I'm a 90-100 golfer and don't really see the point in blatantly cheating to "win". It's one thing if you cut a 72 to a 68 and finish nowhere near the lead. But it's almost like trying to be an internet bad*zz. No one is falling for it.

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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.

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I like it.

A few thoughts/experiences:

-I play in about 10 scrambles per year. My team wins about 40-50% of the time, usually shooting between 55-59.
-The best performance I remember was last year, where we shot either 54 or 55 in a "shamble" with 2-4 mulligans per person (choose the best drive & play your individual ball in from there). I think the best score for one of my scramble teams has been 53.
-One year in the Houston Howdy Club tourney, our team was -10 thru 10 before getting rained out. It was cold (~50*)and rainy the whole round, and I believe we had 2 or 3 par-5s left (and only 1 par-3 left). The highest HC on our team was probably 3 or 4. Our 2nd putter had to go maybe 1-2 times, as we had multiple approach shots inside 5 feet on most holes. We were accused of cheating on TexAgs that evening after the tourney. A guy from the group behind us verified on TexAgs that we were long off the tee & stiff every hole.
-The cheating seems to be far less of a problem here in CO than it was in TX. My teams in CO have won many scrambles with -13 to -16. It seems like you had to break 55 to have a chance when I lived in TX, and teams would often turn in scores around 50.
-I actually do get annoyed if I have reason to suspect cheating. I think we shot -17 at a church tourney & lost by 2.... on a windy day, tough course, and tough pins.... to a team of a 2, 10, and two guys around 15. The course pro told me it was the lowest scramble score he'd ever seen on that course. The 10 was on the church staff, but I'd played with him before & he gave himself several putts that he missed in the 4-8 foot range.
-I think a friend helped me out once in the long drive at the company tourney. I hit kind of a crappy drive, but I expected it would still be enough to win. For the rest of the round, I got texts from co-workers about how I'm an animal to be able to hit it to 100 out on a par-5. I think my drive was about 170 out, so it appears someone picked up my stake & moved it way up.
-In the same work tourney, two guys in another group asked what we shot (as we headed to turn in our card). Suspecting they would pencil whip us, I said we shot 62 when we had actually shot 59. That group turned in 61.
-I think a scramble team of 4 pros could legitimately shoot -23 to -25, but it would take the right mix of players. The team would need a good mix of a couple bombers, wedge specialists, and a great putter. The 2 bombers increase their chances to have eagle putts on the par-4s & have wedges/short irons in to the par-5s. The wedge specialist ensures easy birdies & might even hole one out. The putter helps if you have some longer looks on par-5s or even tough par-3s. I think a team of Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Zach Johnson, and Tiger/Mickelson/Rory would be a good mix.

I use to win more events than not years ago. Now I am better and just laugh at the scores. Was in a tourney and had 2 48's posted. 48. Winning score should have been about 62... Course was tough.

String and mulligans need to be eliminated... Period!

If you are rewarding good prizes have a volunteer ride along with each group and keep score.

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

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I've been in a tournament like that. Trust me, the 6+ hour round isn't worth it.

Its already usually a 5 hour plus round anyway. Whats an extra hour? I like the volunteer thought. I wish people could just be honest. I love the three day 2 person tourneys as those are usually above board

Don't the pros in the Shark shoot out regularly shoot in the high 50's, low 60's in a two man scramble. This is on a legit course on TV! So I guess 4 of them could get to low 50's, but under 50 would be a real reach. That's just my opinion though.

47 isn't out of the question but it is pretty crazy. Get 4 scratch guys together and a lot of things can happen especially with 5 mulligans a piece. But I don't understand people that go to those things trying to win. Almost saw a fight at a two day 4 man scramble once because of a sandbagging accusation. Go have fun, and if it's for charity or a fundraiser and you win money give it back.

47??? No. I played with a former PGA player, a guy who could be a PGA player but is mentally weak. A +1 handicap and myself. We shot a 58 in a tournament Friday. We all missed a few putts and could went a few strokes lower but thats about it. Anybody that isnt on the PGA isnt going to put up a score like that without tons of mulligans. Even then I call bs.

