Has Cheating Ruined The GOLF SCRAMBLE Forever?
We’re joined by Sean Fairholm, Senior Editor at My Golf Spy, for a conversation about the rampant cheating taking place at golf scrambles across the nation.
Is it bad enough to ruin the experience to the point that the scramble is in danger of disappearing? Is there a remedy that can preserve the fun format (and vital fundraising component)?
Do YOU have a solution? Share it in the comments!
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22 Comments
I’ve actually stopped playing with certain people in my golf group because of cheating.
It just gets old when they’re shooting par on every single hole but yet they were in the woods or they hit it in the water, or they skulled their chip shot, etc..
Then they will gloat afterwards. “You golf four times a week and I beat you and I golf once a month.”
You should actually to take a look at the two-man scrambles. The sand bagging is ridiculous….and that isn't even including the team that doesn't come in until everyone has posted their score and they miraculously post a score 2 under everyone else. Seen it more than once.
If you meet a person for the first time and want to know who they are, play golf with them. It is hilarious how people can hide their corrupt nature until it comes to who shot the lower score – who won.
Yep you get alot of 16 to 20 under par rounds. When back in the day 12 under won it
A few of my friends got so sick of a few cheaters that they just wouldn't play anymore. A friend who worked at the course said he watched the "winning" team take about 30 shots into the green. Unless there is a serious effort to keep people honest, I am not going to spend serious money to compete. How many times do the last few teams post the lowest score?
I’ve come to the conclusion the only way to make scrambles fair is to have track recorded handicaps separate from individual. I carry a 15.4 and my buddy is a 5-6 right now. When we play our team handicap tends to land around an 6-8 depending which formula the club uses. But we almost always shoot under par as a team. Our best is 7 under.
I just think the very nature of scramble formats is too different to take individual handicaps and put them into a team setting
Make the prizes for longest drive closet to the pin hole in one the bigger ones at least you can monitor those. As for the score make those all the same value and have one for each player. Each player has a chance at the big one(s) trip etc through a draw from tickets sold at dinner.
4-man scramble is a useless way to play a round of golf, cheating and so, so two man scramble is better for honesty.
Scrambles are not Golf. I just played a scramble this week. Where two of the players didn’t even hit drives. All the pressure was on me and the other “”Golfer the other two people just chipped and putt
Cheating starts when, in charity events, you can buy as many mulligans as you want.
The one scramble I play in doesn't have any type of gimmick. We have a 2 minute rule on looking for a lost ball and once you are 2 over you pick up your ball. The closest thing that I saw to cheating were kids that are on their school's golf team playing from the ladies tee and I am just hoping that my drive makes it PAST the ladies tee. I go to the tournament with at least 40 balls because I play so bad. My team, this year, came in last. At one point he had hit a couple of good balls and were upset that might take us OUT of last place. LOL.
Scrambles suck ! Best thing to do is give a lame prize for 1st, and draw prizes are the good stuff…
Scrambles are just a chance for sandbaggers to win something…
Ruined it for me, all of this I learned on my own. Not cool. Every scramble ends up in the 50's. Some teams seem to play in every tournament with uniforms on and shark them all. Lame. Played my last one last year. But I will say that playing as a twosome with two shots each (vs teams of 4) is a blast if you get the chance (you have a twosome and don't get matched up with another two). It's happened to me twice and it's a nice twist on the usual 4-peraon team thing. I did play a 4-man for a church a few years ago and we shot 2-under on a tough scoring course. We handed in the card in defeat and were surprised to have come in 2nd. So, there is honesty out there, sometimes, on occasion, in a blue moon.
Cheating has been a huge problem for many years. There's not much organizers can do about it other than having official scorers with the teams. The other thing I thought about was to have prizes randomly drawn from all participants and must be present to win.
One idea I had was to have the top 5 teams score-wise regardless of the actual number, have a skills competition in front of everyone. Fun, cheering on people, and will allow players to prove their ability.
The only part of this conversation to be completely honest was at the end where you stated that you hoped folks would come back with some integrity Golf to me is and always will be something I have where I control "MY" game. Who am I playing against? ME always me. There is no room for cheaters in my game. I understand your point and appreciate the tone and messages being delivered. It is a crying shame others do not play to that same value..
Golf is a game that demands the strength of character and integrity – which most players lack
Saddly, most players do not follow the rules and cheat inflating their scores
The cheat standard is Trump
Cargo short guy yelling “ Fu@%!” After a miss hit near the clubhouse where we notice- but on his way in later he and his mates miraculously recovered and are 9 under. When questioned he states,” Yeah I always play better in scrambles” forgetting we saw him earlier shank one into the cart rack. But honestly scrambles with the right guys is a heavenly afternoon and especially if the charity is good too. Fun fact- I’ve been known to show up in cargo shorts- back when it was cool🤓
Absolutely! No question!
We play in a charity outing every year. A team posted 22 under. 16 was best we ever saw in 5 years playing. When they were announced as winners of a dozen Pro V 1's each, we all laughed at them.
Per google search…the former prez won a tournament he didn’t play in…he called the club and told them to create a winner’s plaque, with his name, and hang it on the wall of clubhouse.
I played in a 9 hole charity tournament today. My team of fairly competent golfers shot 3 under for a 33. The winning team posted a 15 under 21 for 9 holes. The second place posted an 11 under 25. I call BS on all of it.
Many years ago I played in the annual Buick scramble which one year we made a miracle comeback to win our local club. Was an amazing experience despite not getting out of the second round which paired each group with a club pro as well as an official score keeper. Our club pro knew every player fairly well so it always seemed legitimate. One year we missed the registration and went to another club. We saw people on the course cheating. Moving balls out of the rough, taking gimmies, hitting from the wrong tee… the final scores were ridiculous. I could see why that national tournament didn’t last much longer after that. It was a shame as it always was a highlight of the year.