Need someone to shead some light on the topic.

Quick rundown:
Played a traditional 4 man scramble tourney Friday. 3 teams (including mine) were in the clubhouse at -8. Now my first reaction is... ok, in an event of a tie, they'll go to the #1 handicapped hole and lowest score on that hole would win. (If that was the case, the other 2 groups pared it and we birdied it.) But the club pro who did the scorecards did the tiebreaker in a totally different way, and stated that the group with the lowest back 9 was the winner, and that its a USGA ruling. It kind of sounds bush league, but the tourney is for a good cause so I didnt make much out of the ruling.
Does this ruling sound familiar to anyone???
Thanks
<3 my
