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I'm playing in a 4-man scramble tourney tomorrow that is being put on by my best friend's church. Hopefully cheating and sandbagging will be at a minimum!

Anyway, are there any strategies you have used in such a tourney that you found to be effective? Do you think the order in which the players hit has much effect?

I don't need the obvious suggestions like "use the best hit from the four players"!

Worst player hits first, best player hits last....Have the first couple of drivers to make the "safe" play, and the longest and best hitter go for everything after you have something good already out there.

On the greens, every player should make sure their putt at least gets to the hole, so teammates can see the break.

i always try too let the shortest(distance) or most consistent players go first, let the others swing away as long as the first to hit are in the fairway.

the first putter should definitely be the weakest putter in the group and should have one goal for the day get every ball to the hole at the very minimum....

the other thing is in a four man scramble it is a SIN to drop a shot....absolutely no bogeys are justifiable.

lastly...make more birdies than any other team

Many scrambles make you use a certain number of drives from each player - for example you have to use 2 drives from each person. If this is the case, DO NOT wait until the end of the round to use drives of the weaker players. At the first decent opportunity use their drives, even if it means hitting from the rough, or giving up a few yards.

And I also agree the worst putter go first and ensure they go past the hole - but not to ram it so hard it takes the break out of the putt.

Also, one of the big keys to playing in a scramble - HAVE FUN!

I agree with the strategies outlined above, however, your best player may not be your longest driver. You may want to occasionally move your best driver to the 3rd spot to keep pressure off of him. Swap up the 4th spot.

Watch your first putter carefully to make sure he's making a good swing and not cutting across the ball, pushing, pulling, etc. Otherwise, you won't get a good read from his attempt.

Remember, in these scrambles birdie = par. To have any kind of chance, your team will probably have to come in 15 - 18 under.

Since this is a church scramble, I'm assuming no alcohol is involved?

One of the most obvious things (to me anyway) is to have all 4 players putt from the exact same spot. And make sure everyone sees a spot midway between the ball and the hole that the ball rolled over. Then you can adjust accordingly. Putting is always the key to low scoring in any golf event...especially scrambles. It drives me crazy when I play and the 3 guys in front of me all putt from slightly different spots. Or I try to tell them exactly where I placed the ball and perhaps some mark it went over or next to on the way to the hole...They just drop the ball down a few inches either side of the mark and give it a whack....then when you ask the others what intermediate mark did it go over what they saw and the most common answer is "the short blue jean skirt on the cart girl" ....Me thinks I take my golf too seriously sometimes...

Off the tee you normally would want the shorter, more accurate hitters to go first...however, you may find that a longer hitter may want to go first simply because he gets better results - after a hole or two it'll become evident who the lead batter should be. Same goes for approaches...usually. The best putter should always bat cleanup. Some may disagree but I have found that little is gained by trying to gas it off the tee...encourage everyone to try to stay within themselves and hit the shots they normally would...however, the layout of some holes may make the risk/reward worth trying to cut a corner or fly a bunker assuming there's already a ball safely on the fairway.

Shade

I think you sound like someone who has played in a few and know what you're doing. Good tip.

Most of what has been mentioned is what we've been discussing, so it's nice to reinforce it. We don't have illusions of winning, as we are all mid-high handicaps (or equivalent). But we want to play well. So much will rely on how they place the pins, as the greens on this course are some of the most undulating and sloped I have ever played. What's worse is that you can't count on them all being the same speed. We'll need to stick our shots close to the pins to avoid any putting disasters.

Just don't go for too many sucker pins...GIR's are a must. You'll do no worse with long birdie putts than you will with up and down's, imo.

Shade

in most charity scrambles, there's not a whole lot to be gained by winning anyways, more of a pride/ego thing, some do have cash awards. if you get on a roll, go for it, if not, then just have fun playing and enjoy the comradery, other than the fund raising for the charity, that's what it's all about anyways. enjoy tomorrow ps. supposed to be quite cool in the morning.

I usually let the other guys play safe, and I go pin hunting! Give me 150 yard shot and my 8 iron, or 100-120 with my PW and I'm gonna shoot at the flag every time. I figure for the amount I paid to play and the type of format, I'm gonna have fun and try shots I may not try in a round with money on overall score or skins on the line. Knowing my best friend, he can't do that, he always takes the safe shots, so I'll let him be the anchor and I'll be the showman!

From some of the scrambles I have played in it seemed some of the lower scoring teams strategy was "Drink heavily and Cheat". Being a church tourney both will probably be taken out of the equation. Hope the weather holds up for you, have a good time.