Teams of 2–4
🏌️How to play a shamble: best drive, then your own ball
A shamble is the happy middle between a scramble and best ball: the whole team tees off, you pick the best drive, and then everyone plays their OWN ball from there to the hole. You get the confidence of a good tee shot every time without giving up individual scores, which means skins, dots, and side matches all still work.
The rules
Everyone tees off. The team chooses the best drive and each player drops within a club-length of it (not nearer the hole), then plays their own ball into the hole. The team score is usually the best one or two net balls on each hole: agree which before you start.
Because every golfer finishes with a real score, a shamble is the rare team format that plays nicely with individual games riding on top.
Why groups love it
It’s forgiving off the tee (nobody’s duck-hook ruins the hole) but still individual from the fairway in, so it keeps the round honest and the side action alive. It’s a favorite outing and member-guest format for exactly that reason.
How Swilkin runs it
Pick Shamble in Swilkin, because everyone keeps their own score, it counts your chosen best-ball rule for the team AND lets skins, birdies and a side match ride on the same scorecard, all settled together at the end.