[This message has been edited by Fordag4 (edited 3/16/2014 9:17a).]

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47??? No. I played with a former PGA player, a guy who could be a PGA player but is mentally weak. A +1 handicap and myself. We shot a 58 in a tournament Friday. We all missed a few putts and could went a few strokes lower but thats about it. Anybody that isnt on the PGA isnt going to put up a score like that without tons of mulligans. Even then I call bs.

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Damn, 58 is a really high score for 3 + HCs. I'm guessing it was a tough course, you guys played bad, and there wasn't a long hitter in the group.

No kidding. We had 3 or 4 pars that killed us. One guy started drinking Scotch and waters. Basically the PGA guy birdied about 7 in a row on his own. Even without that going lower then 53-54 would nearly be impossible.

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47 isn't out of the question but it is pretty crazy. Get 4 scratch guys together and a lot of things can happen especially with 5 mulligans a piece.

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47 you're talking about eagles on all par 5s and finding another three eagles somewhere on the course. Unless the course has a ton of short par 4s I just don't see how four guys could do it without string unless they were PGA players and on their A-game.

Question for proudaggie02 or any other posters who have a really good long game: if I gave you a straightaway par 4 that was about 300 yards, what percentage of the time do you think you'd hit and hold the green? Assume there's no trouble directly in front of the green.

^
I'd say I would hit the green 40-45% of the time & be really handy (within 15-20 yards of pin) 40-50% of the time. At sea level, 300 is a 90% 3w or a full 2h for me, so it's just a matter of hitting it straight.

In my last 2 rounds, ive driven 4 par-4s & been within 30 yards on 5 more... I played City Park about a month ago & drove all 3 par-4s in the 325-345 range. Also, I hit 2h to 15 feet on a 320 par-4 this past weekend at Fox Hollow.

^we can never be friends

speaking of scrambles, anyone doing the SEC scramble in Austin at Avery Ranch?

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In my last 2 rounds, ive driven 4 par-4s & been within 30 yards on 5 more... I played City Park about a month ago & drove all 3 par-4s in the 325-345 range. Also, I hit 2h to 15 feet on a 320 par-4 this past weekend at Fox Hollow.

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can we ban this clown. he's making us feel bad about our golf games.








j/k...kinda

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speaking of scrambles, anyone doing the SEC scramble in Austin at Avery Ranch?

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Pretty sure I'll be there again this year. And I fully expect to get pencil-whipped again.

I couldnt imagine hitting my 3w 300 yards. I think the most I've ever gotten out of mine is around 260 or so - and that isnt common.

I was on a team that shot 48 (-24) a couple of years ago, and it's the best scramble score I've ever seen without string, etc. Our handicaps ranged from +2 to +4, and the course was played from forward tees, maybe 5500 yards.

We were hitting short irons or even wedges into par 5s, and quite a few drivable par 4s. We birdied every hole, eagled every par 5, and the same guy actually chipped in twice from just off the green on 2 of the short par 4s. The funny part was that we only won by a shot or 2 ahead of 2nd and 3rd place, and I know there were no other teams even in the same realm as us.

nm

[This message has been edited by Jack Daniels (edited 3/17/2014 10:28a).]

Four guys of that caliber playing a 5500 yard course I could see it as feasible. What course was it?

HOUaggie-

We are getting a team together, we just plan to drink and play.

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-One year in the Houston Howdy Club tourney, our team was -10 thru 10 before getting rained out. It was cold (~50*)and rainy the whole round, and I believe we had 2 or 3 par-5s left (and only 1 par-3 left). The highest HC on our team was probably 3 or 4. Our 2nd putter had to go maybe 1-2 times, as we had multiple approach shots inside 5 feet on most holes. We were accused of cheating on TexAgs that evening after the tourney. A guy from the group behind us verified on TexAgs that we were long off the tee & stiff every hole.

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I was on this team. We had 3 plus handicaps and I was the worst and was about a 4 at the time We were 10 under through 9, birdied everyhole and eagled our only par 5. We would have shot 22 under that day before it got rained out. Everyone accused of cheating that night and no way could we have done that. Well we were play from up tees, with a long drive guy, 3 plus handicaps and one almost scratch on an easy course. I'm pretty sure on one hole we also lipped one out from about 70 yards out, almost making us 11 under through 9 only playing one par 5.

