Okay, so, let me tell you about this golf thing I tried out the other day – it’s called “Shamble” golf. Never heard of it before, but it sounded interesting, so a few buddies and I decided to give it a shot.
We headed out to the local course, clubs in tow, ready to figure this whole Shamble thing out. Basically, the idea is that everyone tees off like normal, but then you pick the best drive out of the group. Seemed simple enough. We’re not exactly pros, so this format sounded pretty forgiving.
Here’s how it went down:
- We all teed off on the first hole. My buddy, Mark, absolutely crushed his drive – right down the middle of the fairway. Naturally, we picked his.
- From there, it was like playing our own individual rounds, but starting from Mark’s awesome drive. We each played our own ball from that spot, all the way into the hole.
- We did this on every hole, every time someone in the group smashed a good drive, we all get to start from that position.
- I shanked a few shots into the woods – no surprise there. But, because we got to start from some pretty good spots thanks to Mark and another friend, John, my overall score wasn’t as terrible as it could have been.
- We tracked our scores individually after that first tee shot, I did much better than last time I played golf.
We decided beforehand that we’d count the two best scores out of our foursome for each hole to get our team score. That meant even if two of us were having a rough time, we could still contribute if one of us managed to pull off a decent score.
By the end of the round, we were all pretty into this Shamble format. It was way more relaxed than a regular round of golf, and it took some of the pressure off since we weren’t solely relying on our own (often questionable) skills. Plus, it was just fun to work together as a team, even if we were all still trying to beat each other individually.
I think the handicap adjustment thing made it fair, too. We used 80% of our total handicap, I just searched online and found this is how others do it. If you’re way better than everyone else, you don’t get as much of an advantage, which is cool.
All in all, I’d definitely recommend giving Shamble golf a try. It’s a great way to mix things up, have a few laughs, and maybe even play a little better than you usually do. We’re already planning our next Shamble outing – maybe this time, I’ll be the one with the killer drive.
