In a typical scramble what's the best score you've seen. I've played in hundreds of them over the years where I've seen anything from low 60s to low 50s win. Well I played in a local one last weekend where 2 teams turned in 47s. The head pro at the club was laughing at their audacity.

Were there any gimmicks involved? Mulligans? String?

To shoot a 47, even with mulligans and string, would be an amazing round of golf. You're talking about getting a birdie on every single hole, an eagle on every par 5, and still finding three more strokes somewhere by driving a par four or stuffing a shot to within a couple of feet to use string so you can call it good.

Not impossible, but it would take a group of four really good players all on their A-game.

You could buy 5 mulligans and that was it. The course was a fairly long course, the wind was brutal, the course was wet, and the fairways had no roll. According to the pro, the previous best turned in for their course was a 53 during good weather.

He called total BS on the two groups.

I say with no string a 47 is borderline impossible even for a group of four PGA players unless there are several driveable par 4s on the course.

i played in a scramble late last year with a scratch player, two mid-high single digit players, and a mid double digit player. we each had a mulligan and had 3 2-foot pieces of string total. We turned in a legit 52 (took a par on the first hole not wanting to "waste" any mulligans on the first hole, and took a birdie on one of the par 5s) and figured we won the tournament. we finished 5th. There was a 48, 49, and two 50s turned in.

i would say 47 with no string is BS every time on any kind of legit course.

I'd have to agree with Bagger. That's effing laughable. I don't know how some people are so blatantly straight-faced doing **** like that.

What exactly is string though? Equivalent of "inside the leather?"

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We turned in a legit 52

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and if you ask all the other guys who finished ahead of you... their scores were legit too

yes, but it can be used incrementally. if you hit your 4 birdie putts, miss them all, but the closest one finished 6 inches from the hole, you cut off 6 inches of string and you now made a birdie.

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and if you ask all the other guys who finished ahead of you... their scores were legit too

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I know, we did ask the guys who shot 48. while the three drunk guys were all very vocal about how legit their score was, the sober guy was strangely quiet and avoiding eye contact

my dad played in a "string" scramble many years ago, they used the company credit card and ended up with something like 300 feet of string. Never made worse than eagle and still freaking lost.

We finished 2nd in the Corral Club Rodeo tournament a few years back and the winners played in front of us. At one point it got backed up where 3 groups were on the tee box. When it was the turn of the group in front of us (the winners) all four players hit in the water. It was a drivable par 4 with water carry or you lay up short of the water. They all took a mulligan and hit in the water again. They drove off and hit a ball from the middle of the fairway.



[This message has been edited by aggiedent (edited 3/10/2014 10:34a).]

I've seen a 52 turned in before. The best I've ever been involved with was a 68. We're all 15-20 HC so we thought that was pretty good.

Pencil whipping a charity scramble (all the ones I have played are charitable) seems odd and immature.

The best part of scramble tourneys is the raffle and long drive/closest/straightest etc. But, inevitably, people cheat those as well.

Cody
Fightin Texas Aggie c/o 04

When I saw the scores in my first 4 man scramble I got all bent out of shape. After that I realized the scores posted were common for 4 man scrambles so I just laugh now. That's why prize money is not given for winning.

I played in two tourney's this last summer and I won the long drive for one of the events. Of course the prize for the event I won was a stinking trophy. The guy who won the other event received a putter. Go figure.

On my home track, playing from the whites (6100 yards), four PGA pros with 5 mulligans each could probably shoot a 47. No trouble getting birdies on all holes, no problem with eagles on any par 5s. One par 4 is only about 250 yards so I think they could easily eagle that one. There's a straightaway 300 yard par 4 where they could get another eagle. Another short par 4 where they probably would get another eagle. Beyond that you're counting on them holing out from the fairway which is not common for even the absolute best in the world.

I bet if you had an entire field of PGA players in a four-man scramble format, I bet the winning score would be a 45 or 46.

Lowest I've seen is like 54 or 55, and these weren't even that serious of tournaments, except for a couple of those teams with a couple scratch's and a creative pencil.

I've been part of some low-60's when none of us were better than a 10 handicap. Last one I played in, laughed at the honesty of one team, which turned in a 78.

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I bet if you had an entire field of PGA players in a four-man scramble format, I bet the winning score would be a 45 or 46.

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Par 72, and they shoot 8-9 eagles with the rest birdies. Say they eagle all 4 par 5's, they still need 4-5 eagles from the par 4's and/or hole-in-one's on par 3's... I think even with the top 4 in the world playing a scramble that would be borderline impossible without mulligans or string. Even doing that from the whites would be extremely impressive for pros. Just my opinion though.

I was saying with 5 mulligans apiece one of the groups might have gotten that low.

Here's my course:


I'd say birdies on everything no problem. Longest approach on the par 5s would be about 230 with a 300 yard drive (and someone would probably get in the fairway early and allow the other guys just let it rip). Plus they'd get to show each other the line on the putts so no trouble with eagle on the par 5s.

