Group Shoots an *unbelievable* 46 in scramble

[dugue4]

4 hours ago, Mr. Bean said:

On 12/12/2022 at 5:23 PM, b.mattay said:

I never played baseball but have a decent arm and can chuck a golf ball about 125 yards.

 

Really? That would be admirable as a golf ball is very light to throw. Besides you would easily break your shoulder when trying.

 

Go out and try and come back and tell us how far you did throw it. Measure carry only. On a rock hard fairway rollling a ball might be easier than trying to make it fly far aloft.

Yea I call BS on that too...

[Obee]

These stories always crack me up. I have been looked askance at many times over the years as my foursome walks up and claims the winners trophy with scores that are usually 18 to 24 under depending on whether there are strings, throws, mulligans, etc.

Most people who haven't played a four-person scramble with four (or even three) scratch/below golfers on an easy golf course just have no idea. with ZERO extra "stuff" thrown in our scores would always be 16 - 19 under. Our best was 25-under on a par 70 with string, etc. in the mix on a course playing 6000ish yards and a long drive champ teeing off on a hole, etc.

I posted this here before, but one particular time we were 21-under at a legit course (Journey at Pechanga), and afterwards, the guys who came in second cornered one of my buddies in the bathroom and gave him all kinds of s***. My buddy was a little guy, but a legit +3.

THEM: "You guys are so full of s***. Let's go play for some cash, you liars!"

MY BUDDY: "Sure. $5,000 a man sound good? Let's tee it up right now..."

And he wouldn't back down. "Let's go. Right now. We're ready."

And that was that.

The worst handicap on that team was a 1, and that guy had pitching yips, but he drove it and wedged it like a tour pro back then. The others were all competitive plus-cappers, myself included. And two of us were huge, f@t@sses, so we didn't "look" like we could play golf.

The moral of the story (and this thread): Lots of people who think they know golf (and scrambles!) just ... don't.


 

[b.mattay]

4 hours ago, Mr. Bean said:

 

Really? That would be admirable as a golf ball is very light to throw. Besides you would easily break your shoulder when trying.

 

Go out and try and come back and tell us how far you did throw it. Measure carry only. On a rock hard fairway rollling a ball might be easier than trying to make it fly far aloft.

Have a par 3 at my course I can throw it on the front edge from the white tees in the air. Carry is about 112. Adding in 10-15 of roll gets to 125. 
 

Not trying to derail the thread, was just pointing out if you get an actual baseball guy on the team the throw could be even further and be a huge advantage. 

Edited December 14, 2022 by b.mattay

[dugue4]

1 hour ago, Obee said:

These stories always crack me up. I have been looked askance at many times over the years as my foursome walks up and claims the winners trophy with scores that are usually 18 to 24 under depending on whether there are strings, throws, mulligans, etc.

Most people who haven't played a four-person scramble with four (or even three) scratch/below golfers on an easy golf course just have no idea. with ZERO extra "stuff" thrown in our scores would always be 16 - 19 under. Our best was 25-under on a par 70 with string, etc. in the mix on a course playing 6000ish yards and a long drive champ teeing off on a hole, etc.

I posted this here before, but one particular time we were 21-under at a legit course (Journey at Pechanga), and afterwards, the guys who came in second cornered one of my buddies in the bathroom and gave him all kinds of s***. My buddy was a little guy, but a legit +3.

THEM: "You guys are so full of s***. Let's go play for some cash, you liars!"

MY BUDDY: "Sure. $5,000 a man sound good? Let's tee it up right now..."

And he wouldn't back down. "Let's go. Right now. We're ready."

And that was that.

The worst handicap on that team was a 1, and that guy had pitching yips, but he drove it and wedged it like a tour pro back then. The others were all competitive plus-cappers, myself included. And two of us were huge, f@t@sses, so we didn't "look" like we could play golf.

The moral of the story (and this thread): Lots of people who think they know golf (and scrambles!) just ... don't.


 

Did yall play it out?  I need the details.

[Mr. Bean]

1 hour ago, b.mattay said:

Have a par 3 at my course I can throw it on the front edge from the white tees in the air. Carry is about 112. Adding in 10-15 of roll gets to 125. 
 

Not trying to derail the thread, was just pointing out if you get an actual baseball guy on the team the throw could be even further and be a huge advantage. 

 

Respect.

[Obee]

1 hour ago, dugue4 said:

Did yall play it out?  I need the details.

