Golf Shamble: A Fun Way to Play with Friends

Shamble in Golf

‘Shamble’ in golf is a tournament format. You might have already heard the golf term ‘scramble’, as that’s a more commonly used format. Although they might sound similar, they have both similarities and differences. Let’s learn more about ‘shamble’ and how it differs from the ‘scramble’ format.


What is a Shamble in Golf?


Shamble is a golf tournament format where all team members tee off and choose the best drive. From there, everyone holes their balls individually and records scores separately. It is a twist to the commonly used format scramble. The difference starts from the second shot.


Golf scramble vs. shamble: what’s the difference?

Scramble is a tournament format where members choose the best shot, and everyone make the next one from there. This repeats until one of the members holes the ball. But in shamble, the team can only choose the best drive and have to make other shots till the hole individually.

Only one score is recorded in the scramble. When any of the team players hole the ball, others pick up their ball and move on to the next. Whereas, scramble requires all team members to hole separately to move to the next hole.


How does a ahamble work?

Shamble works like the scramble format for the tee-off and becomes stroke play from the second shot to hole out. Then, different kinds of scoring systems are used to determine the team score. A team usually consists of 2 to 4 golfers. This format allows golfers to compare and learn different strategies from other members. 


How do you score a shamble?

There are different ways to score in shambles. It depends on the organizers. For example, the team’s score might be the lowest score or the combination of 2 lowest scores when there are 3 or 4 members in the team. Sometimes the score is determined by combining the highest and lowest scores.


What is a 2 person shamble?

2-person or 2-man shamble simply means the team has only 2 golfers. It is usually more challenging to get a better drive as there will be only 2 drives to choose from. It is harder to make variations while scoring too. A 4-person shamble provides more scoring options than that.


Can you handicap a shamble?

Yes, you can handicap a shamble. All team members need to have verified handicaps to do that. What percentage of the handicap will be used will depend on organizers, or coordinator, the number of players etc. Typically 80% or 85% of total handicap is used in the events.


What percentage of handicaps is shamble?

The percentage mainly depends on organizers and the number of team members. Typically a team of 4 is handicapped at 80% of the 2 best golfers on the team. For a 3- person team, it’s 85% of 2 best players. And when the team has 2 players, it’s 80% or 85% of each golfer.


How do you handicap a 3 man shamble?

The typical way to handicap a 3-man shamble is to have 85% of the course handicap of the best 2 team members. Golfers must have an official handicap or may use the maximum handicap index of 36.4 for men and 40.4 for women. Then, convert it to course handicap for shamble.


Relation between bramble and shamble: what is a bramble format? 

Bramble format is just another name for shamble. Both of them refer to the format where all team members tee off. Then, determine the best drive depending on the distance or difficulty of making the next shots. After that, golfers start from that location and hole separately.


Summing it up


Shamble game format gives the advantage of the best drive to all members. Golfers also get the chance to analyze the game strategy of other team members, especially for short-distance shots. It is a great way to learn and add excitement to the scramble format.

Flora Brown
Written by Flora Brown

Golf is the first and only sport that got Flora Brown so interested in it. She likes to share how every single thing from the type of golf ball you hit to your ride on the golf cart for saving energy has an impact on the game. Right now, she is a content expert at Nifty Golf, with 2 years of writing experience in the golf industry. She is hoping to share and get introduced to many more dimensions of golf with the people having the similar interest.

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