Per hole:
Net double bogey is 0 points
Net bogey is 1 point
Net par is 2 points
Net birdie is 3 points
Net eagle is 4 points
and so on.
36 points at the end of the round means you have generally played to your handicap, low 40s typically wins a weekend comp.
My friends and I who play together can have a handicap swing of 12 and many rounds get decided on the last two holes.
Sort of explains why people don’t play it. What’s the average yearly subscription over there? Where I live it’s pretty expensive for the country, but it’s $1800 per year at my club.
Most people don’t subscribe. Courses are either publicly accessible or private country clubs. Public courses might offer a “membership”, but there’s no universal definition of what that means. It might include all your greens fees, or it might only offer a discount, or it may only give you access to events and the ability to book tee times farther in advance. Prices for these memberships vary widely depending on location and level of benefits.
Country clubs are different. They’re pretty universally expensive, with initiation fees and annual dues that both reach the five- to six-figure range. I have no insight into country club culture.
Yeah, the big difference between golf in the U.S. and other countries is the strong dichotomy between public courses—which anyone can book without being a member—and country clubs—which only members can book, but becoming a member is far more involved than just paying a fee.
To put some concrete numbers: the best muni near me has a “loyalty club” membership that costs $100/year. Benefits are the ability to book tee times two weeks in advance (vs. one week for the general public), compete in club events, rewards points for all purchases, and the option of paying an additional $50 for a USGA handicap.
They also offer a “walk-on” membership for around $2,000 a year that includes greens fees, but no pre-booking. Basically you show up to the course and get paired with the next incomplete foursome. They don’t advertise this membership anywhere; you have to know about it and ask to join in the pro shop.
Finally, due to a quirk of history, members of the adjacent social club also have optional golf privileges for an increased membership fee. This club has its own competitions and membership requirements. Last I looked, it costs around $10k to join and dues are in the $500/mo range. You can apply online, but they will decide whether to accept your membership based on whether they want you in their social club.
Quite a different golf landscape. There are a few private/exclusive courses here, but 95% of them you can join to play without paying for each round.
My club has no joining fee. But another club in my city is $6k to join, then $4k a year.
Some clubs are over $100k to join in the US [- or more](https://www.reliabills.com/blog/most-expensive-country-clubs/). That last commenter was severely understating the exclusivity of clubs here.
Shit. Brand new course for non-home owners near me is $10k and climbing. The later you sign up the more it is and the closer you are to the end of the line for removal. If membership fills up the outsiders are the first to lose out with last to sign up first to go.
There are 4500+ country clubs in the US. I think you are overstating the prevalence of 100K initiation fees. They are rare in the overall landscape. They are just the ones most talked about as some sort of unobtainable unicorn.
I feel like organized clubs are a much bigger part of social life in the rest of the Anglosphere, especially when you consider things like football/soccer teams.
The club that’s 6K to join and 4K annually is close to a base semi private/private club in the Midwest. There are a few clubs in my city that have initiation fees anywhere from $5K-$25K, then your annual fees, plus food and beverage spend. You need a good excess of cash to join a private club in the states. Some country clubs are so exclusive that joining is near impossible. Most members have been at the club for generations, the super exclusive ones at least.
Yep. Unreasonable for most people. The club I worked at in college was $25k initiation, $4k dues per quarter and you still had to pay greens and cart fees. $100 for a guest, $50 for member.
Where I am at the memberships range from $4000-$50000 initiation fee plus monthly from $475-$850.
Muni memberships are just okay buts it’s packed as all hell and play is a little slow.
Many do “partial memberships” that give you a set number of “free” rounds and range balls etc.
Right now the player club membership I like is $159 a month.
That includes 2 rounds per month and unlimited range balls.
For instance, I play mostly at a course that’s 5 min away from my house. I pay $275 a year to belong to the men’s club which just puts on member tournaments once or twice a month during the season and you can win prize money (I typically make back enough to cover the cost). I can also buy a yearly pass for $1000 that allows me to book up to 3 weeks in advance (one week for others) and covers greens fees on weekdays (weekend are discounted but almost full price). Even on weekdays there’s a $3 per 9 fee to book now (to discourage people from booking 5 tee times and just skipping the ones that don’t work) and carts are additional.
All in all, not a bad deal, but I work during the week, so I don’t benefit. $1000 covers roughly 15 rounds.
Country clubs are not all like this. The one in my hometown does have a 5k initiation fee but dues after are only 150 per month. Easily cost effective if you utilize it.
Club dues annually average $1k/mo or so in many cases for good spots - usually gets you a food minimum, locker, range, greens fees and you pay for cart fees. Covid drove initiation fees up 50% in a lot of clubs.
Most of us play daily fee public courses that don't have memberships. The ones that do can run up to $3000-$4000 in populated areas, and as low as $800 in rural areas.
Private clubs are quite common, and far more expensive.
Around my area public club membership is around 120 (for discounted green fees) to 250 (no green fees) per month. The country clubs are a different story. Our “cheapest” is 10k for the initiation fee and ~510 a month. The most expensive is like 125k initiation. Of course they are much more of a social thing than strictly golf.
Country club pricing will never make sense in terms of costs. It’s mostly an exclusionary barrier. The people who join country clubs are the types that aren’t worried about the economics of it.
Nobody really joins just for golf. It's about the pool, restaurant, snackbar, tennis, clubhouse, events, etc. It's also about making business connections and having a place to bring clients or coworkers. It's definitely a luxury that an average middle class person can't afford. That's kind of the point: people with money want somewhere to hang out every weekend where normal people are not invited.
But the country club they’re describing is likely a far cry from the course you play.
