board laughed and said, "well I know one of the guys in that foursome and he is a legitimate 18+ handicapper and he likely only contributed on a chip or possibly a putt, it's pretty obvious that they pencil whipped their score, but I cannot do anything about it."

[driveandputtmachine]

> @nova6868 said:

> The thing that really kills me in 4-man pencil whipping is the putting. When the winning score is 18-20 under (outside of lady bomber as described above) you're basically claiming that the 4 of you made every single putt that you looked at.

>

> Assuming the average putt length is about 15 feet that is about 20% for professionals and what for amateurs? 10%? So with 4 tries at it and knowing the line the team could maybe make 50% of those putts? I'm even skeptical about 50%. I think most of the cheating happens on the greens - "We could have made that one, mark us down for a birdie."

>

 

Yeah in that tourney we chipped or pitched to almost every par 4( I think there were 4 or 5 that we hit a "full" shot into. We had 3 bombers on the team and one guy that was a short game genius. We had 5 eagles that day, 3 on par 5's and 2 on par 4's. One was a chip in and the other a 30 footer, the par 5's all were within 15 feet, two of them were kick in's. We also had a par on 3 of the par 3's(5 on the course) and two par 4's. We could have eaisly scored lower had one of us hit a few closer on some of the full iron shots.