Okay, so I’ve been hearing about this “golf shamble” thing for a while, and a few buddies and I finally decided to give it a shot this past weekend. Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a pretty fun twist on a regular round.
Getting Started
First, we picked our foursome. We’re all about the same skill level, which probably made things more enjoyable. Then, we had to figure out the rules, We just looked up some stuff online so we had a simple version in my head.
Teeing Off and Choosing
The basic idea is this: everyone tees off like normal. Then, we walked down the fairway and looked at where all four balls landed. After a bit of back-and-forth, arguing the merits of each shot (mostly good-natured, I swear!), we picked the best one. That’s where everyone played their second shot from.
- Everyone tees off.
- The group selects the best drive.
- Everyone plays their second shot from that spot.
Playing Our Own Ball
This is where it got interesting. After that second shot, we each played our own ball until we holed out. So, you still get to have your own individual score, which is nice. It’s not like a scramble where you’re always relying on someone else’s good shot (or suffering from their bad one!).
Adding Up the Scores
At the end of each hole, we recorded our individual scores. Then, because it just for fun, we also added up all the team scores and take the best two players’ score to be our team’s final score. That part’s optional, but we’re kinda competitive, so, yeah, we did that.
The Aftermath
All in all, it was a good day. The shamble format definitely sped up play a bit, since we weren’t hunting for balls in the rough as much. And it took some of the pressure off, knowing that we had at least one decent tee shot to work with. I’d definitely play a shamble again. Maybe next time we’ll even try some of the variations I saw online, like using handicaps or something. But for a first try, keeping it simple was the way to go.