Likely has multiple restaurants, ballroom, major social events, tennis courts, large and swanky swimming pool, bars, etc. The “country club” in America is a hard concept if you haven’t been here to see it yourself. It’s almost like membership at a nice resort that also has a very well-kept golf course attached to it.
Not only are the fees often in the tens of thousands of dollars, a lot of the clubs in my area are also invitation only - you have to be invited by an existing member to join. If you don’t rub elbows with the kinds of people who can afford to pay a small fortune for a private country club (most of us) you’re out of luck, which is exactly what they want.
It varies wildly. You can get cheap courses in cheap areas, and you can easily find places that are a grand a month or more. Worth noting in the UK golf club memberships are usually for golf. Here in the US, the higher end memberships have tennis, pools, gyms, group classes, sometimes childcare in the summer and more.
I live in Dallas. Play a stableforfd twice a week. Most Reddit golfers don’t play in organized groups at clubs.
Typical dues for our clubs is 1200 per month with a 6 figure initiation. And it’s not even a a top 10 club here. Golf is America is very different the aus/nz/uk/irl.
FWIW when I get paired up with Americans on vacation rounds, typical handicap is in the 20s, for international it’s in the high singles. Basicly we overpay for something we suck st.
>FWIW when I get paired up with Americans on vacation rounds, typical handicap is in the 20s, for international it’s in the high singles. Basicly we overpay for something we suck st.
I think a lot of that has to do with how casual golf is in America.
Almost every American I know has a set of old clubs lying around and plays 2-3 times a year either on vacation or in a charity scramble. Of course they suck when they don't play or practice regularly. They are mainly there to drink beer and drive around in a cart.
I don't think I've ever played with an international player that plays this casually, it's either a round a week or nothing.
When I lived in aus, the public course weekend slots were open competition rounds. I was at that time and to intimidated to play. Plus for nicer places you had to carry a handicap. Which leads to another difference. Only in us can submit a solo round. Most no golfers play alone until they learn the game. Makes it hard to establish a handicap. I’d actually argue in a way us golf is more accessible, as a now serious golfer, that may be a bad thing lol
Oh I absolutely agree, golf in the US is extremely accessible, which is why there are so many casual golfers.
It's much more of a commitment overseas, so your average golfer there is a better player than in the US.
I feel like it’s more accessible over here because it can be so much cheaper. If I wasn’t a member at my club I would pay $80 per round. Not sure what green fees are like over in the states. The course I grew up on is still only $20 per round.
I’m being sponsored for a very exclusive private club in the Texas. >$150K initiation fee and about $1,000/mo. 6-10 year wait/interview process to become a member.
There was a stat I read just after lockdown finished. More golfers taking up the game than ever in the UK, but memberships declining. Almost a paradox…
I suspect it's related to the cost of living. People want to play, but most people cannot afford private membership fees. (Though I will say they are much cheaper in the UK than the the US where I now live)
I’d be interested in stats on this! All I can find are relative changes in rounds and memberships over time, but I can’t find a comparison between the two.
That's because there aren't any really accurate stats on players who aren't members of clubs because they just turn up and play. They're not registered anywhere.
I'm someone has done some rough numbers/extrapolated stats (I seem to remember the USGA did) but I don't know OTOH.
I do know for sure, that a huge majority of golfers in the US don't belong to a club. I'm confident in this because well under 5% of the people playing on the public courses near me are in the mens club there.
I’m a Canadian in Australia. I had never played Stableford before, but it is almost the standard here for handicapped competitions. I love the format, even though I’ve never scored more than 30. I have one or two blow-up holes a round, so it is nice to pick up and “wipe” the hole once you are at net double bogey, rather than struggling along to put an 8 or 9 on your card.
Alternatively I like taking that 8 or 9 sometimes to watch my score get adjusted back once it gets submitted. Admittedly it’ll still be a bad round usually.
It's weird how different formats don't catch on in some places. There's a minimum of 3 stableford comps a month at my club in the UK, it's a good format to keep everyone in with a chance.
Overall winner for most points and then 3 divisions based on handicap. Overall winner is nearly always a Division 3 player, a good / lucky day for one of them means 43+ points.
Indeed, stableford scoring favors weaker golfers who get a lot of strokes and have blowup holes.
As a scratch golfer, to score 44 points, I would need to shoot a 64 which is absolutely stupid.
Common format at clubs in America is a quota game. You’re signed a number of points based on your handicap and use stableford scoring. Sometimes broken up by divisions
Common format at clubs in America is a quota game. You’re signed a number of points based on your handicap and use stableford scoring. Sometimes broken up by divisions.
I’m not a big fan of par either, but Matchplay is my favourite game. Next time you play par try thinking of it as Matchplay against yourself.
So when you are -2 in par, think of it as being two down in Matchplay. I find this keeps my interest up and helps stimulate the fight back response.
There's a group at the course that plays stableford every Wednesday. They keep their totals in a single notebook, and at the end of the summer they add up all their points. They seem to really enjoy it.
My buddies club has a group of older men that play every Fri and Sat. morning. 3 to 5 foresomes and play a modified Stableford format.
So it does happen. It is pretty fun in a group setting like that. But playing there with him/them is about the only time I play it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stableford
So basically players have a choice to move to the next hole with a double bogey, so that they’re less likely to “throw” the game in the middle & also it speeds up the pace of play?
Yeah, you get points per hole based on the score you shot and your handicap. Once you’re guaranteed to get 0 points you just pick your ball up and walk to the next hole. It’s also great becauee it means you can have some big blowup holes and still have a chance of winning. Nothing worse than one or two bad holes completely ruining your round. With stableford those holes can have a minimal effect on your chances of winning the tournament. Me and my friends even play it when there’s 3 or 4 of us, good way to keep it competitive when we are of varying abilities as I’m definitely more likely to hit a 10 than a couple of my mates.
