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When it comes to tournament golf, there are a lot of different formats and play styles that you will see. Whether it’s a special PGA event or your local club tournament, there are many formats and ways that it can be set up.
Best Ball
Best ball is one of the most commonly played games around. To play this game, you will need to have a full group of four players. The four players will be split into teams of two. Everybody plays the hole with their own ball and tries to get the lowest score possible. After the hole has been completed, each team takes the best score out of the two of them and uses it as their total score. You keep this going through the entire round and use your team’s best score for every hole. At the end, the scores will be added up and the winner will be the team with the lowest score.
Hole example:
Let’s say on hole 1 the scores go as follows:
Team 1
Player 1- gets a 4
Players 2- gets a 6
Team 2
Player 1- gets a 3
Player 2- gets a 5
Team 1’s score for the hole would be a 4 and Team 2’s score for the hole would be a 3. This method of scoring would continue for the entire round.
Match and Stroke Play
Match play and Stroke play are the two most popular play types in the game of golf. Although they are very similar, the difference between the two is in the scoring. With stroke play, you play your true score and the player with the lowest amount of strokes wins the hole. In match play, instead of adding up strokes, you add up holes won. For example, let’s say player one scores a 6 on the first hole and player two scores a 4. If stroke play was in effect, player one would be down by 2 strokes. But if match play was the format being used, player one would only be down 1 hole.
Scramble
In a scramble, you play as a team. Teams can be made up of 2,3, or 4 players. When starting the round, every team member hits their tee shot. The group decides which tee shot is the best and the rest of the team hits their next shot from that spot. This means that if a team is made up of 4 players, they get 4 chances from the best possible location. This way of play continues through the round so the team can shoot the best possible score they can. When a scramble is played, stroke play is the most used scoring type for this event. At the end of the round, the team with the lowest group score wins the tournament. These events tend to have very low scores due to the amount of chances a team has at every shot.
Alternate Shot
Alternate shot is a simple yet tricky type of tournament format. This play type involves teams of 2 players in which they alternate hitting for each hole. Both players hit their tee shot and decide which ball to play. If player 1’s drive is chosen, player 2 will hit the next shot and it keeps alternating from there. Although two balls are played off the tee, only one gets played throughout this hole. When it comes to alternate shot, there is some strategy that you may not realize if you’re new to this tournament style. Although it might seem like the best idea to play the longer and straighter drive, you need to think about who is best at hitting each type of shot. For example, if a player is better at hitting approach shots into the green, you might want to have him hitting that specific shot and playing the other player’s drive. This strategy is consistent with chipping and putting as well. After the full 18 holes are completed, the team with the lowest score wins.
Stableford
Unlike most tournament golf formats, the goal when playing stableford is to have the highest amount of points by the end of the round. In this format, an individual or team follows the following point system to try to achieve the highest score possible:
- Double Bogey or worse – 0 points
- Bogey – 1 point
- Par – 2 points
- Birdie – 3 points
- Eagle – 4 points
- Double Eagle – 5 points
Although this is the official scoring for the stableford format, a modified stableford can also be played. This version of a stableford is the same thing as the official version except the point system can vary. For example, a past PGA tour event has used the following scoring:
- Double Bogey or worse – -3 points
- Bogey – -1 point
- Par – 0 points
- Birdie – 2 points
- Eagle – 5 points
- Double eagle – 8 points