Texas Scramble, one of golfs most popular formats. What are the rules and how did the name come about.
What is a Texas Scramble?
Texas Scramble is a form of competition in golf consisting of 3 or 4 players per team. Each player tees off per hole and as a group you then decide which of the shots you should take. Once you've decided which tee shot to take all players retrieve their balls and take the second shot from the agreed position. You then repeat the process with each shot until the ball is in the hole. As a team you only return one score per hole and the lowest teams score overall wins.
More often than not you'll find that you have to take at least one of each players tee shots at some point but that's for the competition hosts to decide. It adds a little bit of strategic planning to the round.
How do the handicaps work in Texas Scramble?
There's never been a set in stone rule and each competition host may do things differently. The most common rule would be 10% of the combined total of all handicaps. So say you were a team of four with handicaps 7, 14, 17 & 20. The combined total is 58 and 10% of this is 5.8. So you'd take 5.8 off your score at the end.
Often you'll also find that you don't round your score up or down at the end, so if you have the above handicap and shoot 70, your score would go in as 64.2 exactly.
How to win at Texas Scramble?
With Texas Scramble your handicap really doesn't help as such a large portion of it is removed. A team of four 20 handicappers only get 8 shots more than a team of scratch players so you really want to try and have a least one low handicap in there. That way the best player(s) can put the higher handicappers in positions to produce their best shots.
Play smart on some holes however as you may find there's a Par 4 green that some of you can risk driving. If that's the case get at least one player to put you in a safe position so the rest of you can go for it. Consistency isn't going to help you win this event, so you man as well attack each shot like you've got nothing to lose!
If you've got to take a certain amount of each players drives try and get the player who struggles off the tees drives used up early. There's nothing worst than coming down to the last and having all that pressure on the one with the least confidence off the tee.
How did the name come about?
Formally known as the the Captain's Choice, in the 1950's the competition became so popular in Texas it then became known as the 'Texas Scramble'.
See other popular articles on golf terminology
