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If you’re like me, you love a good scramble. There are few things better than spending a day away from all the bullshit on the course with friends and a cooler full of cold ones. For those of you who don’t know, a scramble is a team golf game where all four members tee off and you choose the best ball from there. Then all four members hit from the best ball location and this pattern is follow until the ball is holed.
When scrambling, there’s a huge difference between having a “good” team and a “fun” team. When selecting a fun team, you have to find a delicate balance between having a drunken blast on the course while also ensuring you’re not going to walk into the clubhouse as the laughing stock of the tournament.
The Greenhorn
This guy is cool as hell. He’s the chillest of the bunch and meshes the group together. But he’s a beginner and has only been playing for about two years while he is still finding his swing. He’s got the ability to smoke that 4-iron about 200 yards down the middle but also has the game to knock a 4-foot putt twenty feet by the hole. This is your leadoff man on the green and your last option on the tee. On 15 of 18 greens, he’ll give you a great read and only miss because he didn’t putt it where you lined him up, but he’s done his job and shown you the line.
Due to his novice nature, he’s passive aggressive and hates making decisions, so you’ll hear him chirp at you if you’re not playing his ball. Great guy, but only a good team member.
The Hammer
This guy came for two reasons and two reasons only: to crush beers and crush drives. He’s the big swingin’ dick of the group. This guy crushes it; just absolutely obliterates the ball. You don’t always know where it’s going, but if it’s straight, you know you’ll be sitting pretty.
When everyone’s putting, he’ll be the guy relaxing on the fringe with two Miller Lites in one hand and a putter in the other. Yeah, you may need him to power in a couple putts, but at the end of the day, he’s purely there to go long and get you inside that 150-yard stake in the middle of the fairway.
The Short Fuse
This guy is funny as hell but has the temper of a bull. One second, he’s cracking jokes and farting in people’s backswings. The next, he’s screaming at ongoing traffic that interrupted him when lining up a putt. All of his emotions come out on the course.
He’ll tell you he’s about a 6 handicap when in all reality he plays to about a 12. A decent golfer but just thinks he’s way better than he truly is. He’ll help on most holes but is always one chunk away from going absolutely ape shit until he gets it together on the next tee box. A loose cannon, he’ll finish the day with fourteen clubs, two broken wedges, and a dinged up Scotty Cameron. Every once in a while, you give him an emotion-saving mulligan that goes un-talked about when handing your scorecard in after the round.
The Scratch Golfer
With this guy, your team goes from being classified as “solid” to being described as a “contender.” Without him, you’re just out there to have fun. But when this stud shows up, all of the sudden you’re eyeing the trophy in front of the locker room. He doesn’t play as much as he likes anymore after fizzling out in college, but he’s still capable of carrying a team now that he’s just a weekend warrior.
Sure, there are holes where he won’t contribute, but those are few and far between because it’s never due to one of his bad shots. It’s because all the other guys got lucky at the exact same time. He’s good, he knows he’s good, and the team knows he’s good. But he doesn’t act like it. He rarely makes mistakes and truly carries the team when no one can manage to put it within 30 feet of the pin when they’re sitting pretty 100 yards out. Last to putt, he’s saving your pars when you should be in the clubhouse with a bogey. .
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@clarkew2
Finishing 2nd in Flight #3. PGP
You’re forgetting the “wildcard”. This golfer makes up for whatever shortcomings your group has. He is the most versatile member of the foursome. He probably embodies all four of the characters you mentioned. Here’s to the “wildcard”
via GIPHY
Also forgot the good chick golfer. 200 yard drive from the red tees aint a bad way to start 14 holes.
I don’t know what courses you play at, but the other sex isn’t allowed at my club.
Just kidding. I play the muni’s because PGP
Sucks when you’re group is former college baseball players that haven’t quite figured out the switch to a golf swing. Everything is crushed, down what would be the right field line. Myself included
Love a good scramble but it does suck to be the best player in the group. Always pressure to putt last, hit the fairway after everyone else tops it or goes into the woods, and you’re group always expects you to win the long drive and closest to the pin. Takes all the fun out of it.
The trade off is you get to be a condescending dick to me the whole time.
…three guys before you hit horrific shots, step up and hit a mediocre center of the green iron shot.. partners get excited, just shoot them a glare and say “i missed it”
You got the wrong group around you. You need the other three talking shit to you because you crushed the long drive but had it 1 yard right in the rough.
My dream team is a group of scratch to 5 handicap guys killing it… Sadly I don’t know enough of those guys to fill a scramble team like that