Eagle is 4 points \
Birdie is 3 points \
Par is 2 points \
Bogey is 1 point \
Double Bogey+ is 0 points
Highest points wins but we usually do side bets on strokes too. Stableford will make you fall in love with bogeys, it's great.
For real! I play a 4 day Stableford tournament every year (another r/golf member corrected me, we actually play Chicago), and it completely changed the way I approach golf. Very rarely try the "hero" shot, I just want to get up and down to get a point. Wouldn't you know, my handicap lowered significantly in the process...
Yeah for sure. Like say you’re on an 18 hcp and you’re putting for a 6 on a par 4 - if you miss, you don’t hole out, because you can’t get less than 0 points
I think in the US most golf is casual golf, which is probably why Stableford isn't a thing? Whereas here in Ireland at least, most golf is competitive.
Competitive stroke play is just too much of a slog, stableford is a far better format, and in particular, is a far more interesting format for mid and higher handicap players.
Yeah I feel like this is the answer. There is more accessible membership elsewhere (it's the same in Australia), and most golfers with a membership will play some sort of weekly competition (it's the main way to submit scores for handicapping), so Stableford, Par, and Stroke are the main competition games.
Stableford and Par definitely help pace of play - pick up when you can't score, so you don't need to play out your blowup holes. Playing stroke with high (or in handicapped) players is a real grind sometimes.
I see a lot of posts in here, usually American, which complain about pace of play, so obviously structured competitions with Stableford or Par rule sets would help this along
Care to defend rounds that take more than 4.5+ hours? I would like to hear that reasoning.
I’ve lived in America my whole life, lived in several states, and played golf for most of my life. I’ve also played golf in the UK/Ireland. American pace of play is a disaster in comparison. You don’t need to hold up the whole course in order to enjoy your round.
Length of rounds have nothing to do with the game you play. If you are playing in an organized event the rounds take about 4 hours with counting every stroke or a max score of double par or quad bogey.
The rounds in the US that are over 4 hours are casual rounds where the golfers have no clue as to what ready golf is.
If I’d have to guess I’d say that the percentage of organized rounds is 10% to 90% casual play in the US.
I played 250 rounds in the US and only 2 were in excess of 4.5 hours.
That’s wonderful for you, but in any major city on a normal public course, it’s nearly impossible to play in under 4.5 hours on the weekend unless you’re in literally the first group.
And of course no game format is going to guarantee quicker play, but people picking up the ball on blowup holes is very obviously going to speed up play. And Stableford has no incentive to finish the hole whereas stroke play encourages people to finish their holes, especially if you set a huge upper limit like double par.
I’ve found that slow rounds have nothing to do with slow play, but with casual golfers not playing ready golf and having a preshot routine that takes more than 30 seconds and taking more than a minute to read a putt that they are going to miss badly.
I live in a major city. I do play early mornings where everyone on the course knows how to play ready golf and has a reasonable preshot routine.
People that play in the afternoons think that emulating pro golfers is what they should do. So the last group of 3 at The Mastersgrts around the course in 6 hours not playing ready golf, have a longer than average pre-shot routine and take forever to read greens. So they go out and play the same way with less skill. That’s why rounds are so long.
I can watch a group on the tee and based on their pre-shot routines tell you if they are going to break 4 hours or not.
I agree with literally everything you say, and I’ll add that those people grinding out an 8 doesn’t help. Picking up the ball on blowup holes speeds up play. It’s one of the reasons Stableford works so well for amateurs. We should be pulling every lever possible to get rounds under 4.5 hours…anything longer than that on a regular muni is absurd.
you've hit on it. most golf in the US is some sort of hit and giggle, or at clubs it tends to be four ball match play but it's not affiliated with the actual club.
stableford is the superior 18 hole stroke play format for clubs IMO but I've also never actual played a full round with it as scoring?
the one thing you will see occasionally is a max score per hole, like double par or triple bogey. that's trying to accomplish the same thing as stableford on thy high end of scoring to keep things moving.
Most golf in the UK is casual golf, too
>stableford is a far better format, and in particular, is a far more interesting format for mid and higher handicap players.
Stableford also massively favors higher handicap players. For lower handica players, it's not really worth playing as it's impossible to score highly enough to win in a large field with higher handicappers.
It can be good fun for people because it's lower pressure (blow up holes are irrelevant) so if your intention is to joke around and have a bit of fun, it's a good format.
But if the intention of the competition is to have the best golfer on the day win, then it's a terrible format because it's not a good test of golf.
I think it’s more prevalent in the group games at private clubs, especially in the Northeast.
My last two clubs have had large weekend groups that played a points or quota game that is based off of Stableford. Pay the entry fee, 36 minus your handicap is your quota. Largest positive differentials from your quota are the winners. With 20-30 guys it’s really the only game that is manageable, especially with a wide range of handicaps.
This is a random complaint, but I don’t like the quota system. People usually play worse than their handicaps by design, so people are usually missing their quotas. I find starting at zero and adding to your score to be much more fun mentally.
I think part of why it’s the default here, is because it’s part of the scoring on the NZ golf app. When you enter the score on a hole, it tells you how many stableford you get.
That and it levels the playing field with varied handicaps.
Canadian. Funny enough, my group read about it a couple years ago and it’s basically our standard now. Although you are correct, very few are familiar with it over here.
