Teams of 2–4
🤝How to play a scramble — golf’s team format explained
The scramble is the outing format everybody can play: every teammate hits, the team picks the best of those shots, and everyone plays their next from that spot — repeat until it’s holed. Nobody’s bad hole ever counts, so a mixed-ability foursome can still shoot a real number and have fun doing it.
The rules
On each shot, every player on the team plays a ball. The team picks the best one, marks the spot, and everyone plays their next shot from within a club-length of it (not nearer the hole). The team records one score per hole — the number of shots it took the chosen ball to get down.
Most groups add a "minimum drives" rule so one bomber can’t carry the team off every tee — you must use at least a set number of each player’s drives across the round.
Handicaps and variants
Scramble handicaps are a fraction of each player’s course handicap blended together (a common split is 35% of the low man plus 15% of the high in a two-man team), so evenly and oddly matched teams both get a fair number.
A shamble is the cousin worth knowing: everyone tees off and the team takes the best DRIVE, but from there each player plays their OWN ball in — so skins and dots can ride alongside it. Alternate shot is the opposite extreme: one ball, partners taking turns.
How Swilkin runs it
Pick Scramble when you set up the round and Swilkin scores the team ball hole by hole, applies the blended scramble handicap for you, and runs it straight into the leaderboard — whether it’s your Saturday foursome or a 60-player outing. Greensomes, alternate shot and shamble are one tap away on the same screen.