Just thought I would report on a scramble without cheating. Two mulligans per person available for purchase, one piece of string per team available for purchase.

1st place: 53
2nd place: 55
3rd place: 58

Played one last Sunday at high meadow ranch. Each person could buy 1 mulligan and a ball to throw. There was also a lpga pro hitting your drive from ladies tee box on a par 5.

1st: 54
2nd: 57
3rd: 58 (us)

The heavens unleashed on us right as we threw 3 darts onto the 18th hole( hole 1). We were about 5 feet away and were draining everything inside 10. Had 1 mulligan left and just left the birdie out there and took the par.

A piece of string for purchase? That's a new one to me.

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A piece of string for purchase? That's a new one to me.

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Probably varies but I've usually seen it as a single payment for a set amount, but some places may charge you per foot up to a certain amount.

Buy the string, let pretend it's a 25 feet per team max for the tournament. So you get on a par 3 green, we will say 15 feet away for bird. You cut off 15 feet and give it to one of the tournament workers and place your ball 15 feet closer to the hole (in the hole, for this example) now you just got a hole in one. Can do this as much as you want until string is used up. So to continue the example next par 3, you are 25 feet away, you can use up the remaing 10 feet and now your birdie putt is a 15 footer.

Again, just my experience so it could be different but they usually only let you use it on certain holes (par 3s) where they will have someone watching that hole and taking up your used string.

String was on the honor system and apparently was not abused.

Only about a foot and a half of string, though. We used one piece of string to call a close chip on a par 5 an eagle and on two birdie putts nobody made it but we had someone leave it right on the edge and used a couple inches each time for that. I think most people used it the way our team did.

What would you estimate 1.5 feet of string to be worth in terms of score reduction? Maybe 3 shots?

Assuming 3 shots, 56 is still a pretty low score for 2 mulligans/person. That would win 50%+ of the scramble's I play in. -14 won 3 of the 5 scrambles I played in this year that weren't rained out.

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A piece of string for purchase? That's a new one to me.

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Probably varies but I've usually seen it as a single payment for a set amount, but some places may charge you per foot up to a certain amount.

Buy the string, let pretend it's a 25 feet per team max for the tournament. So you get on a par 3 green, we will say 15 feet away for bird. You cut off 15 feet and give it to one of the tournament workers and place your ball 15 feet closer to the hole (in the hole, for this example) now you just got a hole in one. Can do this as much as you want until string is used up. So to continue the example next par 3, you are 25 feet away, you can use up the remaing 10 feet and now your birdie putt is a 15 footer.

Again, just my experience so it could be different but they usually only let you use it on certain holes (par 3s) where they will have someone watching that hole and taking up your used string.

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Got it. Thanks.

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Just thought I would report on a scramble without cheating.

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I am unfamiliar with this oddity. I heard that they existed, but have never seen (played) one.

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What would you estimate 1.5 feet of string to be worth in terms of score reduction? Maybe 3 shots?

Assuming 3 shots, 56 is still a pretty low score for 2 mulligans/person. That would win 50%+ of the scramble's I play in. -14 won 3 of the 5 scrambles I played in this year that weren't rained out.

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We played from the whites and it was a pretty easy course. We had a good mix of guys and shot a 58 (without the string would've been a 61) and we definitely left three or four shots out there. We got a par on one of the short par 3s, we were out of mulligans and all missed the green on #3 and got a bogey, and none of us were putting particularly well so we only got three strokes out of our eight mulligans.

I feel like a good scramble team could've definitely shot 17- or 18-under without string if they made some putts.

I played in a tournament in Wyoming that was handicapped with string. If you were a 13 hc, you got 13 ft of string. 1 ft was worth a stroke.

While I was still on active duty, stationed at FT Hood, I played in a scramble for wounded warriors at Cottonwood in Waco. The foursome I was in shot an honest 56 to win the tournament. We had one player who could bomb his drives and he won both of the longest drive holes. One player who was great with his irons. Another player who didn't miss a single putt the entire round, and also won the longest putt. All I did was win the closest to the pin, hitting my old 7wood to within a foot of the hole.

Played a scramble at Crystal Falls in Leander this past weekend, two mulligans per team and 10 feet of string. We played great and shot a 56 (-16) and ended up in 5th. This was no easy course by any means, many tough putts. The winning team miraculously shot a 48 (-24). I guess I shouldn't expect anything less in a tournament full of sips.

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Played a scramble at Crystal Falls in Leander this past weekend, two mulligans per team and 10 feet of string. We played great and shot a 56 (-16) and ended up in 5th. This was no easy course by any means, many tough putts. The winning team miraculously shot a 48 (-24). I guess I shouldn't expect anything less in a tournament full of sips.

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Cheating.

I REALLY wish that a group of PGA pros would play a typical muni course with some common scramble rules just to see what they could shoot. Would make for a very interesting Golf Digest article.

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I REALLY wish that a group of PGA pros would play a typical muni course with some common scramble rules just to see what they could shoot. Would make for a very interesting Golf Digest article.

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Yes plz.

played in a tournament a few weeks ago. no handicap adjustment, no mulligans, no string, one "tiger drive" hole and a lot of wind that day. the winning team turned in a 50, with a par.

the tournament coordinator actually scoffed as he read the winning score and other guys outright boo'd them as they walked up to win their $15 target gift cards or whatever it was.

48! Christ- don't make it too obvious. Holy crap.

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Played a scramble at Crystal Falls in Leander this past weekend, two mulligans per team and 10 feet of string. We played great and shot a 56 (-16) and ended up in 5th. This was no easy course by any means, many tough putts. The winning team miraculously shot a 48 (-24). I guess I shouldn't expect anything less in a tournament full of sips.

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This is possible, but the team would need a combo of at least 1-2 scratch-level golfers, 1 guy that could hit it over 300 yards with above-average accuracy, and 1-2 good putters (lag putting would be critical). Bagger05 said that 1.5 feet of string helped his team by 3 shots, so 10 feet would really help a team.

I just charted a scramble where my team shot -14 (no mulligans or string); we'd have shot in the -23 to -25 range with 10 feet of string. For reference, our team was a +1, 2, 10, and 30. It was a pretty tough course (Powder Horn in Sheridan, WY), but two of us were on with our drivers & also hit a few great approach shots. Hit every par-5 in two, and we were on/within 15 yards of 4 par-4s.

Assuming you played the one-ups a Crystal Falls, the par-5's are 470, 480, 490, and 535. A good team with string is probably playing the 5's around -9 or maybe -10 . Assuming a 320 drive, that's 3 chances to hit one tight from 150-170 for a 2. There's also 3 par-4's under 335, so it would be doable to play those 3 holes at -5.

I've never played string, and I don't really want to.

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I REALLY wish that a group of PGA pros would play a typical muni course with some common scramble rules just to see what they could
shoot. Would make for a very interesting Golf Digest article.

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Steve Marino did that a while back. Let me see if I can find the article.

Edit: Here it is.

Steve Marino takes on a muni

I remember seeing that. Basically confirmed what a lot of people have always thought. At a typical muni a PGA player would probably never shoot high but wouldn't shoot in the 50s either because of conditions.