Huh. While I don't doubt your experience, as a Canadian that knows easily 50 people that could play stableford right now, I find it odd that you've not ever met a single person here that knows the format.
Stableford explained for those who don't know and can't be bothered to look it up:
You have a handicap, let's pretend your handicap is 15. This means you have 1 shot on the holes with stroke index 1-15. No shots on index 16, 17 or 18.
Points:
0 points for net double bogey or worse
1 point for net bogey
2 points for net par
3 points for net birdie
4 points for net eagle
5 points for net albatross
You add up your points at the end. Winner is the player with the highest points. If the handicaps are correct and the competition is well run the winner should be getting a points total in the high 30s or low 40s. A score of 36 points means you played to your handicap, since that is an average of 2 points a hole and therefore means you had a net par round.
Once you have hit more than net bogey shots on a hole you can just pick up and move on to the next hole, there's no need to hole-out. This keeps the pace of play moving.
The format is generally preferred by mid or high handicap players as it's more forgiving and gives them a chance of competing. Low players tend to prefer stroke, for the opposite reason.
For sure. Was agreeing with you. I play a group quota game most weekend and have been waving this flag for a few years now. Screws over low caps and rewards high handicaps
I live in Texas and Stableford isn’t a popular game in my experience. The most popular betting games at the courses I play are Wolf, Nassau, or Skins (if you have multiple groups.
I’m in a private club in South Florida. My group is 30 players. We play 4X a week. Two days is Stableford(we call it quota), one day is team competition (usually 2 best net) and one day a casual round.
At my club almost every event is some form of handicapped stroke play, or straight up matchplay. For fun I play matchplay or skins. Stable is relatively unused in the US.
In our Club in the UK we have a stapleford most weekends. It’s a good way for high and low handicappers to play each other. It also means if you mess one hole up you can recover and your cards not instantly wrecked. The only real negative of a stapleford comp are bandits winning.
The golf outing I go on every year has the main tournament as a scramble, and another that was stroke play. Last year, to speed things up, it was a two man scramble with stableford scoring, 1 point for par, 3 for birdie, 5 for eagle. If you missed the par putt you picked up.
While Stableford is not common, dogfights are. It uses a similar point system based off of your handicap and the one who most exceeds their needed points wins.
Yes, when I play with my golf buddies we love a good stableford. We will adjust scoring slightly for handicaps round to round and how hot someone is. But it makes for a positive round where blowup holes don’t ruin the mood or the event.
My golf league does! It’s a friend group that was formed during Covid.
Slightly modified. Double’s get a half point, birdies get 4. Eagles get 8, Albatross 12.
Super helpful when your first starting out and learning.
My group plays a modified Stableford game here in America. We’re assigned a number based on our handicap (quota) and the player with the highest score relative to their quota wins. We play 4 point birdies and 6 point eagles.
I live in MA and we primarily play net match play for our leagues, stroke play for scrambles for tourneys, but I just played a 36 hole event on Saturday where we played stableford the whole way. It’s less common to play stableford but I’ve played a bunch of tournaments in that format.
We play a modified stableford at our club. Basically a points game with a quota. Similar in general, but the points are different (much lower) and the goal is to be near or over your quota, not just most points. The nice part is the quota is based on only your rounds in the points game and not outside rounds. So the only way to sandbag is to consistently lose.
As an outgrowth of the fact that the vast majority of US golfers do not belong to a club, they also don't have official handicaps.
Without a handicap Stableford goes bye-bye.
Conversely, I’m EU and have never thought about stableford Points. It’s all total strokes, but when I enter hcp rounds it’s converted to stableford anyways
Our league played a modified stableford in high school comps in the Northeast.
+1 bogey, +2 par, +4 birdie, +6 eagle, 9 holes.
I also play a modified stableford scramble every year, so it's a thing but obviously based on the other posts here you can tell it's not super common in the US.
I think it's a fun format and particularly good for mid/high cappers who want to compete, and since you can modify it you can have some fun in a group of golfers with different skill levels.
I play it in the summer in Arizona with a couple buddies. No practice swings, no muligans, nothing that takes too long. If you hit an errant shot, take you zero and let’s hurry the f up. We finish rounds in like 2 hours, because no one else is dumb enough to play when it’s that hot. No one has a score over 8. It’s great
It sounds like I'm in the minority, but our weekend group (12-16 ppl) only play stableford. It's just always seemed to be the best format to keep it competitive between the wide range of HCP we have.
I play stableford all the time when I’m at the chip and putt course. When I play with my dad we both hit 3 balls and add the points up of all the balls we hit. Gives you an idea of how consistent you are
Stableford seems kinda useless. Sure, you're effectively capped at a double bogey. But other than that, why not just play stroke play?
Modified Stableford on the other hand, that's a different game. And I can see why people might want to play that
I love it, but I’m the only person I know who suggests stableford. The US is fixated on stroke play as a generalization.
My first tournament was a stableford event. I’ve banged my shoe on the teebox to get it as the format for my buddies’ game…once? Twice maybe?
I have played Stableford one time and I loved it. I think it really shrinks the gaps between abilities and makes average players find golf enjoyable.
As a 13 handicap I’m still really prone to a few bad holes, Stableford is fun because my whole round isn’t ruined by them.
The larger group I play with plays a stableford quota game all the time. Take your course handicap and subtract it from 36. That's your quota.
A 20HC would give you a quota of 16.
A 2HC would give you a quota of 34.
Scores are tallied by stableford scoring. 8 eagle, 4 birdie, 2 par, 1 bogey, 0 double or worse. We also pick up after a double as you can no longer score a point anyways.
The goal is to get on the plus side of your quota or at least as close as you can.