Of course not. When you call out idiots and challenge them to put up $$$ or shut up, they (virtually) always back down.

[charli]

Have been some interviews about this event. Hey had like 8 mulligans and 5 throws which don’t count as strokes. Supposedly one guy that was there pounded driver and them playing at 6000 yards helps. This is what the guy said in the interview with mrshortgame. Even if it were true seems a bit fraudulent. But they didn’t make a hole in one on a par 4. Hit a big drive and threw it in. 

[Schulzmc]

They also mentioned in the interview that when someone complained to the assistant pro he pointed out that his own group had shot 48 the previous year under the same rules so he did not see a problem with the 46.

[Double Mocha Man]

Drunk scrambles are fodder for the internet.  I once read about 4 hackers who shot a 52 and won the tournament.  The next year the head pro followed them around and they were 4 over par.

 

When it comes to scrambles do not believe everything anything you read.

[cardoustie]

“Real” cash scrambles play in eight somes 

[MtlJeff]

9 minutes ago, cardoustie said:

“Real” cash scrambles play in eight somes 

 

"Cash Scrambles play in 8-somes" is the name of the adult film i starred in while in college. I was the lead, Cash Scrambles. 

[cardoustie]

Isn’t your porn name your middle name and the old street you lived on ?

 

that makes me Nielsen Foxtail. !

 

in an epic twist I did live on a Goodram St from 1973-1980

[mshills]

On 12/12/2022 at 3:49 PM, jholz said:

Nice to know that my Alabama detector is still working reasonably well.

 

So good. I am now wearing my cup of coffee. Thanks. 🤣

Regarding the throw…a strategic toss is a great hustle to add to a 1:1 match, but I don’t see it having much value in a four-man scramble. 
 

I play in one scramble per year, only because I was good friends with the person for whom it is a memorial. Otherwise, a scramble is rarely “golf.”

[SE Gamer]

17 hours ago, charli said:

Have been some interviews about this event. Hey had like 8 mulligans and 5 throws which don’t count as strokes. Supposedly one guy that was there pounded driver and them playing at 6000 yards helps. This is what the guy said in the interview with mrshortgame. Even if it were true seems a bit fraudulent. But they didn’t make a hole in one on a par 4. Hit a big drive and threw it in. 

 

Listening to that whole discussion, I'm at least open to the idea it could be possible given the rules they played under. 

And on that Par 4 (IIRC), they hit a good drive, threw it to a couple feet. Then used another throw to hole it out. So by the scramble rules, the only "stroke" that counted was the tee shot.

 

Think they also said they played from the whites (6,000 yards). So that's a pitch and putt track if you've got a player or two in the group who have reasonable distance. 

 

Only scramble I played in this year was a straight up event. Only nuance was that the tees you played from were based on age. Funny thing is that we had a guy playing from the senior tees, yet still used my tee shot from the tips on like 12 holes.

I hover around scratch. Next best in the group was maybe an 8. Other two were somewhere around 15s. We shot 58. I carried the team, but we ham and egged it well. And we left at least 2 strokes on the course. Pars on the last two from less than 70 yards out. 

Throw in 8 mulligans and 5 throws? A 46 could have been doable. Did these guys do it legitimately? Maybe. The context of that interview did make the idea of it far less egregious. 

[ArtMBgolf]

If you listen to the interview, where the guy describes how every throw and 
mulligan saved a stroke, it sounds possible.   He also sounded sincere.  
  
I was also thinking cheating, if a normal scramble.  

[nsxguy]

Wellllllll, if you don't play scrambles regularly, read Obee's post - or this one.

 

I watched some of the video posted earlier; kinda scrolled through some of it, so forgive me if I'm missing some detail.

 

So the players handicaps were 6, 7, 9, & (not sure). The not sure, I believe I heard, was a big bomber and not much else.

 

Until 5 years ago I hardly played in scrambles. My club, on outings 5 times a year, would play 18 holes best ball and then a 9 hole scramble. 7 under is the best I can recall for the scramble.

 

Anyway, 5 years ago I started playing in a regular Saturday scramble, coincidentally from about the same yardage as this one being discussed; around 6000 yards.

 

I'm the only single digit regular in the group, at least half the group is over 65 AND over a 20 'cap. I'm a 7. A younger guy, around 30, who plays maybe 5 times a year might be a 4. Winning score is often 10-13, occasionally a shot or 2 higher or lower.

