Scrambles - Love 'em or Hate 'em

[Petunia Sprinkle]

I love them. The goofier, the better (like the AR-15 'ball launcher' hole - see pic).

 

[naws-golfer]

^that is fun.

 

scrambles are kinda crappy for accomplished golfer tho

[BillyZ2]

I have said it before and I'll say it again, the word scramble originates from a latin word meaning "to cheat".

[oldmotor]

I have said it before and I'll say it again, the word scramble originates from a latin word meaning "to cheat".

 

How true! But I do enjoy playing in one or two a year.

[BillyZ2]

I have said it before and I'll say it again, the word scramble originates from a latin word meaning "to cheat".

 

How true! But I do enjoy playing in one or two a year.

I agree, as long as a person understands the purpose of a scramble, and that's to have fun and maybe raise a little money for charity. When a group shoots 11-under par and gets beat by 15 strokes, you got the wonder.

[LeoLeo99]

I love scrambles. I'm part of a stacked team so we usually shoot 16 to 20 under.

[Petunia Sprinkle]

^that is fun.

 

scrambles are kinda crappy for accomplished golfer tho

 

As a beer with friends sucks for the professional drunk.

[Matt J]

Hate 'em. Rather not play than wander around for 6 hours fluffing lies.

[BigUnit68]

They used to be great. 20+ years ago before Mulligan's became a mainstay in these events.

 

I play a half dozen or so a year because I get invited to them by some business colleagues or clients and just go for the social aspect of it. I usually use it as practice time as well.

 

You need to go into them with a completely different mindset than any other golf event or you'll be miserable.

[Usedtobezylem]

For a tournament I am focusing on trying to win, I hate scrambles. But there are 5 charity tournament a year I would never miss that are all scrambles. When I play in charity tournaments I really could care less who wins to be it's all about the cause and playing a fun round of golf with 3 of your friends. Plus I have won some of the dumbest door prizes in these. I think a lot of it has to do with attitude. Club member/guest hell yeah I want to win I paid to compete, Charity scramble "where's the beer girls?"

[Bonneville85308]

I hate scrambles. I only play if it's a private course I otherwise couldn't get on, and then only if I know the people in the group and can convince them to ditch the format and we all just play our own balls. Seems like much of the field is cheating, and locally there is a group of guys that enters pretty much every charity scramble there is and somehow wins them all with some crazy low number.

[eebomb]

Scrambles are what they are, plain and simple, this summer i was asked to play in one by a friend, with two other guys from the area i only sort of knew. Tournament was at my home course and there was a skins game, the two guys i didn't know were half in the bag after the front 9 and were actively wanting to cheat to win a skin to get some money back. I was not interested in doing so and it made the last 5 or 6 holes very awkward.

 

At a 12 i was by far our number 1 man and we only finished like -5 or -6 so miraculous eagles and birdies on the last few holes may have looked a little suspicious...

 

We do however have a 3 man scramble from the absolute back tees on our course with all the toughest pin locations on the course where your matched up with another team of 3 and the payouts are pretty large so everyone plays seriously and certainly doesn't cheat, if up to me that plus maybe one normal 4 man scramble would be all i'd play in a normal season.

what ways did they want to cheat? Ive never been part of a team wanting to cheat but i know that it happens alot in scrambles. So is it like everyone misses a putt and u say oh that was good or what?

[zzyzxx33]

I don't mind them as long as I have a fun group.

[Ivyguy]

A group of buddies and I are doing the work scramble championship thing. Sure, it's nice to have something to look forward to and talk about. But it's more about having a good time and hitting some memorable (good and bad) shots.

[cvvorst]

/start rant

 

I figured this was a good place to vent about scrambles...

 

 

I played with a few other guys today (two of them WRX members) in a scramble put on by a local gym. I didn't really expect to win, as I know someone always comes in with an unbelievable score. Well, we do ok. Not great, but not terrible. I never really thought we had much of a chance, but watching the group ahead of us and the group behind I felt good that we were beating them very soundly. That is until I find out after the round that the group in front of us ended up winning.

 

As this was a scramble that took over 5.5 hours, I watched a lot of their shots. They had one decent player that could hit a decent drive maybe every other hole. I'm guessing he averaged 250-270ish. He managed to somehow hit one well over 300 on the long drive hole of course... I watched the rest of the group average one or two lost balls on the tee every hole, sometimes it seemed all 4 were OB/in the thick stuff. I also got to watch a lot of long putt attempts and even some chips. So, it was a shock that they turned in such a low score. What makes it even worse is that I know for sure that they cheated on at least one hole. The tie breaker for 1st place was hole 13. We watched their group hit their tee shots, and we watched them all miss the putt for birdie. After the last guy putted and missed, his teammate hit his ball back into the hole for par. Well, they mark down a birdie. I watched them again on 14, a short par 4 that was playing really far up. My friend and I hit hybrids to the green/over it (the guys in front of us hit drivers to 5 yards short of the green, remember this is the guy that got the long drive well over 300) While waiting for the green to clear, we watched them all chip, and proceed to walk up and pick up their balls to not even tap in (I assume they were close enough to call it a tap in) I am nearly sure they marked down eagle on that one.

 

 

The prizes at this were things like putters, wedges, and drivers. So decent stuff. But I cannot believe the nerve of some people.

 

 

I don't know what I really expected....

 

 

/end rant

[rcain1us]

Scrambles are designed to get people who don't know how to play golf or play 1-2 a year to shell out too much money for green fees and a bad buffet in the name of some charity.

 

The charity and the bar usually make out, the golf course usually gets beat to s***.