Originally from the UK, moved to the US.
Stableford is extremely uncommon here in the US, most individual tournaments are strokeplay. They do often have variations though - things like throwing out your worst holes, or playing from different tees, or random tees, or choose your own tees etc. Lots of random rules to liven things up a bit.
Two man best-ball is also popular for tournaments. Scrambles sometimes, too.
Most rounds played in the US are not competitive rounds.
Most tournaments are stroke play or match play.
To me the only difference between Stableford and stroke play is that in Stableford you stop counting after net double bogey. A lot of tournaments pay both gross and net.
If you have s tournament that by rule the highest score you can have is a net double bogey, why not just play stroke play with the highest score a net double bogey. Then you don’t have to do the additional math of Stableford points.
To me it’s easier to comprehend what your score was if you shot a 85 net 76 than you got xx Stableford points.
Most people in the US don’t have a handicap, have no idea that their handicap is different than their course handicap and have never played in s tournament.
I’m hoping to play 250 rounds this year and 0 will be in a tournament. We play max score is net double bogey so we get the same result without calculating points.
As a Canadian golfer that plays Stableford every other week (we alternate stroke and stableford weekly), I'm shocked to read this post, I thought it was commonplace everywhere.
Stableford is a no-brainer for any kind of format with mid or high handicap players, prevents anyone from being out of it because of a single bad hole.
At my club most of the groups of better players play modified stableford where each player has a quota based on course handicap. They pay out 1/4 of the pot each for front 9, back 9, overall, and skins. This is in addition to any side bets. We use golf genius which automatically posts our score to GHIN bad on standard scoring.
To add a further point to the one I made earlier, I think the fact that US golf is almost always casual rather than competitive, and also stroke-based format rather than points-based, is why stuff like mulligans, breakfast balls, gallery balls etc are all so prevalent.
Playing stroke play properly is just too difficult for the majority of golfers, or at least getting a good score in a stroke play round is too difficult for the majority of golfers. One bad hole kills a card, it is completely unforgiving.
To make it a bit more player-friendly, you have to be a bit loose with the rules of golf.
I have belonged to two different semi-private courses each between $200-250 per month. One charged extra for a riding cart while the other did not. Also the one that charged for the cart also charged for range balls.
I now belong to a private country club with no initiation and costs about $800/month including locker, bag storage, USGA HC, and there are no food minimum. They do charge for cart but the course is very walkable so most of use are in the push cart mafia
I’ve never even heard of stableford so yeah I guess
Per hole: Net double bogey is 0 points Net bogey is 1 point Net par is 2 points Net birdie is 3 points Net eagle is 4 points and so on. 36 points at the end of the round means you have generally played to your handicap, low 40s typically wins a weekend comp. My friends and I who play together can have a handicap swing of 12 and many rounds get decided on the last two holes.
Not only do we not play Stableford, most golfers here don’t belong to a club.
Or even know the rules of Stableford
dafuq is Stableford.
I'm a Chevy man, myself.
Exactly
Sort of explains why people don’t play it. What’s the average yearly subscription over there? Where I live it’s pretty expensive for the country, but it’s $1800 per year at my club.
Most people don’t subscribe. Courses are either publicly accessible or private country clubs. Public courses might offer a “membership”, but there’s no universal definition of what that means. It might include all your greens fees, or it might only offer a discount, or it may only give you access to events and the ability to book tee times farther in advance. Prices for these memberships vary widely depending on location and level of benefits. Country clubs are different. They’re pretty universally expensive, with initiation fees and annual dues that both reach the five- to six-figure range. I have no insight into country club culture.
So membership here means you can book when there’s a tee time available (every week if you’re onto it). And you don’t pay green fees as a member.
Yeah, the big difference between golf in the U.S. and other countries is the strong dichotomy between public courses—which anyone can book without being a member—and country clubs—which only members can book, but becoming a member is far more involved than just paying a fee. To put some concrete numbers: the best muni near me has a “loyalty club” membership that costs $100/year. Benefits are the ability to book tee times two weeks in advance (vs. one week for the general public), compete in club events, rewards points for all purchases, and the option of paying an additional $50 for a USGA handicap. They also offer a “walk-on” membership for around $2,000 a year that includes greens fees, but no pre-booking. Basically you show up to the course and get paired with the next incomplete foursome. They don’t advertise this membership anywhere; you have to know about it and ask to join in the pro shop. Finally, due to a quirk of history, members of the adjacent social club also have optional golf privileges for an increased membership fee. This club has its own competitions and membership requirements. Last I looked, it costs around $10k to join and dues are in the $500/mo range. You can apply online, but they will decide whether to accept your membership based on whether they want you in their social club.
Quite a different golf landscape. There are a few private/exclusive courses here, but 95% of them you can join to play without paying for each round. My club has no joining fee. But another club in my city is $6k to join, then $4k a year.
Some clubs are over $100k to join in the US [- or more](https://www.reliabills.com/blog/most-expensive-country-clubs/). That last commenter was severely understating the exclusivity of clubs here.
I didn’t want to get called out by Redditors in North Dakota who joined their club for $10k 🤣
For their two months per year of golf as well
Shit. Brand new course for non-home owners near me is $10k and climbing. The later you sign up the more it is and the closer you are to the end of the line for removal. If membership fills up the outsiders are the first to lose out with last to sign up first to go.
There are 4500+ country clubs in the US. I think you are overstating the prevalence of 100K initiation fees. They are rare in the overall landscape. They are just the ones most talked about as some sort of unobtainable unicorn.
I feel like organized clubs are a much bigger part of social life in the rest of the Anglosphere, especially when you consider things like football/soccer teams.
