Today, I wanna talk about this thing called “shamble” in golf. It’s kinda like a mix of scramble and regular stroke play, you know? So, me and a couple of buddies decided to give it a shot last weekend.
First off, we all teed off like usual. Nothing special there. But here’s where it gets interesting. We had to pick the best drive out of the bunch. Me, being the modest guy I am, thought my drive was pretty sweet, but my buddy John, who’s got a swing like a freakin’ pro, crushed it down the fairway.
So, we all went over to John’s ball. From there, it was every man for himself. We each played our own ball from that spot, all the way into the hole. It was kinda weird, not gonna lie. Usually, in a scramble, you keep hitting from the best shot, but in shamble, it’s only the tee shot that counts.
- Tee Off: Everyone in the team hits their drive.
- Select Best Drive: We argued for a bit, but eventually agreed on the best one. John won, obviously.
- Play Own Ball: From the chosen spot, we each played our own ball until we sank it.
- Record Score: At the end of each hole, we wrote down the lowest score among us.
Now, about the scoring. It’s pretty straightforward. You just take the lowest score on each hole and that’s your team’s score. We ended up doing alright, not gonna brag or anything. I had a couple of killer shots, if I do say so myself, and even John messed up a couple of times, which made me feel a bit better.
Handicapping
We also had to figure out the handicapping thing. It’s a bit of a mess, but we kinda winged it. We took like 80% of each of our handicaps, or maybe it was 85%? I don’t know, it was something like that. We were playing with two players’ team so we decide to choose 80% of each player’s handicap. And we are not math wizards, so we just used a calculator to figure it all out.
All in all, it was a fun day out on the course. Shamble is a cool format if you’re looking to try something different. It’s not as cutthroat as regular stroke play, but it’s still competitive enough to keep things interesting. Plus, it gives everyone a chance to contribute, even if you’re not the best golfer in the group. I mean, I’m not saying I’m bad, but let’s just say John usually beats me by a few strokes.
So yeah, that’s my experience with shamble golf. If you’re looking for a new way to spice up your golf game, give it a try. It’s a good laugh, and you might even surprise yourself with how well you play.
