Medal or Stableford

[mashleyR7]

Does its matter about the format. It all comes down to the number of shots per round doesn't it?
What do you prefer & why?

Does your club have balance or too many many medals not enough stableford, or the reverse?
33 comps a year does this sound average?

Thanks.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I find I can get mentally lazy in stableford where a bad hole isn't a killer and couple of pars on a stroke hole can repair the damage. Medal play is pure honest golf where every shot counts. We have a decent mixture at my club

 

[louise_a]

Medal for me, we have about 2/3rds 1/3rd in favour of medals

 

[upsidedown]

Medal , medal and medal for me . unsure of split but suspect it's 80% Medal.

 

[bladeplayer]

Medal all day for me , if you have an 8 or a 10 u carry all the way , we have bout 11 medals a year , stableford is king in our place

Loadsa scratch cups within a manageable distance tho for anyone that wishes

 

[SugarPenguin]

Against the first few posters I'm in favour of stablefords. Our club it's probably 75%-80% medals. I enjoy medals and it favours the lower handicaps and it's the purest form of golf which is great.

However I prefer the more relaxed stableford feeling most of the time and I play better because of it.

Medals also take far too much time. Most four balls will hit at least one provisional shot a hole and the rounds just drag.... So much waiting, compared to stableford where people are happy to be a bit more lassez-faire in their approach to the competition.

 

[fundy]

cant say im too bothered, 1 or 2 blobs in a stableford card and my medal card is pretty much done anyway, if pushed id prefer medal only as it puts more pressure on others

 

[Dasit]

I don't enjoy medal as much

Usually have to play much more conservatively as a big score hole kills any chance of having a good round

At least in stableford can just pick up if you are having a terrible one.


Usually it is the lower handicap players (below 10) who want medal at my club, while the higher ones favour stableford.

 

[Lump]

Medal all day long. In my eyes it's a better test of your overall game and your ability to think your way around 18 holes.

 

[NWJocko]

Medal for me all day long.

Don't mind playing Stableford but it took moving to England to find out it existed!!

 

[Crawley1981]

More stablefords than medals at my club but much prefer the pressure of a medal. We have two mid week comps and two weekend comps every month but probably only around a 1/3 medals. However I've probably won a bigger percentage overall of the stablefords as quite often have a terrible hole in a round.

 

[Ross61]

I don't mind either format now, but I would have said Stableford a couple of years ago. I had been told that you needed a different approach to play medal and it used to make me play with fear of making a total hash of a hole. Invariably it seemed to happen more often due to worrying about it.
These days I approach all comps the same way as when I pick up in Stableford I've usually only missed a putt for a point.
Like someone else has said, medals can be slower due to people taking more provisionals to avoid the long walk of shame back to the tee.

 

[KenL]

Only a few stablefords a year at my club. Every thing else medal except a couple of bogey comps.

I don't really mind as my main aim is to improve handicap and that is pretty much based on stableford scoring.

Personally, I would like to see more stableford comps to balance it out a bit. Speeds things up too.

 

[Green Bay Hacker]

Used to prefer stableford as I could guarantee I would throw in a big number or two in a medal to destroy the round. Now I have become a bit more consistent I prefer medals. We play about 2/3 stableford comps and even then I keep a medal score going.

 

[GG26]

About 75% of the comps at our place are stableford, but I seem to perform better in medals.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Stableford every time. More relaxing for everyone. I tend to avoid medals. I agree with earlier posters, low h/c tend to like medals, high handicappers prefer Stableford in my experience

 

[Chisteve]

I've. Heard rules are changing to using maximum score per hole in medal rounds - will certainly speed things up

I dont mind either - feel more pressure in medal rounds that's sometimes good

 

[Old Skier]

I've. Heard rules are changing to using maximum score per hole in medal rounds - will certainly speed things up d

Where did you hear this. I didn't notice it in the rule changes for 2019.

 

[backwoodsman]

Where did you hear this. I didn't notice it in the rule changes for 2019.

Its one of the things being suggested as part of the rules change "package". IIRC, it wont be a rule as such, but is something being suggested for clubs to be able to adopt in competitions (if they choose) in order to help speed up play

 

[t0m]

Yer i remember seeing that to think it was 7 on a par 4