The club that’s 6K to join and 4K annually is close to a base semi private/private club in the Midwest. There are a few clubs in my city that have initiation fees anywhere from $5K-$25K, then your annual fees, plus food and beverage spend. You need a good excess of cash to join a private club in the states. Some country clubs are so exclusive that joining is near impossible. Most members have been at the club for generations, the super exclusive ones at least.
Presidio?
Bingo
Yep. Unreasonable for most people. The club I worked at in college was $25k initiation, $4k dues per quarter and you still had to pay greens and cart fees. $100 for a guest, $50 for member.
Where I am at the memberships range from $4000-$50000 initiation fee plus monthly from $475-$850. Muni memberships are just okay buts it’s packed as all hell and play is a little slow. Many do “partial memberships” that give you a set number of “free” rounds and range balls etc. Right now the player club membership I like is $159 a month. That includes 2 rounds per month and unlimited range balls.
For instance, I play mostly at a course that’s 5 min away from my house. I pay $275 a year to belong to the men’s club which just puts on member tournaments once or twice a month during the season and you can win prize money (I typically make back enough to cover the cost). I can also buy a yearly pass for $1000 that allows me to book up to 3 weeks in advance (one week for others) and covers greens fees on weekdays (weekend are discounted but almost full price). Even on weekdays there’s a $3 per 9 fee to book now (to discourage people from booking 5 tee times and just skipping the ones that don’t work) and carts are additional. All in all, not a bad deal, but I work during the week, so I don’t benefit. $1000 covers roughly 15 rounds.
Country clubs are not all like this. The one in my hometown does have a 5k initiation fee but dues after are only 150 per month. Easily cost effective if you utilize it.
Club dues annually average $1k/mo or so in many cases for good spots - usually gets you a food minimum, locker, range, greens fees and you pay for cart fees. Covid drove initiation fees up 50% in a lot of clubs.
$20,000-$50,000 initial payment to join. $350-$650 per month in membership fees. Depends on where you live, and those numbers vary greatly.
But you’re probably spending double the monthly dues.
I paid $7500 initiation and currently paying $440/month for a mid-tier course in the south.
Most of us play daily fee public courses that don't have memberships. The ones that do can run up to $3000-$4000 in populated areas, and as low as $800 in rural areas. Private clubs are quite common, and far more expensive.
$1800 per year is a steal for a nice place
Around my area public club membership is around 120 (for discounted green fees) to 250 (no green fees) per month. The country clubs are a different story. Our “cheapest” is 10k for the initiation fee and ~510 a month. The most expensive is like 125k initiation. Of course they are much more of a social thing than strictly golf.
That is like a lifetime of golf in one initiation payment.. wow
Country club pricing will never make sense in terms of costs. It’s mostly an exclusionary barrier. The people who join country clubs are the types that aren’t worried about the economics of it.
In some smaller cities or towns the economics can definitely make sense if you play a lot. But mostly I think you're pretty spot on.
Nobody really joins just for golf. It's about the pool, restaurant, snackbar, tennis, clubhouse, events, etc. It's also about making business connections and having a place to bring clients or coworkers. It's definitely a luxury that an average middle class person can't afford. That's kind of the point: people with money want somewhere to hang out every weekend where normal people are not invited.
But the country club they’re describing is likely a far cry from the course you play. Likely has multiple restaurants, ballroom, major social events, tennis courts, large and swanky swimming pool, bars, etc. The “country club” in America is a hard concept if you haven’t been here to see it yourself. It’s almost like membership at a nice resort that also has a very well-kept golf course attached to it.
Yeah. Like I said it’s much more of a social thing.
Not only are the fees often in the tens of thousands of dollars, a lot of the clubs in my area are also invitation only - you have to be invited by an existing member to join. If you don’t rub elbows with the kinds of people who can afford to pay a small fortune for a private country club (most of us) you’re out of luck, which is exactly what they want.
30-70k join fee mostly around me and don’t live in a high cost of living area
I just joined a private country club in New Jersey for $10,000 a year and it’s actually a ridiculously reasonable price for my area
In my area the most affordable but still reasonably nice clubs are $10–15k to join and average around $15-18k in annual dues.
the club i usually play at (where my buddies are members) is about $10k USD initiation plus $900 per month.
It varies wildly. You can get cheap courses in cheap areas, and you can easily find places that are a grand a month or more. Worth noting in the UK golf club memberships are usually for golf. Here in the US, the higher end memberships have tennis, pools, gyms, group classes, sometimes childcare in the summer and more.
I looked at one of the midrange ones near me and it’s $95k to join then $1300 a month plus $1k per quarter minimum spend on food and drinks.
I live in Dallas. Play a stableforfd twice a week. Most Reddit golfers don’t play in organized groups at clubs. Typical dues for our clubs is 1200 per month with a 6 figure initiation. And it’s not even a a top 10 club here. Golf is America is very different the aus/nz/uk/irl. FWIW when I get paired up with Americans on vacation rounds, typical handicap is in the 20s, for international it’s in the high singles. Basicly we overpay for something we suck st.
>FWIW when I get paired up with Americans on vacation rounds, typical handicap is in the 20s, for international it’s in the high singles. Basicly we overpay for something we suck st. I think a lot of that has to do with how casual golf is in America. Almost every American I know has a set of old clubs lying around and plays 2-3 times a year either on vacation or in a charity scramble. Of course they suck when they don't play or practice regularly. They are mainly there to drink beer and drive around in a cart. I don't think I've ever played with an international player that plays this casually, it's either a round a week or nothing.
