Scramble

The scramble — called A Go-Go in Mexican clubs — is the format behind the overwhelming majority of corporate, charity and end-of-season tournaments. There is a good reason for that: it is the only format where somebody who took up golf last month can genuinely enjoy all eighteen holes.

The mechanic: everyone on the team tees off, the best ball is chosen, everyone picks up their own and plays again from that spot. Repeat until it is holed. The team turns in one score per hole.

How to play it, step by step

1. Build teams of 2, 3 or 4. Spread the abilities: a long hitter, someone solid with irons, someone who can putt.
2. Everyone tees off. Walk up, look at all four balls and decide as a team which position is best — not necessarily the longest one.
3. Mark that ball with a tee or a coin. Everyone else picks up.
4. Everyone plays their next shot from there, within the agreed distance (the standard is one club length, no closer to the hole, and no changing surface: if the chosen ball is in the rough, everyone plays from the rough).
5. Repeat on every shot until somebody holes out. That is the team’s score for the hole.
6. On the green, mark the exact spot with a ball marker and everyone putts from there. As soon as one player holes it, the hole is over and the rest do not putt.
7. Add up the 18 holes.

Golden rule of the scramble: the best putter goes last. The earlier putts give away the line and the speed; your best putter banks all that information and then executes with a complete read.

Rules that prevent arguments

Agree these on the first tee, because they cause ninety per cent of the disputes:

• How far you can place the ball. One club length is standard. On the green it is an exact ball-marker placement, nothing moved.
• Do not change surface. Rough to rough, bunker to bunker, fairway to fairway. In a bunker, everyone plays from the same bunker without raking away the chosen lie.
• Minimum drives per player. Almost every tournament requires each player’s tee shot to be used at least three or four times per round. Without this rule, a team uses the long hitter’s drive eighteen times and everyone else contributes nothing.
• Playing order. Agree whether you hit in a fixed order or freely. Free is faster; fixed stops the best player from always going last “for safety”.
• Where you putt from. Mark the exact spot of the chosen ball with a coin and each player places their own ball there.

Team handicaps

Because a scramble produces very low scores, the team handicap is a heavily reduced percentage of the individual handicaps. The most common formula for teams of four is:

Player	Weight of handicap
Lowest handicap	20%
Second	15%
Third	10%
Fourth	5%

With handicaps of 6, 12, 18 and 26 the team allowance would be 1.2 + 1.8 + 1.8 + 1.3 = 6.1 strokes for the entire round. That sounds like very little, and it is: a well-built scramble team shoots eight to twelve under gross without breaking a sweat.

Other common options are 10% of the combined total, or simply playing gross and awarding only the overall standings.

Strategy: where a scramble is won

• Send the weakest player first on the tee. No pressure, and if they stripe one, the whole team plays loose.
• The best ball is not the longest one. A shot 100 yards out with a clean angle beats one 60 yards out behind a tree.
• Use your “free” shots. Once one ball is safely on the green, the players still to hit have nothing to lose: send them at the flag.
• Go for par 5s in two. With four attempts the odds that one gets home are very high, and eagles in a scramble are routine.
• The worst putter rolls the long one first. That is free information for everyone else.
• Par 3s are where scrambles are lost. Four shots at the green and all four miss: that bogey hurts twice as much here.

Common variations

Texas Scramble. The same, plus a mandatory minimum number of drives from each player. It is effectively the tournament standard.

Ambrose. A scramble with the team handicap calculated as a fraction of the combined handicaps. Very common in Australia and at charity events.

Florida Scramble (or Step Aside). The player whose ball was chosen sits out the next shot. It raises the score and forces the whole team to participate.

Shamble. A hybrid: everyone tees off, the best drive is chosen, and from there each player plays their own ball as in Best Ball. It is the best format for an event that wants to be sociable but still measure something real.