How to play a scramble in golf: rules, scoring and team strokes

A scramble is a team game where everyone tees off, the team picks the best shot, and every player hits the next shot from that spot. You repeat that until the ball is in the hole and write down one score for the team. The lowest team total wins. Nobody’s bad shot ever counts, which is why mixed groups love it.

It is one of the fun golf games that works for any group, and the format most charity outings use. It also works for your usual foursome as two teams of two. A 12-player group is several scramble teams, such as three teams of four, and the lowest team total wins.

How a scramble works

1. Split into teams of two, three or four.
2. Everyone on the team tees off.
3. Pick the best ball. Everyone drops or places within a club length of that spot, no closer to the hole, and hits the next shot.
4. Keep picking the best shot and playing from it, including putts. Once one player holes out, the hole is over.
5. Write down one score per team per hole. Add the holes up at the end; lowest total wins.

The player whose ball was chosen usually hits first from the new spot, so the others can see the line and the club. On the green, everyone putts from the chosen mark.

Scoring example

Jim, Mike, Dana and Priya split into two teams of two for 18 holes: Jim and Mike against Dana and Priya. Their handicaps are 8 and 14 for Jim and Mike, 4 and 18 for Dana and Priya. Each team gets 35 percent of its lower handicap plus 15 percent of its higher one, rounded.

Both teams shoot 69 gross, 3 under par. Jim and Mike’s allowance works out to 5 strokes (35 percent of 8 plus 15 percent of 14 is 4.9), and Dana and Priya’s to 4 (35 percent of 4 plus 15 percent of 18 is 4.1). So Jim and Mike win by one, 64 to 65 net.

The confusing part is that the team with the lowest combined handicap doesn’t get the fewest strokes. Dana is the best player in the group, but Priya’s 18 pushes their allowance close to Jim and Mike’s. The table weighs the better player more because in a scramble the better player hits most of the shots that get used.

Strokes: playing a scramble net

A scramble gives each team one allowance, not each player. The team’s strokes come off the team total, or one at a time on the hardest holes if you are playing a match. A common table:

• Teams of two: 35 percent of the lower handicap plus 15 percent of the higher.
• Teams of three: 20, 15 and 10 percent, lowest handicap first.
• Teams of four: 25, 20, 15 and 10 percent, lowest handicap first.

Use each player’s strokes for the day on the tees you are playing, then apply the table and round to the nearest whole stroke. Picnic does this from the team size, so you only enter the players.

Variations

• Teams of two, three or four. Picnic: yes (pick the teams in setup).
• Minimum drives. Each player’s tee shot must be used a set number of times, often two or three each over 18. Picnic: not yet. Count them on the card.
• Florida scramble. The player whose shot is chosen sits out the next shot. Picnic: not yet.
• Shamble. Pick the best drive, then everyone plays their own ball into the hole. It’s a different game; see how to play a shamble.
• Best ball. No shared shots at all; each player plays their own ball. See how to play best ball.

Texas scramble

A Texas scramble is a scramble with a minimum drives rule. Every player’s drive has to be used a set number of times over 18 holes, usually at least three each in a team of four. Everything else plays like a normal scramble.

The rule stops one long hitter from supplying every drive. Keep a tally on the card and check it near the end. If someone is short, the team has to take their drive on the last holes, even when another ball is better.

Some groups use the name Texas for any scramble, so agree before the first tee which one you are playing. If the team picks only the drive and then everyone plays their own ball, that is a shamble, and shamble vs scramble shows the difference.

The money

Most scrambles are played for a team stake: each player on the losing team pays their opposite number a set amount, often $5 to $20. At an outing it is usually an entry fee and a prize table instead. A scramble moves slowly and rarely swings big, so it suits a modest number.

Picnic keeps the team scores and the net totals. A scramble has no stake setting in the app, so your group settles any bet on it between yourselves.

Tips

• Let the most reliable putter go last on the green, after everyone else has shown the line.
• Agree before the first tee whether you are using a minimum drives rule, and how close to the chosen spot you can place.