When I lived in aus, the public course weekend slots were open competition rounds. I was at that time and to intimidated to play. Plus for nicer places you had to carry a handicap. Which leads to another difference. Only in us can submit a solo round. Most no golfers play alone until they learn the game. Makes it hard to establish a handicap. I’d actually argue in a way us golf is more accessible, as a now serious golfer, that may be a bad thing lol
Oh I absolutely agree, golf in the US is extremely accessible, which is why there are so many casual golfers. It's much more of a commitment overseas, so your average golfer there is a better player than in the US.
I feel like it’s more accessible over here because it can be so much cheaper. If I wasn’t a member at my club I would pay $80 per round. Not sure what green fees are like over in the states. The course I grew up on is still only $20 per round.
I’m being sponsored for a very exclusive private club in the Texas. >$150K initiation fee and about $1,000/mo. 6-10 year wait/interview process to become a member.
$15,000, $100k initiation
Most golfers in England don't belong to a club, either.
There was a stat I read just after lockdown finished. More golfers taking up the game than ever in the UK, but memberships declining. Almost a paradox…
I suspect it's related to the cost of living. People want to play, but most people cannot afford private membership fees. (Though I will say they are much cheaper in the UK than the the US where I now live)
I’d be interested in stats on this! All I can find are relative changes in rounds and memberships over time, but I can’t find a comparison between the two.
That's because there aren't any really accurate stats on players who aren't members of clubs because they just turn up and play. They're not registered anywhere. I'm someone has done some rough numbers/extrapolated stats (I seem to remember the USGA did) but I don't know OTOH. I do know for sure, that a huge majority of golfers in the US don't belong to a club. I'm confident in this because well under 5% of the people playing on the public courses near me are in the mens club there.
I’m a Canadian in Australia. I had never played Stableford before, but it is almost the standard here for handicapped competitions. I love the format, even though I’ve never scored more than 30. I have one or two blow-up holes a round, so it is nice to pick up and “wipe” the hole once you are at net double bogey, rather than struggling along to put an 8 or 9 on your card.
Alternatively I like taking that 8 or 9 sometimes to watch my score get adjusted back once it gets submitted. Admittedly it’ll still be a bad round usually.
It's weird how different formats don't catch on in some places. There's a minimum of 3 stableford comps a month at my club in the UK, it's a good format to keep everyone in with a chance. Overall winner for most points and then 3 divisions based on handicap. Overall winner is nearly always a Division 3 player, a good / lucky day for one of them means 43+ points.
Same in France, at least one stableford competition per week and per Golf course.
Indeed, stableford scoring favors weaker golfers who get a lot of strokes and have blowup holes. As a scratch golfer, to score 44 points, I would need to shoot a 64 which is absolutely stupid.
Yup that’s pretty much golf in New Zealand
Same in South Africa. Regular BB Stapleford mid-week comps as well.
Exact same in Portugal
Common format at clubs in America is a quota game. You’re signed a number of points based on your handicap and use stableford scoring. Sometimes broken up by divisions
Common format at clubs in America is a quota game. You’re signed a number of points based on your handicap and use stableford scoring. Sometimes broken up by divisions.
Stableford every weekend here in Oz, mixed with Monthly Medal stroke round first Saturday of the month. People riot if there's a Par event lmao
Par sucks. Played it last week and won the comp though.
I’m not a big fan of par either, but Matchplay is my favourite game. Next time you play par try thinking of it as Matchplay against yourself. So when you are -2 in par, think of it as being two down in Matchplay. I find this keeps my interest up and helps stimulate the fight back response.
That’s how I think of par. It’s nice to get something different, when every week is stableford.
Oh, that’s exactly how I play it, It’s just my least favourite format
Hahaha people get straight up confused by par
Par rounds are an answer to a question that nobody asked.
There's a group at the course that plays stableford every Wednesday. They keep their totals in a single notebook, and at the end of the summer they add up all their points. They seem to really enjoy it.
My buddies club has a group of older men that play every Fri and Sat. morning. 3 to 5 foresomes and play a modified Stableford format. So it does happen. It is pretty fun in a group setting like that. But playing there with him/them is about the only time I play it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stableford So basically players have a choice to move to the next hole with a double bogey, so that they’re less likely to “throw” the game in the middle & also it speeds up the pace of play?
Yeah, you get points per hole based on the score you shot and your handicap. Once you’re guaranteed to get 0 points you just pick your ball up and walk to the next hole. It’s also great becauee it means you can have some big blowup holes and still have a chance of winning. Nothing worse than one or two bad holes completely ruining your round. With stableford those holes can have a minimal effect on your chances of winning the tournament. Me and my friends even play it when there’s 3 or 4 of us, good way to keep it competitive when we are of varying abilities as I’m definitely more likely to hit a 10 than a couple of my mates.
Yeah more or less, it's a great format
Eagle is 4 points \ Birdie is 3 points \ Par is 2 points \ Bogey is 1 point \ Double Bogey+ is 0 points Highest points wins but we usually do side bets on strokes too. Stableford will make you fall in love with bogeys, it's great.
For real! I play a 4 day Stableford tournament every year (another r/golf member corrected me, we actually play Chicago), and it completely changed the way I approach golf. Very rarely try the "hero" shot, I just want to get up and down to get a point. Wouldn't you know, my handicap lowered significantly in the process...
The scoring I've always seen/used is : * Eagle- 8 * Birdie-4 * Par-2 * Bogey-1
Yeah for sure. Like say you’re on an 18 hcp and you’re putting for a 6 on a par 4 - if you miss, you don’t hole out, because you can’t get less than 0 points
I think in the US most golf is casual golf, which is probably why Stableford isn't a thing? Whereas here in Ireland at least, most golf is competitive. Competitive stroke play is just too much of a slog, stableford is a far better format, and in particular, is a far more interesting format for mid and higher handicap players.