 

A few months ago the young guy(4), myself, a bomber (maybe 14 'cap) and another older guy (maybe 14 'cap also), played together, at a charity(?) event, and shot 53,-19. And lost on a count back. We had 4 eagles (1 on a par 4), 11 birdies and 3 pars. On the 3 pars we made, we had ~8-10 feet for birdie. So I could easily have seen us at 50, -22.

 

Now that was a straight up scramble with a worse(?) overall combo 'cap than the guys that won this event, and in THIS event they had, as someone finally pointed out, 8 mulligans and 4(?) "throws". I've never played with those items so I never really tried to figure out how many shots it could save. Offhand I would think 4 might be about right.

 

The only 2 really unusual things about this winning score of 46 are the albatross and the HIO on the par 4. So, -6 on 2 holes where birdie would've given them -2 on those 2. So, 4 "extra" shots saved. Turns our "shoulda been" 50 into a 46.

 

Given the short length of the course, all 4 par 5s were likely reachable in 2, and with short to mid irons. With mulligans and throws one could easily see 4 or 5 shots saved.

 

So, could it happen ? Sure. Don't see why not.

[munchies2x]

4 hours ago, nsxguy said:

The only 2 really unusual things about this winning score of 46 are the albatross and the HIO on the par 4. So, -6 on 2 holes where birdie would've given them -2 on those 2. So, 4 "extra" shots saved. Turns our "shoulda been" 50 into a 46.

 

Agreed with everything you said.

 

About the HIO on the par 4, I think his explanation make sense (check Mr. Shortgame interview). The Bomber hit the drive quite reasonably close to the hole on par 4 (this is happen quite often on short par 4 hole, so quite believable). They use 1 free throw to get it close to 3-4 feet and then they use another free throw to hole it. If the rule doesn't forbid a player to reach out when using their throw, any adult can reach out to 3-4 feet and drop the ball into the hole, no skill required.

 

I couldn't remember what he said about the albatross, but should be similar to the above.

[SE Gamer]

On 12/25/2022 at 3:23 AM, munchies2x said:

 

Agreed with everything you said.

 

About the HIO on the par 4, I think his explanation make sense (check Mr. Shortgame interview). The Bomber hit the drive quite reasonably close to the hole on par 4 (this is happen quite often on short par 4 hole, so quite believable). They use 1 free throw to get it close to 3-4 feet and then they use another free throw to hole it. If the rule doesn't forbid a player to reach out when using their throw, any adult can reach out to 3-4 feet and drop the ball into the hole, no skill required.

 

I couldn't remember what he said about the albatross, but should be similar to the above.

 

Albatross was basically the same thing. Last hole of the day. Reachable par 5. They had a couple mulligans left, and used them for some additional approach shots to the green. Someone stuck it close enough to drop another "throw" in the hole. 

 

If you've never played in this sort of scramble before (like me), the score sounds like absolute BS. But the hindsight of now knowing all the additional advantages at their disposal, and it's not that far fetched. 

[Colin L]

I don't get the seriousness of much of this. 

 

A standard scramble gives a team the  choice of 4 choices for every shot. That's  the basis of the format and the obvious reason for scores way lower than you would get in singles or better ball played to the rules.  If you  add in the likes of further mulligans, throwing the ball,  holing a 4 foot putt by picking the ball up and dropping it into the hole (really?), ropes and whatever other weird and wonderful ways you can dream of that will  lead to even lower scores,  the further you take the game from actual golf.  And the further from normal golf you go, the less you can make comparisons with normal golf, begging the question of the standard against which the likes of a score of 46 is being judged.  How can anyone say that's a ridiculously low score when the whole set up is ridiculous?    

 

In short, the more of a  pantomime you make the format, the less the scores will reflect anything to do with actual golf.  But so what?  If you set something up  to be absurd, to be a laugh  enjoy the absurdity and the laughs and forget reality.  That's what pantomimes are for.  Oh yes they are.

 

[An afterthought:  I do get the seriousness I suppose.  It's to do with money isn't it?]

Edited December 27, 2022 by Colin L

[rogolf]

7 hours ago, Colin L said:

I don't get the seriousness of much of this. 

