Okay, so, I’ve been meaning to try out this “shamble” thing in golf for a while now. It’s like a mix of a scramble and regular stroke play, sounds interesting, right? Well, I finally got around to it last weekend with a few buddies, and let me tell you, it was a blast!
Getting Started
First things first, we picked a sunny Saturday morning and booked a tee time at our local course. Nothing fancy, just a regular public course we all know well. We decided on teams of two, which is pretty standard for a shamble. My partner was this guy, Tom, who’s got a killer drive but sometimes struggles with his short game. I’m more of a consistent player, not super long off the tee, but I can usually keep it in the fairway.
The First Few Holes
So, how does this shamble thing work? We all tee off as usual. Then, we pick the best drive out of the four of us. Let me tell you, it was almost always Tom’s drive! From there, things change. We each played our own ball into the hole from that spot, recording our individual scores. This is where it gets interesting, because you still have that individual competition going on.
Mid-Game Action
- Tee Off: We all hit our drives on each hole. Some were good, some were… well, let’s just say they weren’t our best.
- Select Best Drive: We huddled up and quickly decided whose drive was in the best position.
- Play Our Own Ball: From that best drive location, we each played our own ball the rest of the way into the hole.
- Strategize: Even though we played our own ball, having that good drive to start from really changes the strategy for the hole.
We kept this up for the whole round. Honestly, it was way more fun than I expected. It takes a bit of the pressure off because you’ve got that safety net of the best drive. But, you still want to play well because your own score counts. It really made us think about each shot.
Wrapping Up
By the 18th hole, we were all pretty tired but still having a good time. The shamble format really added a new element to the game. It’s definitely something I’d recommend trying. It promotes teamwork, but you still get to play your own game, I will play it again.
After the round, we grabbed some beers at the clubhouse and compared scores. There was a lot of trash-talking, of course, but it was all in good fun. I ended up shooting a pretty decent score, thanks in part to Tom’s monster drives. We decided to make this shamble thing a regular thing. Who knows, maybe we’ll even start a little league or something. Anyway, that’s my shamble experience. Hope you guys give it a try sometime!
