Medal, Stableford, foursomes or Texas scramble: matching the format to the day

Pin up the fixture list of almost any golf club in Britain and the same words come round every few weeks: monthly medal, Stableford, greensomes, mixed foursomes, Texas scramble at the captain’s charity day. Most golfers enter whatever is on and never ask whether the format suits them. It is worth asking, because the format decides how a bad hole is punished, how long the afternoon lasts and whether the score even reaches your handicap record.

A medal counts every stroke, which makes it the purest test in the game. It also means one triple bogey on the fourth can end a 22-handicapper’s interest before the turn, while the scratch player in the next group barely notices.

The monthly medal and its gentler relatives

Medal is stroke play: every shot counts, every hole is finished, and your net score is the gross total minus your playing handicap.

Rule 21 of the Rules of Golf, written by The R&A, sets out three variations that soften that edge.

Stableford awards points on each hole against a fixed target, normally par, with handicap strokes applied: one point for a net bogey, two for a net par, three for a net birdie, four for a net eagle, and nothing for anything worse. The Rules actively encourage you to stop playing a hole once you cannot score, and the card may show no score for it. Six net pars, eight net bogeys and four lost causes still add up to 32 points, and 36 means you played exactly to your handicap.

The format has a British pedigree. Frank Stableford tried it informally at Glamorganshire Golf Club in Penarth in 1898, and the first proper competition under his system was played at Wallasey Golf Club, on the Wirral, in 1932.

Maximum Score keeps counting strokes but caps each hole at a figure the committee chooses, such as twice par, a fixed number or net double bogey. It is medal with a safety net, and a sensible choice for any field with plenty of high handicaps.

Par or Bogey competitions turn the card into a match against the course: beat the target on a hole and you are one up, exceed it and you are one down. Hence the older name, bogey competition, and it plays exactly like the match play described below.

Stableford also nudges strategy the right way. Once a hole has already yielded its zero there is nothing left to protect, so pick up and walk on. When a shot received makes net birdie realistic, that is the hole on which to take on the flag.

Match play: one hole at a time

In match play the hole, not the round, is the unit of scoring. Take nine on the fifth and you are simply one down; the sixth tee starts from level terms as far as that hole is concerned. It is the format of club knockouts, scratch team matches and every Walker Cup.

That structure makes tactics matter. Play aggressively when you are behind and conservatively when you are ahead. Under Rule 3.2b you may concede your opponent’s next stroke, a hole or the whole match at any moment, and a concession cannot be withdrawn once given. What you may not do is agree with an opponent to concede holes to each other to shorten the match: that is a disqualification.

Order of play follows who is farther from the hole, so this is the one place where ready golf gives way to strict turns, and under Rule 6.4a your opponent may cancel a stroke you play out of turn and make you replay it, unless you agreed to play out of turn to save time. Strokes are given on the holes with the lowest stroke index, and under the World Handicap System the lower handicap plays off zero while the other receives the full difference.

Pairs golf: four-ball, foursomes and greensomes

Four-ball, sometimes called better ball, has each partner playing their own ball, with the lower score counting for the side (Rule 23). If your partner has already made four, you do not even need to hole out. It is the relaxed format of summer evening leagues and of the new Titleist Women’s Four-Ball, a national England Golf competition launched for 2026 in which affiliated clubs ran a Stableford qualifier and submitted their winning pair by 8 July.

Foursomes, which the Rules also call alternate shot, is the classic British pairs format. Two partners share one ball, take turns to tee off (one on the odd holes, the other on the even) and alternate every stroke after that (Rule 22). Partners may share a single set of clubs as long as the total stays at 14, and any provisional ball must be played by whichever partner is due to hit next.

Because half the shots are played and nobody waits for a four-ball to finish, a foursomes match can get round in around three hours. It is also a crash course in course management: you stop trying to reach every green and start leaving your partner 100 yards to a flat part of the fairway, because they are the one who has to play from where you put it. The Walker Cup opens each morning with four foursomes matches, and at Lahinch in September 2026 Great Britain and Ireland won it 13½ to 12½, their first victory since 2015.

