Texas Scramble Handicap Quiery

[Wheyayeman]

Firstly the obvious, I know its 10% of the teams combined handicap which isn't the issue. The problem i had yesterday was we had an end of winter 3 man Texas scramble before the season starts proper this Saturday. The problem came when our 3rd man had to pull out at the last minute leaving myself and a partner in a 2 man team. We had no real aspirations of winning as it is a team game but we faired pretty well shooting a 2 under gross score 68. This is where the problem occurred, first and second were out of sight at around 9 & 10 under net, but it turns out we had tied with 2 other groups on 68 gross but because they had more players they got a higher handicap and therefore a lower net score. To give you figures we were 5 & 14 total 19 handicap 1.9 whilst one of the groups was 6, 7 and 12 total 25 handicap 2.5. Just doesn't seem right somehow given that its a team game and we were disadvantaged being a man down.

Whilst ultimately it didn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things and it was just a casual end of season game between regulars, I was just wondering if there actually is a solution for this or has anyone else come accross this type of thing

 

[freddielong]

So these guys put the event on, you dont follow the rules and you want special dispensation for this, did you pay three lots of entry fee's if not I would have DQd you

 

[Wheyayeman]

So these guys put the event on, you dont follow the rules and you want special dispensation for this, did you pay three lots of entry fee's if not I would have DQd you

You're right we are clearly just cheating, our master plan of losing a team member an hour before teeing off gave us an unfair advantage over the rest of the field. Fortunately we did pay the full team fees so we weren't disqualified, but to ask if we MIGHT be entitled to a handicap adjustment to make it a level playing field was obviously an error of judgement on my behalf, Handicaps are just for bragging rights with your mates and not giving everyone equal chances of winning, I realise that now

 

[Deleted member 1147]

I played one yesterday and you could only have 3 or 4 man teams.
Also, the handicaps were: half of the lowest players handicap + 10% of the remaining players.

The 3 and 4 man teams played in seperate competitions.

 

[bladeplayer]

So these guys put the event on, you dont follow the rules and you want special dispensation for this, did you pay three lots of entry fee's if not I would have DQd you

jees fred thats bit harsh aint it ?? i do agree with you its their own fault for not having the correct number of players therfore a better h'cap but surely if the organisers took their entry money (as 2players) they would have no right to DQ them .. dont let them play at the start ok but not DQ them ??

 

[freddielong]

Lol touchy the whole point of a three man team is that you play a three man team , that gives you advantages and disadvantages if you start changeing the rules you will get instances where people choose to play as a two because the only other guy they could find is rubbish, or because the think they are better off as a two with the new rule

 

[USER1999]

Not sure what adjustment you could make really. These things are often viewed by the organisers as a bit of fun, and the prizes are a bit incidental to just getting everyone out on the course. It's just tough luck that you were a two.

 

[USER1999]

Lol touchy the whole point of a three man team is that you play a three man team , that gives you advantages and disadvantages if you start changeing the rules you will get instances where people choose to play as a two because the only other guy they could find is rubbish, or because the think they are better off as a two with the new rule

What you need as a 3rd team member is a lady off 42. She might not come in on any hole (except the 120 yards par 3 where she gets two shots), but they give you a massive advantage in terms of h/cap.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Lol touchy the whole point of a three man team is that you play a three man team , that gives you advantages and disadvantages if you start changeing the rules you will get instances where people choose to play as a two because the only other guy they could find is rubbish, or because the think they are better off as a two with the new rule

What you need as a 3rd team member is a lady off 42. She might not come in on any hole (except the 120 yards par 3 where she gets two shots), but they give you a massive advantage in terms of h/cap.

Unless, as yesterday you have a rule stating that 3 tee shots must be selected for each player.
You end up in some unfavourable positions just to get the weakest drivers' shots to count.

 

[bladeplayer]

Lol touchy the whole point of a three man team is that you play a three man team , that gives you advantages and disadvantages if you start changeing the rules you will get instances where people choose to play as a two because the only other guy they could find is rubbish, or because the think they are better off as a two with the new rule

SCENARIO for ya fred.. & everyone else i supose ha.. ,say you were playing/running a charity event for something close to you, with 4 players @ £40 a head (team £160)same handicap format (10th of total)5 teams on the day only have 3 players do you (A) dont let them play & loose £800 for charity or (B) take the full team cost & let them play at their own disadvantage of only having a 10th of 3 handicaps insted of a 10th of 4 handicaps ??

 

[Wheyayeman]

Each player had to have 4 drives in play, and yes a poor player would hinder the team in that respect but I would much rather have an extra approach, chip or putt at every green.

