Eight-some?? Is this a scramble?

[BallSeeker]

Played a round today and came up behind eight people (four carts) playing together. It seemed to be some sort of scramble, but I've never heard of such a thing anywhere. Am I just out of the loop or is this as wacky as it seems to me? They were also playing extremely slow, but it was late in the day and it was basically them and me out there.

[MS256]

I see at least 8 playing together every Saturday morning. They are just playing a practice 9 before our money game and they are the first ones on the course. Since it's a practice round none of them are taking much time with anything and they move along reasonably fast. They usually start a little after 8:00 and are done in time to choose up for our game at 10:00. It's pretty silly really but everybody wants to tag along and play along with the best 2 players and the best 2 players want to play with each other. It's about the only chance they get to play together since they are always on separate teams. I'm sure the good players would rather some of the hackers split off into another foursome but they are too nice to say anything.

[vangator]

I used to play in a tournament every year where after the tournament everybody throws in $5 and we all tee off the first first hole at the same time. We'd usually get 80 to 100 golfers. Everybody walks. You get to take one club. The first hole is a par 5 with a tee is probably 100 yards wide. So 100 golfers would whack their balls at the same time. It's like a driving range. mrk your balls. It's a wide open hole. I'd take a 4 iron because I could hit the ball long off the tee and putt fairly well with it. Only the lowest scores and ties would go to the second hole. Nobody ever eagled the first hole, so all birdies would go the the second hole. Only about 10 would survie. The second hole is a par 4. The third a par 3. That's as far as I ever got. Usually it would only go the 5th hole or so. Winner take all. Needless to say there was alcohol involved. :)

[WUTiger]

I saw one such contest as an afternoon "fun event" during the 2007 U.S. Deaf Open (a tournament for people with hearing problems).

It was a "modified" sudden death elimination contest. About 15 golfers teed off on the first hole. The highest scores (some bogies) got eliminated.

The modified element: After the first couple of holes, two or more golfers might tie for high hole score. If so, they would have a chip-off or a bunker blast, and the loser would be dropped. Similar to the tiebreakers on The Big Break. (In the early going you want multiple people to drop quickly to make things more manageable.)

For playoffs at most PGA tournaments, you would see pure sudden death - even if it's a playoff with three or more golfers. If someone shoots lower than the others on a hole, it's over. Or, if it's two birdies and a par, the par shooter gets dropped, and the survivors continue. (And, of course, no chip-offs).