 

A standard scramble gives a team the  choice of 4 choices for every shot. That's  the basis of the format and the obvious reason for scores way lower than you would get in singles or better ball played to the rules.  If you  add in the likes of further mulligans, throwing the ball,  holing a 4 foot putt by picking the ball up and dropping it into the hole (really?), ropes and whatever other weird and wonderful ways you can dream of that will  lead to even lower scores,  the further you take the game from actual golf.  And the further from normal golf you go, the less you can make comparisons with normal golf, begging the question of the standard against which the likes of a score of 46 is being judged.  How can anyone say that's a ridiculously low score when the whole set up is ridiculous?    

 

In short, the more of a  pantomime you make the format, the less the scores will reflect anything to do with actual golf.  But so what?  If you set something up  to be absurd, to be a laugh  enjoy the absurdity and the laughs and forget reality.  That's what pantomimes are for.  Oh yes they are.

 

[An afterthought:  I do get the seriousness I suppose.  It's to do with money isn't it?]

My standard reply for such exhibitions - award the low score a sleeve of balls, saving the significant/valuable prizes for draw/door prizes where everyone has an equal chance of winning them.

[bobfoster]

On 12/27/2022 at 11:09 AM, rogolf said:

My standard reply for such exhibitions - award the low score a sleeve of balls, saving the significant/valuable prizes for draw/door prizes where everyone has an equal chance of winning them.

Actually, I played a charity best ball in November. They had a unique solution. The foursome that finished 8th would be awarded the  top prize. Totally randomized things. Completely messed with the scammers and sandbaggers. They couldn't game the system. 

 

Reminded everyone from the beginning that the purpose of playing wasn't to win stuff, but to support the charity.

[Steele47]

3 hours ago, bobfoster said:

Actually, I played a charity best ball in November. They had a unique solution. The foursome that finished 8th would be awarded the  top prize. Totally randomized things. Completely messed with the scammers and sandbaggers. They couldn't game the system. 

 

Reminded everyone from the beginning that the purpose of playing wasn't to win stuff, but to support the charity.

 

Love it.  Brilliant!

[nsxguy]

On 12/28/2022 at 2:25 PM, bobfoster said:

Actually, I played a charity best ball in November. They had a unique solution. The foursome that finished 8th would be awarded the  top prize. Totally randomized things. Completely messed with the scammers and sandbaggers. They couldn't game the system. 

 

Reminded everyone from the beginning that the purpose of playing wasn't to win stuff, but to support the charity.

 

So what was the point ?

 

Why bother playing golf ?

 

Might as well pick the winners out of a hat and save the greens fees.

[Double Mocha Man]

46 minutes ago, nsxguy said:

 

So what was the point ?

 

Why bother playing golf ?

 

Might as well pick the winners out of a hat and save the greens fees.

 

nsxguy... I think you missed this point:  "Reminded everyone from the beginning that the purpose of playing wasn't to win stuff, but to support the charity."

[nsxguy]

9 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

 

nsxguy... I think you missed this point:  "Reminded everyone from the beginning that the purpose of playing wasn't to win stuff, but to support the charity."

 

Ahhhhh, OK. Good point.

 

So why not just contribute the $$$ to charity, pick the "winner" out of a hat, give them the Pro Shop credit, and save the greens fees ?

[Double Mocha Man]

Just now, nsxguy said:

 

Ahhhhh, OK. Good point.

 

So why not just contribute the $$$ to charity, pick the "winner" out of a hat, give them the Pro Shop credit, and save the greens fees ?

 

But don't you still want to play a round of golf, with friends?

[nsxguy]

Just now, Double Mocha Man said:

 

But don't you still want to play a round of golf, with friends?

 

Sure, but when I do, the winners are actually the team/player with the best score; not the xth best score.

[Double Mocha Man]

Just now, nsxguy said:

 

Sure, but when I do, the winners are actually the team/player with the best score; not the xth best score.

 

You do know that scrambles are rife with drunken cheaters, don't you?  Not you, but others.  Go play for the fun of playing...

[nsxguy]

1 minute ago, Double Mocha Man said:

 

You do know that scrambles are rife with drunken cheaters, don't you?  Not you, but others.  Go play for the fun of playing...

 

Not gonna happen.

 

I don't take the club back unless there's some $$$ on the line.

[rogolf]

1 hour ago, nsxguy said:

 

Not gonna happen.

 

I don't take the club back unless there's some $$$ on the line.

Then don’t play in scrambles where the group with the sharpest pencil usually wins (not based on their golf skills).   The events are most often meant for fun and contributions to a charity. Low golf scores should not be a significant achievement nor recognized as such.