14 is basically a long par 3 for them at only 250 yards, so another eagle there. 5 would be drivable with no trouble in front of the green so they'd be putting or chipping for eagle there as well. So that leaves them with chips or pitches close to the green on 1 and 16, plus short wedge shots on 4 and 13. Plus they'd all be able to fire at every single pin.

So if you had 20 or so groups of pros, all with five mulligans each I could see one group with eagles on all the par 5s plus 5 and 14, and then holing out with a wedge on a couple more, especially considering a couple of those holes they'd likely be pretty close to the green and basically just chipping.

But yes, 46 would still be PGA Tour level pros on their absolute A-game, even with mulligans. I bet most foursomes would end up low 50s.

^ wouldn't happen

Scrambles have gotten ridiculously out of hand.

20 years ago I had fun with 'em but today I'll only play in one if they pay me a $2500 appearance fee and have Jerry Seinfeld or Mac O'Grady in my foursome.

Which means I won't be playing in one again.

I like playing them, I've just accepted I'm not going to win. It's fun to go drink and try to pull off one in a million shots. Many organizers have gotten to where they give crap prizes for "winning" and all of the good prizes are raffle type stuff. That's the way to go.

I agree, its a joke to "compete" in these anymore. I'll save all 5 mulligans for the cart girl.

I've only played in 2 scrambles in my life. The first was the Engineering Career Fair tournament, where my group shot 59 and won it. We actually won by 2 shots, so I guess everyone there was pretty honest.

The second was last week at my company golf tournament. We shot 63, and the winners shot 61. There was one hole where you could pay 20 bucks and you tee off from 175 out on a par 5.

I've always heard of ridiculously low scores, but I guess I've been fortunate to have mostly honest people play in the ones I've played in.

I have played in quite a few since i am in insurance it seems that i always get into body shop games or charity tourneys

i was in a fire fighter golf tourney and we actually won it with a 64 i thought we would be in 5th or 6th.

ANother one at Twin creeks we shot a 59 (i had a guy that was on some web.com tourneys and another guy that was a scratch) and thought we would win we tied with 4 ohter teams and the first place had a 49 after turning in the scorecard last and 30 mins after everyone else.

Third one we lost bad with no muligans and ALOT of jack daniels we shot like a 70 but i was on the range with the team that shot a 50 and they all apparently worked out all the shanks and dribbles by the time they got in thier carts.

I hate them if i go to win so we just drink and play now and have fun.

[This message has been edited by jrod05 (edited 3/11/2014 8:04a).]

Even 4 pros would not shoot a 47 on your course, bagger.

Man I guess I'm just overestimating the pros' ability.

I just figure that four pros could possibly get to -22 without using any mulligans at all. Even looking at the longer putts they might be left with on par 5s they'd all get looks at the line from the other people. Also considering there is one par 4 that's only 250 and another that's 300 with no trouble in front of the green, I think those are two more very good eagle opportunities. Certainly with five mulligans per person they could eagle both of those, right? A field of 20 teams wouldn't have one team bat 1.000 on those six eagles and have one hole out on one of those other short par 4s?

A few years ago Golf Digest or Golf Magazine did a story where they had a pro go out and play a muni course from the whites or blues to see how low he could go. I think it would be cool if they did the same thing with a group of four pros playing a scramble with a few mulligans to see how they would do. It would be cool if they really only managed to put up something in the low 50s. Then organizers could have a copy of it and hand it to teams who turn in 46s and say "are you SURE that's the scorecard you want to turn in?"

Oh I'd love to see it too. I would love to see all kinds of things where we make people in different areas of life perform for us like monkeys. My buddy and I always talk about that.

I hate playing in these things to win. Wish the course would start putting 2 teams on each hole to limit the cheating

Had a similar situation last year, playing the cascades in Tyler, 4 man scramble from the back tees, each player has two mulligans.

Someone turned in a 51.

I know 51 seems somewhat doable but the conditions were terrible, very windy and about 45 outside.

I know cool story bro but I just think this sort of thing happens all the time.......sadly

i'm a pretty average golfer and wound up in a scramble where we just had four average guys and no ringer. we wound up shooting 73 (1-over), which i honestly felt pretty good about.

we wound up finishing in last place. but the organizers were apparently tired of all the antics that have been discussed in this thread, so the best prize they gave away (a golf bag) went to the last place team. i think first prize was an umbrella.

in that same tournament, the "long drive" was
over 450 yards.

i stopped caring about anything but drinking beer and having fun in scrambles a long time ago.

Best tournament prize I ever saw was given to second to last place. You can pencil whip a first place, and you can throw the tourney, but it's hard to finish one up from last place.

Cody
Fightin Texas Aggie c/o 04

If I was a tourney organizer, I'd have some borderline gag gifts for anyone turning in a sub-50 round. A t-shirt that says "I could be playing on tour but I'd rather hustle charity scrambles" or something.

The real answer is what most people said which is just don't give out good prizes for first place.

Replace the 1st place trophy with a "Best Cheater" trophy!!!

Was in a tournament yesterday for a charity event with my company.

Winners turned in a 54 and I was baffled. The course was incredibly wet from a week of rain. I just can't see anyone shooting a -18.