Just done a bit of googling and on other forums it's been mentioned that a 4 man team you divide the handicaps by 10 whereas a 3 man team you divide it by 6, so surely a 2 man team should get full allowance

 

[bladeplayer]

Each player had to have 4 drives in play, and yes a poor player would hinder the team in that respect but I would much rather have an extra approach, chip or putt at every green.

Just done a bit of googling and on other forums it's been mentioned that a 4 man team you divide the handicaps by 10 whereas a 3 man team you divide it by 6, so surely a 2 man team should get full allowance

if each player had to have 4 drives each (you didnt say that origionaly) then wait for it I HAVE TO AGREE WITH FRED. you shouldnt have been playing in it mate , & if you did choose to play you exempt from prizes ..

 

[Robobum]

In refernce to the OP, was it a fun competition or was there a shed load of prize money on the table??

If it was the latter, that's a shame and I hope your player had a decent excuse to let you down.

If it's the former, I hope your player had a decent excuse to let you down but it's hardly worth even asking the question.

 

[Wheyayeman]

In refernce to the OP, was it a fun competition or was there a shed load of prize money on the table??

If it was the latter, that's a shame and I hope your player had a decent excuse to let you down.

If it's the former, I hope your player had a decent excuse to let you down but it's hardly worth even asking the question.

As I mentioned in th OP it was just a casual end of Winter thing with sweep money the prize so no real problem, the reason I asked the question was because in this instance we were hindered by being a man down (although that is probably going to be discussed/disputed now) and i was trying to find out if there was any official handicap adjustments which could have been made to level the playing field.

 

[Wheyayeman]

Each player had to have 4 drives in play, and yes a poor player would hinder the team in that respect but I would much rather have an extra approach, chip or putt at every green.

Just done a bit of googling and on other forums it's been mentioned that a 4 man team you divide the handicaps by 10 whereas a 3 man team you divide it by 6, so surely a 2 man team should get full allowance

if each player had to have 4 drives each (you didnt say that origionaly) then wait for it I HAVE TO AGREE WITH FRED. you shouldnt have been playing in it mate , & if you did choose to play you exempt from prizes ..

Just out of curiosity would you have preferred to play as a 2 man team or draft in a 28 handicapper who would need to use 4 of his drives at some stage? Just interested to know, I would much prefer to have the extra man chipping, putting etc and as long as you play it sensibly and don't leave said handicapper with 4 drives left on the last 4 holes, then the extra man is surely a better bet

 

[chrisd]

Most Texas scrambles are purely fun competitions and the "rules of golf" don't apply in as much as how the handicapping etc is done.

We play ours in 4 balls but if a team of three play then they just suffer the fact that for each shot, they get one less go than a team of 4 would get, and that virtually rules them out of winning. They still have to take 4 drives each with the rest being spares and that redresses the imbalance of players a little

As far as high/low handicappers are concerned, i would much rather have a 5 h/c than a 20 h/c as the 5 handicapper will almost always get all their tee shots away well and contribute more to chipping and putting etc than the 20 h/c which should more than compensate for the 1.5 shots extra that the 20 h/c adds to the team total handicap allowance


Chris

 

[bladeplayer]

yeah i have to say id take in the 28 handicapper aswell (thats 3 shots extra on the handicap aswell) surely he get some off the tee .. hopefuly count his on par 3 or par 5,s low handicappers should (i stress SHOULD haha)hit good enough 2nd to get up near the green in 2 then good chip & you still putting for birdie ,, like you say tho ya wana make sure you didnt leave it to the last 4 holes for his drives tho.

 

[jammydodger]

I've played in loads of these over the years and I will always take the lower h/c over the higher every time. As has been previously stated you will get a lot more good shots out of a cat 1 golfer than a cat 3/4...fact.

The 1/10th h/c allowance backs this up and and theres nothing worse than scrabbling around thinking of having to use up someones 4 drives when you just know they cant get the ball more than 150yds with their best drive.

Not wanting to have a go but this format is usually won by those teams who smash in a really low gross score and take off a couple shots nett.

 

[Region3]

Agree about the handicap thing. I don't think 1/10th is enough.

4 scratch players would beat 4 28hc's by more than the 11 shots they'd receive imo.

It's worse in ours. We have 3 man teams still with 1/10th combined. Very low 60's usually wins, and more often than not with at least 1 and usually 2 low guys in.

 

[Robobum]

We've won both of the scrambles at our place for the last 2 years. Teams of four, highest h'cap in our team is 5 and we have the two longest bombers in the club.

One of the events is a cross country thing, the ladies have lobbied the organiser to have the teams drawn at random in future to make it fairer!!

The 28 h'capper is the one you want for a bowmaker or something. All they have to do is have a few pars and you are raking in the points.