 

I played the day after a scramble one Sunday last year and found 4 clubs on the same hole

[DWitt]

I love scrambles but always go in with the mindset of not winning but usually am able to guess within 1-2 strokes of the winning score from playing the round. But like others have said on here, the scrambles are usually for a good cause and that's why I was there, support and to have fun. I actually have one tomorrow to raise money to provide dental hygiene for people who are less fortunate.

[VJCLERC]

Any good formats that limit the less honest players in winning it???

[eddiebigeddie]

Put 2 teams on a hole! Only way to get correct honest scores

[cvvorst]

I've heard of some tournaments that have a high school golfer following each group and keeping score.

[Cwing]

Bad for golf game. Can be fun time with the right crowd.

[dan360]

Like just about any other concept in humanity, great idea, ruined by humans…

[EvanScottKing]

I just played in my first foursome scramble this last weekend for a friend's wedding tournament and had a lot of fun with our group. The groom, myself and another family friend all play off the same relative level, between 9-12 handicap, and our group was rounded out with the groom's cousin who works as an assistant pro at a golf course who plays off +2.0 (Yes; our team was stacked considering most are weekend warrior types, but so was father-in-law's group who the real competition was with out of the 11 foursomes)

 

Wound up being a great afternoon with quality company and equally good beer/booze. The 9 under, 63 that we turned in wound up being good enough to win and the next groups were 7 and 6 under respectively. Guess from what others have said above, we had a pretty honest group of people out playing. Perhaps just the cause behind the tournament was enough to keep people from going crazy with the scorecard.

[dlygrisse]

I've heard of some tournaments that have a high school golfer following each group and keeping score.

I played in one once and they a volunteer riding with each group keeping score. It was a good idea but if our volunteer (60 year woman who knew nothing about golf) was like the rest the cheating still went on. We could have told her any number and she would have believed us.

[Stetson]

I will attempt to keep my thoughts concise:

 

- For fundraising purposes Scrambles are a necessary evil. You wont get 120+ people on the course playing their own golf ball

- Cheating is the norm, no matter what state I play in the cheating is blatant

- I play poorly in scrambles, I played in one last week and the long drive swing on every hole was an epic disaster... go out on Friday and Saturday to play a normal round and viola 76 and 78. Crazy how that works

- Good excuse to get my dad, uncles, etc on the course

 

Any good formats that limit the less honest players in winning it???

 

I played in one last year where 8 people played each hole, and you kept the other teams score. This is pretty close to honest, the only way to make it better is if the hole designation was done by random draw in front of the crowd.

[sgsst18]

I love to play in one every year, but never more than one. The pace of play is just too slow for me but its a blast to rip driver every hole and fire at every pin.

[Stetson]

/start rant

 

I figured this was a good place to vent about scrambles...

 

 

I played with a few other guys today (two of them WRX members) in a scramble put on by a local gym. I didn't really expect to win, as I know someone always comes in with an unbelievable score. Well, we do ok. Not great, but not terrible. I never really thought we had much of a chance, but watching the group ahead of us and the group behind I felt good that we were beating them very soundly. That is until I find out after the round that the group in front of us ended up winning.

 

As this was a scramble that took over 5.5 hours, I watched a lot of their shots. They had one decent player that could hit a decent drive maybe every other hole. I'm guessing he averaged 250-270ish. He managed to somehow hit one well over 300 on the long drive hole of course... I watched the rest of the group average one or two lost balls on the tee every hole, sometimes it seemed all 4 were OB/in the thick stuff. I also got to watch a lot of long putt attempts and even some chips. So, it was a shock that they turned in such a low score. What makes it even worse is that I know for sure that they cheated on at least one hole. The tie breaker for 1st place was hole 13. We watched their group hit their tee shots, and we watched them all miss the putt for birdie. After the last guy putted and missed, his teammate hit his ball back into the hole for par. Well, they mark down a birdie. I watched them again on 14, a short par 4 that was playing really far up. My friend and I hit hybrids to the green/over it (the guys in front of us hit drivers to 5 yards short of the green, remember this is the guy that got the long drive well over 300) While waiting for the green to clear, we watched them all chip, and proceed to walk up and pick up their balls to not even tap in (I assume they were close enough to call it a tap in) I am nearly sure they marked down eagle on that one.

 

 

The prizes at this were things like putters, wedges, and drivers. So decent stuff. But I cannot believe the nerve of some people.

 

 

I don't know what I really expected....

 

 

/end rant

 

Hey! I played in that tournament! The group in front of me ended up winning, what a coincidence! Frustrating to say the least. The best part was after the round while eating (CVVorst had left) and they asked me what our score was, when I told them they had blank stares on their face, then exchanged an "oh s***, we may have got carried away" look. They were pissed when they didn't win the long drive in the fairway prize, they didn't deserve it but they still called the winner a cheater lol

[the bishop]

Hate. Thanks for asking. I limit myself to one per year. Anytime I play one I'm reminded of the airing of grievances during Festivus. "I've got a lot of problems with you people!" It's also the only time I'll ever drink during a round.

[Yanki01]

I go to a few that are sponsored annually - I won't pay to enter in one though. i don't take them too seriously, free drinks and food. some of them have some nice goodies. the one time I got a group half sponsored - we won a price which in essence won our money back and some.

 

the ones i go to sometimes change it up and won't go based on lowest score = winner. they'll change it up and won't announce what the winning format will be until all groups are finished and score is up. sometimes top prize is random # drawn from a hat. smaller prizes would be lowest score on certain hole # drawn from a hat (draw hole #6 and whomever got the lowest score on that one, wins. multiple winners would redraw the hole until someone wins).

[GTgolf]

I play in 1-2 per year. Usually charity type stuff I'll buy a 4some for the good cause.

 

But, cheating is out of control. Scores, long drives, etc.

 

It's pretty much a joke.