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It is virtually non-existent in US golf at any level as far as I can tell.
Stableford Scoring System
chrism_s
New member
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Sorry, I must be missing your point here.
The UK stableford basically says playing to handicap equals 36 points (2 points per hole). Stableford is never played on a scratch format ( no handicap).
The frequency of a net birdie or net par doesn't really have a relevance as far as I can see. What we are saying is we give you points based on your net score (same as stroke play / known as medal play in the UK as well). The reason for stableford is it limits the downside as we are counting up not counting down (most points wins not lowest score. That way you are capped at a net double bogey as your worst score, and you can make up for a blob (no score hole) with 2 net birdies, but still keep the stroke play analagy by one stroke less equals one point more.
If you use a power of 2 for all shots better than par you are essentially moving away from the stroke play analogy and weighting scores and performance. That is a perfectly valid way to have a competition but not what stableford was designed for. It was designed to limit downside and keep high handicappers in the game for w hole round even if they lose a ball / blow up.
It really speeds a round up as well as you pick up as soon as you're out of a whole, rather than the medal play where you have to hit countless provisional balls. At my club a medal round will often hit about 4 hrs - 4hrs 15 where as a club competition that is stableford we can usually get done between 3hrs 30 and 4 hrs, depending on the amount of players on the course.
It is the same at my home club with a mix of Stableford and Strokeplay - obviously the Club Championship is strokeplay and there are some other trophy competitions that are the same, but there are a lot of Stableford competitions during the year as well
I find that strange to think about, but then I have known about and played Stableford scoring for a long time so it is just a natural thing to me
MrDC
Well-known member
I'll take modified Stableford over handicap for casual competition any day.
Two of the groups I play with use the Stableford system. One of these groups play different courses every Saturday and has a mandatory 'blind team draw' for every outing. It's a lot of fun! However, if you're posting scores in GHIN you can't always pickup at double.
Anyone is the San Antonio area, sometimes includes Austin courses, is welcome to play - dawgfight dot com.
Anyone is the San Antonio area, sometimes includes Austin courses, is welcome to play - dawgfight dot com.
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For years, our Rack at Walden on Lake Houston used a Stableford point system and it was fun.
Our work league uses a modified Stableford system for scoring and we use it in conjunction with your handicap. 1 point bogey, 2 points par, 4 for birdie and 8 for eagles. We pay out for 1st, 2nd and 3rd every week and your handicap determines how many points you need to get to break even (playing nine holes). For example, my starting handicap for 9 holes is 13, so I need 5 points per 9 to break even (18 - 13 = 5). +1 or +2 usually gets you in the running for prize money, unless you have the odd week where someone was really playing well and scores like +5 or something.
All scores, points and winnings are tracked throughout the season and your starting handicap is revised accordingly (up or down). We have a wide variety of skill levels playing and this format allows everyone to compete for the prizes. Lower handicap players obviously need to get more points than the higher handicap players to be competitive, but in the end most everyone has won prize money.
All scores, points and winnings are tracked throughout the season and your starting handicap is revised accordingly (up or down). We have a wide variety of skill levels playing and this format allows everyone to compete for the prizes. Lower handicap players obviously need to get more points than the higher handicap players to be competitive, but in the end most everyone has won prize money.
I love it, we only use it for like one event a year at my home course
Mark_UK
Legal Alien
I’ve lived here too long. I had completely forgotten about Stableford. I play a sort of skins game within my 3 ball, but next time out, we are definitely playing stableford.
swark
Active member
Agreed - very surprised that stableford isn't commonplace in the US. Speed of play is a massive benefit - stroke events, where players don't pick up after a net double, are at least 30 minutes longer to complete, and sometimes an hour.
In Australia, I can pretty much guarantee that at least one of the weekend competitions is going to be a stableford event. Our major club individual titles (i.e. club championships and monthly medals) are stroke, but the most prestigious pairs events are all stableford format. The thought of only playing stroke events every single weekend is pretty demoralising actually.