Golf Competition Formats Explained

Unlike many other games Golf has the provision to decide how the golf players participating in a golf tournament are being scored. This practically leads to lots and lots of golf competition formats and choosing the right golf competition format among the available golf competition formats or inventing a new golf competition format for a friendly game is purely subjective and open ended. There are many corporate golf tournaments and friendly golf matches where the participating golfers decide upon the golf competition format and have fun.

However in most situations golfers chose one of the most popular golf competition formats for their golf tournaments and this leaves a question on the golf competition formats that are actually popular and widely used. The most popular golf competition formats and the brief scoring mechanism while using each of these golf competition formats are given below. However stroke play and match play have not been listed below considering the fact that they are too broad to classify golf competition formats.

One of the most popular golf competition formats for team tournaments and competitions is scramble. Generally played in teams of two, three or four; the scramble format insists on team work and bases itself on the best shot played by a team. In other words, every one in the team plays the initial shot and the best shot is taken for the next stroke and so on. There are several variants of the scramble competition format including Florida scramble, Texas scramble, Ambrose, etc.

Best ball competition format on the other hand works in the reverse way. Each golf player in a team plays his strokes until putting and the lowest score among all golf players in a team is considered as the team score. So best ball golf competition format relies on the consistent performance of all members in the team as opposed to the scramble format where the best player in the team derives it forward.

An alternate shot is another interesting golf competition format that is played in teams of two. As the name implies the players in a team play alternate strokes and the team with the best score at the end wins. Alternate strokes golf competition format gives a perfect balance in team when one is a pro and the other golf player is an amateur thereby grooming up the participants who are in the learning phase.

Modified Stapleford is another popular golf competition format that is applicable both to teams and individuals. In this golf competition format, each hole is given something called a Stroke Index and the number of shots allowed for a player per hole depends on the handicap of the golf player and the stroke index of that hole. The lesser the number of shots taken (from the expected number of shots), the better is the score and the player with the highest score at the end wins the game. The internationals in one of the most famous elite tours – the US PGA tour uses this golf competition format.

Another interesting combination of features from these golf competition formats is the Chapman or the Pinehurst golf competition format. Here again 2 person teams participate and the swing is taken by both the team members individually and then the balls are interchanged for the second shot. From the third shot, the best ball of the two is chosen and the players play in alternates with the same ball until the ball is holed.

An altogether different approach is provided by the Bingo-Bango-Bongo golf competition format where three specific events fetch points to the golf players – being the first to reach the greens, being the player whose golf ball is closest to the hole in the subsequent stroke and the first one to pot the ball. This is a quite popular golf competition format used in many league and gold association tournaments.

Flags is yet another interesting variant in golf competition formats where every participant is given a specific number of strokes to play depending on the handicap (the relative rating as compared to a beginner) and the player who either puts or gets the farthest within the given set of strokes becomes the winner.

There are several other popular golf competition formats including the Lone Ranger format, the Peoria system and the Callaway system and as mentioned earlier the choice of the right competition format is always a matter of choice and it largely depends on the participating golfers.