The Cy-Fair A&M Club has a 4 man scramble coming up on April 11th at BlackHorse. $125 per player and includes Dinner catered by Carrabba's, a boxed lunch and drinks. You can register by going to http://www.cyfairags.org/golf-tournament/

I've played on a few teams with no mulligans strings etc and have shot -16 to -18 with players like myself (upper single digit handicap)

It's not so much the cheating that bothers me with scrambles. I'm a 5 handicap, and I've reconciled that scrambles include both cheaters as well as players that are better than me - who drive it further, putt better, etc. I'm bothered more by the fact (1) they're damn near an all day event with the 5+ hour rounds and activities surrounding them and (2) not playing my own ball, especially when the tournament is on a private course that I don't typically have access to otherwise (so I'd love even more to just play my own ball).

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not playing my own ball, especially when the tournament is on a private course that I don't typically have access to otherwise (so I'd love even more to just play my own ball).

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I'm the same way. My teams are always terrible because none of us are even single digit, so I know we won't even come remotely close to winning, ever. So on nice courses I'm always suggesting that we just play our own ball and write in a 72 so that I can experience the course in an authentic way, but no one ever wants to.

String scrambles are stupid. A team shouldn't shoot a 49 and be out of the top 3.

Another one I played in (non string) a team shot 53, with an LPGA player, who played the ladies tees on an already ridiculously short course.

Saw two 53s & two 55s at Montgomery County A&M today. They did turn one par five into a par three and sold ten mulligans a person. Our 57 did not sniff...should have bought more mulligans. But still a great day on Walden.

I would think that, even for professionals, getting below 50 would be very difficult. Assuming you have driveable par 4's you are still asking one of them to hit a 300+ drive within 25 feet or so and making the putt.

I like scrambles because they get me out of the office and give me a chance to work on the game during the middle of the week. I probably play in 10 or so a year. There is always the competitor in me that wants to win them. But I am usually the best player on the team and everyone else is 10+. We do occasionaly win.

On a side note, and I know I have told this story before, but one of the best displays of golf I have ever seen was in a shamble(where you take the best tee shot and everyone plays there own ball in) at TPC Las Vegas a few years ago. We were paired with Jay Don Blake who had won the Senior Tour Championship at Harding Park the day before. It was a 2+ club wind. He was playing from the tips and we were up so we took most of my drives. We had eight approach shots from 70-100 yards and he birdied seven of them. He hit every shot, no matter where the wind was coming from, with either a 9 iron or a PW. The longest putt he had was probably eight feet. I have played a few rounds here and there was some pretty good players including touring pros but I have never seen anything like it. I actually took something from that and now hit a lot of those shots with a PW in windy conditions.

My team won an oil/gas tourney at BlackHorse last week with -14 on the North course. I was pretty surprised we won because we lipped out several putts & were not very good with our approach shots. I was consistently 330 and got it up over 350 a few times (had to make sure I won the long drive).

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I would think that, even for professionals, getting below 50 would be very difficult. Assuming you have driveable par 4's you are still asking one of them to hit a 300+ drive within 25 feet or so and making the putt.

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Even on a par 72, they only have to make eagle on 1 par-4, assuming they eagle the par-5s and birdie everything else. With the short game of 4 pros, they're probably chipping a couple short ones in or draining a 25-footer. I think it's probably a coin flip and depends on the mix of the team, but it would be interesting to watch.

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I was consistently 330 and got it up over 350 a few times (had to make sure I won the long drive).

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Which hole did they put it on?

^
11. I hadn't played it in years, but I remembered I always hit it through the fairway to the right. So I played a nice draw that I believe caught the hill on the left side of the fairway and trickled down to the middle.

Montgomery County A&M at Walden on Conroe yesterday had two 53's, two 55's. They did turn one of the par 5's (#11) into a par three. The moral of the story is to buy more mulligans. Overhead the second place team saying they bought ten each...but no string.

Good cause - fun course - only beetch is have something besides fried chicken for dinner or go to Popeye's, damn that was greasy...