3-person 3-club scramble, your thoughts?

[DaveP043]

Our club has traditionally done a 3-club individual competition around St. Patrick's day to open our golf season.  To change things up a little, this year we're making it a 3-person team.  Each player can bring only 3 clubs, and can only play his (or her) own clubs, and we'll play a scramble.  Putter counts as a club.  The options are so numerous my brain hurts!

I'm actually on a team with my wife (HCP 17) and another woman (HCP 14).  With the way our tees are set up, I won't need a driver, My wife putts at least as well as I do, she may have the only putter.  My strength may be short game, so I'll have a wedge of some kind, and a longer fairway club, long iron or hybrid, and probably a mid-iron.  Its an interesting format, one I've never seen before, so I'm interested in how you might select your team, and how you might select your clubs.

 

 

[BigUnit68]

Sounds like a lot of fun. I would have the ladies take their 3 favorite clubs and encourage them to choose the ones they can use for more than one kind of shot (ex: fairway wood over driver) and definitely have your wife take the flat stick if she can putt.

for you, it would depend on the course and conditions but in general I would choose 1) 4 or 5 iron for tee, fairways & putting or if you don't like long irons take a hybrid,  2) 7 or 8 for approach shots & chipping,  3) your favorite wedge.

[Golfingdad]

This topic came up sometime last year and me and a friend got to talking/debating about it, so we decided to go ahead and try it out.  I chose 3 wood, 8 iron and sand wedge, whereas he chose hydrid, 7 iron and putter.  My goal was to show him how very wrong he was for choosing a putter.  I didn't succeed.  It took me a few holes to get dialed in putting with a wedge, and the couple of tricky greenside shots he left himself with, he was actually able to make decent shots with his 7 iron.  It was basically a wash.  I beat him by one stroke, I believe, and it was kind of ruined anyway because it rained a lot that day.  One day, we'd like to do it again.

After we finished, I decided that if I did it again, I'd still go with the wedge, but I'd drop down from 3 wood to hybrid for a little more versatility, and make up some of that lost distance with a 7 iron over the 8 iron.

If I was playing on a 3 person scramble team, I don't think I would try and get too cute with discussing partners club choices with them - I'd just let them choose whichever 3 they think suit them best and go forth from there.

[Club Rat]

A key strategy is approach shots and par three distances played.

With three players, the burden will be the strongest player hitting fairways to the zones of the team to hit greens for opportunity to score.

Club selection would be having one good putter, best bunker player ( just in case) then the rest for distances on the par 3's.

[Golfingdad]

1 hour ago, Club Rat said:

A key strategy is approach shots and par three distances played.

With three players, the burden will be the strongest player hitting fairways to the zones of the team to hit greens for opportunity to score.

Club selection would be having one good putter, best bunker player ( just in case) then the rest for distances on the par 3's.

Lol, I agree.  The course I tried it at had three/four par threes at 6/7 iron distances, 8 iron didn't quite cut it.  Although it was kind of fun to try and finesse a three wood 170 yards. :P

[DaveP043]

Well, we survived the event, and did pretty well.  I took 3-H, 6, and 56 wedge.  My wife too 4-H, 7, and putter.  The other woman (Louise) took driver, 7, and PW.  Louise hits the ball well off the tee, and we never once needed my drive for distance.  There were lots of places where at least one of us had to "manufacture" something, but we chipped well, and putted pretty well, with Louise making a couple with her 7 and me holing a couple of 10-foot hybrids.  We shot 2-under 70, and with 5 handicap strokes, that was good enough to get a few bucks in prize money.  It was an interesting day, with temps around 40 degrees starting.  We had a light misty rain, increasing to a steady drizzle, working into a pretty solid snowfall by the time we were all in the clubhouse.  Last I looked, we had an inch of snow on the greens.  I am VERY happy to be home, dry, and warm right now.

[DaveP043]

Some of the slower groups had to putt through the snow!

[bkuehn1952]

Thanks for describing an interesting format.

Putting in the snow is not going to lead to many birdies unless one of the clubs is a broom!   

[jsgolfer]

@DaveP043 did any of the men play with a driver? The women don't get much of an advantage at Springfield.  There are only maybe two holes on the front and two holes on he back where they get a decent advantage.  

[DaveP043]

Women here get a big jump.  Louise took a driver, and was often 40 or 50 yards past my hybrid off the tee.  Picking clubs needed to be a team effort.  It was fun, but a miserable day, I'm just glad we survived.

 

[jsgolfer]

27 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

Women here get a big jump.  Louise took a driver, and was often 40 or 50 yards past my hybrid off the tee.  Picking clubs needed to be a team effort.  It was fun, but a miserable day, I'm just glad we survived.

 

Was it worth having one person with a putter?  Sounds like it was fun, need to get SGCC to do some different events like that.

[Hardspoon]

10 minutes ago, jsgolfer said:

Was it worth having one person with a putter?

I think with three it might make sense, but I'm not sure.  I played in a one-club scramble with my 5-iron and found putting remarkably similar to using a putter.  It took some getting used to, but I don't think it would cost me more than a stroke per nine holes or so.

I would also want the longest hitter (taking into account men's/women's tees) to have their driver...wouldn't want to give up the chance at that extra distance.

[ppine]

It is very useful to try playing with a only a few clubs. We used to play a lot of bush golf with only a 5 iron and a wedge.

I remember playing a good par 3 course once and ran into I guy that I met before. He was playing a round with only a 7 iron. He used it to putt with.  It was interesting that he was parring most of the holes. He also played barefoot so he "could absorb the chrlorphyll in the grass through the bottom of his feet."  I never forgot that day.