Tourney Tips

guids · #1 08-24-2007, 01:00 PM

Playing my first "real" tourney since I got seriuos about golf. Its a charity scramble, nothing too serious, there is a prize at each hole (closest to the pin wins a rolex, hole-in one wins a car, stuff like that). We have 2 guys that suck, me (I suck, but my short game is pretty good), and one guy that is pretty good. any tips or tricks? there will be a lot of gambling going on becuase there are a few other guys that have "vested interest in hte outcome of sporting events" playing...anything I should know?

tuq · #2 08-24-2007, 01:23 PM

guids,

Always inventing new ways to respell the article "the", I see.

What sort of questions are you looking to have answered? Most scrambles are hit-n-giggles where the vast majority of participants are only playing because they or someone else donated money to buy a foursome. The quality of golfer at these events is far below average, as they are generally populated by people who don't play much, and there is also a disproportionate number of women. Expect a 5+ hour round.

Maybe if you asked more specific questions we could help. Otherwise as for tips, keep your head down and hit it straight...

guids · #3 08-24-2007, 01:35 PM

[ QUOTE ]
guids,

Always inventing new ways to respell the article "the", I see.

What sort of questions are you looking to have answered? Most scrambles are hit-n-giggles where the vast majority of participants are only playing because they or someone else donated money to buy a foursome. The quality of golfer at these events is far below average, as they are generally populated by people who don't play much, and there is also a disproportionate number of women. Expect a 5+ hour round.

Maybe if you asked more specific questions we could help. Otherwise as for tips, keep your head down and hit it straight...

[/ QUOTE ]

5+ hours for a round? holy crap, I figured we wold be done in a lot less than that. Honestly, I dont know what Im looking for here, I was just wondering if there were something that i should know

black knight · #4 08-24-2007, 03:13 PM

Tell us the format: how are the people in your group...what are the strengths/weaknesses...how many drives must each person contribute?

There's not a tonne of strategy in 4-man scrambles. All there is is the order that people hit, and when to take the bad players' drives over a much better shot by one of the better people.

tuq · #5 08-24-2007, 04:29 PM

[ QUOTE ]
There's not a tonne of strategy in 4-man scrambles. All there is is the order that people hit, and when to take the bad players' drives over a much better shot by one of the better people.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah really, if there is a drive minimum there is a time when you need to consider something like this (unless you are drinking and cheating in which case disregard), otherwise the only strategy is "get it in the hole in as few strokes as possible".

There are varying degrees of thought between the order of people hitting relative to skill. I'm no longer with the group that thinks that the A player always goes last, it has more to do with his comfort level and where he thinks he can best contribute, and maybe mixing it up so the last guy doesn't always have the pressure on him.

41eater · #6 08-24-2007, 06:26 PM

I've played in too many of these to count.

The winning teams are usually the teams that make the most putts. You have to sink putts, period. I usually try to designate someone as the "lead-off" putter, then make sure they do two things: get the ball to the hole, and get the ball to the hole. In a perfect world this will give you an indication of the correct line. I'm not a particularly strong putter (in fact, I'm quite poor for my hdcp) but I've gotten a hot putter in a couple of scramble events just because I felt confident that I *knew* the line.

westhoff · #7 08-25-2007, 02:40 AM

Yeah, putt well. Unless your whole team sucks, you're going to have a birdie putt pretty much every hole. Just drink and have fun. If you take these seriously you'll want stab your eyes out cause every hole takes 20 minutes.

On the order of play... Usually being the best player I always liked hitting last because I knew what we needed. If we needed a shot on the green I would play safe, if we had one twenty feet away I would try to knock it close. I didn't want to be first and hit it in the water going for a stupid shot and put the pressure on the rest of the team. However, like tuq says, if your best player doesn't like the pressure of going last, have him hit first. He can just freewheel it knowing he's got three players left to hit behind him.

black knight · #8 08-25-2007, 03:03 AM

Agree, I think best player should always go last. That means best player FOR THE SHOT...cuz the best driver may not be the best at approaches, who may not be the best putter, etc.

guids · #9 08-26-2007, 10:32 AM

My OP was pointless, 7am tee time, and we were pretty wasted by the 6 hole (free booze all day obv). but we did birdie the first 6...than it was all downhill.

tuq · #10 08-26-2007, 02:37 PM

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My OP was pointless, 7am tee time, and we were pretty wasted by the 6 hole (free booze all day obv). but we did birdie the first 6...than it was all downhill.

[/ QUOTE ]
Haha. All this talk about strategy and you instead got shitfaced and stopped caring. Nice.

We won a scramble yesterday morning at The Legacy in Phoenix. The damned hurricane's remnants blew in in the morning and absolutely pounded the course, I thought there's no way we're gonna play, but then it lightened up and we went off about an hour late. Tons of standing water all over the place though.

Not much to say other than we got rolling AFTER the beers started flowing. Whether due to poor course management or everyone being heavy drinkers we only saw the drink cart chicks twice, once on each side. They were sisters too, and my attempts to seduce both of them went not so well. But our -16 was good enough to bring home the hardware by a shot.