Greensomes softens foursomes: both partners drive, the pair picks the better tee shot, and alternate shots take over from there. It is the favourite format of mixed and seniors’ events, because it removes the fear of leaving a partner in the gorse from the tee.

Texas scramble: everybody plays the best ball

Every player in the team tees off, the team chooses the best result, and everyone plays the next shot from that spot, repeating the process until the ball is in the hole. England Golf lists it among the most common club formats, and it is the default at charity days, society outings and corporate golf.

The high handicapper contributes a putt here and a wedge there, the long hitter supplies the drives, and nobody spends the day searching for a lost ball in the rough. A common variant insists on a minimum number of drives from each team member, which keeps the strongest player from carrying the side and gives everyone a stake in the result.

Side games for a three-ball or four-ball

Skins award each hole to the player who wins it outright, and a halved hole rolls its value forward, so a skin can be worth four or five by the back nine and nobody is ever out of it.

Nine points suits a three-ball: five points for the best score on a hole, three for the second and one for the third, with ties split. In Wolf, the player whose turn it is chooses a partner after seeing the drives, or goes alone for double stakes.

All three exist to keep a golfer having a poor day interested on the 15th tee, which is the only test a format needs to pass.

How many shots you actually get

Your Handicap Index converts to a Course Handicap for the tees you are playing, and the committee then applies an allowance for the format to give your Playing Handicap. Scottish Golf publishes a worked example: an Index of 12.0 on a course with a Slope Rating of 127, a Course Rating of 71.5 and a par of 70 gives a Course Handicap of 15, and a 95 per cent allowance turns that into a Playing Handicap of 14.

The allowances The R&A recommends in Appendix C of the Rules of Handicapping are these:

• Individual stroke play and Stableford: 95 per cent for a field of 30 to 100.
• Singles match play: 100 per cent, with the lower handicap playing off zero.
• Four-ball stroke play: 85 per cent.
• Four-ball match play: 90 per cent, strokes taken from the lowest handicap in the group.
• Foursomes match play: 50 per cent of the difference between the two sides’ combined handicaps.

Which rounds count for your handicap

This is where many golfers are misinformed. The Rules of Handicapping let each national association choose its accepted formats, with only individual 18-hole stroke play and Stableford compulsory everywhere. England Golf states plainly that foursomes, greensomes, match play and Texas scramble are not acceptable for handicap purposes. A medal or Stableford played under the Rules is, and it should be submitted whether or not you enjoyed the day.

Choosing a format for the day

• A real test of your game, alone or in a two-ball: medal.
• A club competition you want to finish smiling: Stableford or Maximum Score.
• A friend of similar standard and a pint riding on it: singles match play.
• Two hours of daylight left and a willing partner: foursomes.
• A mixed pairing or a seniors’ morning: greensomes.
• Society day, charity day, handicaps from 8 to 36: Texas scramble.
• A three-ball with a wide spread of ability: nine points or Wolf.

Where to find these formats in Britain

Your own club’s fixture list is the first place to look: medals and Stablefords most weekends, mixed foursomes and greensomes through the summer, and knockout match play running from spring to autumn. Entries go through the pro shop, the competition sheet or the club’s booking app.

Beyond the club, the county bodies listed by England Golf, such as Surrey Golf, Kent Golf or the Yorkshire Union of Golf Clubs, run pairs, team and handicap events, and interclub league matches are where foursomes and singles are still played every week. Golfers without a club can hold a Handicap Index through England Golf’s iGolf subscription at £47 a year, although iGolf does not itself give the right to enter club or county competitions: that remains at the organiser’s discretion.

If your club never puts foursomes on the card, arrange it yourselves. Two pairs, one ball each and a quiet summer evening teach more than most lessons about playing the shot your partner needs rather than the one you fancy.

Panxis Golf has no commercial relationship with any club or association mentioned here.

Start with the fixture card

The competition diary in the clubhouse corridor is the quickest way into the part of golf that keeps people playing for decades. Ask the professional or the competition secretary which event suits a first-timer, put your name on that sheet, and let the format do some of the work for you.