Best Ball and Scramble, explained

Two formats, and they play nothing alike. If you have only ever played your own ball off the first teebox, then wait until you try these formats! Here is what actually happens in each, and what it means for you and your partner.

A Scramble

Both of you tee off. You walk to whichever ball ended up in the better spot, pick up the other one, and you both play your next shot from there. Then you do it again. And again, until the ball is in the hole. One score goes on the card for the team.

What that does to a round is remarkable. Nobody is ever out of a hole. If you hit one into the trees and your partner finds the fairway, your bad shot simply stops existing.

Why women like it

A scramble takes the fear out of the first tee. You can swing freely knowing your partner has probably put one in play, and there is no such thing as a card-wrecking hole. It is also fast, which matters when a full field is out.

The catch

A scramble will flatter your score. A team can shoot well under par and still have played some ordinary golf. That is fine, as long as everyone knows that is what the number means.

Best Ball

Both of you play your own ball, all the way to the hole, every hole. At the end of each hole you write down the better of the two scores.

So if you make a six and your partner makes a five, the team has a five. If you make four and she makes seven, the team has a four.

Why it is different

You are playing your own round. It counts, but it is not the only thing that counts. That takes the pressure off without taking the golf away, which is a hard balance to strike and the reason best ball is the most used team format in the game.

Where it gets interesting

Strategy arrives. If your partner is safely on the green in two, you are free to take on the flag. If she is in trouble, you play the sensible shot and put a score on the board. Good partners talk about this on the way down the fairway, and by the third round you will have discovered how to play to each other's strengths.

And one I didn't mention is Alternate Shot

You will hear this one mentioned too, and it is a combination of the other two. There is one ball between you, as in a scramble, but every shot is yours alone, as in best ball. You take turns hitting it and you play it from wherever your partner left it — no choosing the better option. It is the tensest of the three, and the most satisfying when it goes well.

So which is harder?

Best ball, almost always. In a scramble you get two chances at every shot. In best ball you get one, and somebody has to finish the hole.

But harder is not the same as less fun. Most women find the scramble is where they relax and the best ball is where they find out what they can do.

How we use them

We flight every team by combined handicap, so you are playing against pairs who are a similar handicap, whatever the format.

The short version

Scramble: one ball, two chances, nobody has a bad hole. Best ball: two balls, your own round, the better score counts. One is a relief. The other is a test. We play both because a week should have room for each.

The 2027 GIR Club Classic at Hammock Beach runs April 11–15. Fields are capped, so join the waitlist and you will hear the day registration opens.