We were down in Big Sur for the weekend for a bachelor party. The highlight of the weekend was a round of golf at the Pacific Grove Municipal course. I’ve only played a full round maybe 6 times in my life and this is the only course I’ve played twice. It’s a beautiful course with holes near the ocean with spectacular views. Because we’re all pretty bad, when we’d played before it took forever and was exhausting. To make things suck less, the 5 of us decided to play best ball, with the me and Kojo playing against the trio. We learned later that what we called Best Ball is actually Scramble, and Best Ball really means Best Hole. We all knew what we wanted, so it wasn’t a problem. The main bet was a simple stroke count which we agreed was fair because Kojo was the best player. I also ran side bets with two of the players in the trio about the percentage of balls that they would play. I would have to make 40% of the shots in my round and the two best players in the trio needed to make 40% and 35% of the shots respectively.

My round was the best I’ve ever played, we shot an 87 with me taking 40 and Kojo 47. On the first hole I hit a tee shot within 8 feet of the hole and then sank the putt. That was the only birdie I’ve ever made in my life. I only had a complete whiff once, and I only shanked 1 or 2 other tee shots. All my other drives were clean and my putting was very good as well. My short game is pretty bad though, I can’t hit a sand wedge at all. There was one hole where I hit it onto a different fairway and Kojo hit it onto the correct fairway, but my shot was actually closer to the pin, but Kojo insisted on using his ball. The tee off #12 will forever be known as “the shot that Kojo stole”.

We lost the main bet due to a minor meltdown double bogie on 18th where the other team parred. We pushed on the side bets because every person made their required stroker percentage I needed 40% and made 45%, the other two made their requirements by less than 2%. This is either a clear sign of cheating or brilliant odds making by me. You choose.

All in all, Scramble is a super fun format. It’s much better for us beginners because it prevents the meltdown +4 holes that are so frustrating. I hope to someday play as well as I did.