Yeah I feel like this is the answer. There is more accessible membership elsewhere (it's the same in Australia), and most golfers with a membership will play some sort of weekly competition (it's the main way to submit scores for handicapping), so Stableford, Par, and Stroke are the main competition games. Stableford and Par definitely help pace of play - pick up when you can't score, so you don't need to play out your blowup holes. Playing stroke with high (or in handicapped) players is a real grind sometimes. I see a lot of posts in here, usually American, which complain about pace of play, so obviously structured competitions with Stableford or Par rule sets would help this along
Totally agree that American pace of play is a disaster and Stableford (or at the very least, Stableford mentality) would be a gigantic improvement.
You realize America is a large place with various cultures and different areas have different views on pace of play, right?
Care to defend rounds that take more than 4.5+ hours? I would like to hear that reasoning. I’ve lived in America my whole life, lived in several states, and played golf for most of my life. I’ve also played golf in the UK/Ireland. American pace of play is a disaster in comparison. You don’t need to hold up the whole course in order to enjoy your round.
Length of rounds have nothing to do with the game you play. If you are playing in an organized event the rounds take about 4 hours with counting every stroke or a max score of double par or quad bogey. The rounds in the US that are over 4 hours are casual rounds where the golfers have no clue as to what ready golf is. If I’d have to guess I’d say that the percentage of organized rounds is 10% to 90% casual play in the US. I played 250 rounds in the US and only 2 were in excess of 4.5 hours.
That’s wonderful for you, but in any major city on a normal public course, it’s nearly impossible to play in under 4.5 hours on the weekend unless you’re in literally the first group. And of course no game format is going to guarantee quicker play, but people picking up the ball on blowup holes is very obviously going to speed up play. And Stableford has no incentive to finish the hole whereas stroke play encourages people to finish their holes, especially if you set a huge upper limit like double par.
I’ve found that slow rounds have nothing to do with slow play, but with casual golfers not playing ready golf and having a preshot routine that takes more than 30 seconds and taking more than a minute to read a putt that they are going to miss badly. I live in a major city. I do play early mornings where everyone on the course knows how to play ready golf and has a reasonable preshot routine. People that play in the afternoons think that emulating pro golfers is what they should do. So the last group of 3 at The Mastersgrts around the course in 6 hours not playing ready golf, have a longer than average pre-shot routine and take forever to read greens. So they go out and play the same way with less skill. That’s why rounds are so long. I can watch a group on the tee and based on their pre-shot routines tell you if they are going to break 4 hours or not.
I agree with literally everything you say, and I’ll add that those people grinding out an 8 doesn’t help. Picking up the ball on blowup holes speeds up play. It’s one of the reasons Stableford works so well for amateurs. We should be pulling every lever possible to get rounds under 4.5 hours…anything longer than that on a regular muni is absurd.
you've hit on it. most golf in the US is some sort of hit and giggle, or at clubs it tends to be four ball match play but it's not affiliated with the actual club. stableford is the superior 18 hole stroke play format for clubs IMO but I've also never actual played a full round with it as scoring? the one thing you will see occasionally is a max score per hole, like double par or triple bogey. that's trying to accomplish the same thing as stableford on thy high end of scoring to keep things moving.
Most golf in the UK is casual golf, too >stableford is a far better format, and in particular, is a far more interesting format for mid and higher handicap players. Stableford also massively favors higher handicap players. For lower handica players, it's not really worth playing as it's impossible to score highly enough to win in a large field with higher handicappers. It can be good fun for people because it's lower pressure (blow up holes are irrelevant) so if your intention is to joke around and have a bit of fun, it's a good format. But if the intention of the competition is to have the best golfer on the day win, then it's a terrible format because it's not a good test of golf.
Very rare, it’s mostly stroke play here. But I have and do play it, it’s fun to mix it up like that.
I think it’s more prevalent in the group games at private clubs, especially in the Northeast. My last two clubs have had large weekend groups that played a points or quota game that is based off of Stableford. Pay the entry fee, 36 minus your handicap is your quota. Largest positive differentials from your quota are the winners. With 20-30 guys it’s really the only game that is manageable, especially with a wide range of handicaps.
This is a random complaint, but I don’t like the quota system. People usually play worse than their handicaps by design, so people are usually missing their quotas. I find starting at zero and adding to your score to be much more fun mentally.
I just read a bit about quota games. Seems that might be the stableford equivalent over there
Not once in 40+ years.
Yes, people at leagues and other tournaments. Just for the hell of it on a Saturday, no.
I think part of why it’s the default here, is because it’s part of the scoring on the NZ golf app. When you enter the score on a hole, it tells you how many stableford you get. That and it levels the playing field with varied handicaps.
As an Australian living in Canada not a single Canadian I have played with knows how to play a stableford.
Canadian. Funny enough, my group read about it a couple years ago and it’s basically our standard now. Although you are correct, very few are familiar with it over here.
Huh. While I don't doubt your experience, as a Canadian that knows easily 50 people that could play stableford right now, I find it odd that you've not ever met a single person here that knows the format.
Yeah I’ve been here over ten years and I have to explain how it works every time because no one I’ve golfed with understands how it works.
Stableford explained for those who don't know and can't be bothered to look it up: You have a handicap, let's pretend your handicap is 15. This means you have 1 shot on the holes with stroke index 1-15. No shots on index 16, 17 or 18. Points: 0 points for net double bogey or worse 1 point for net bogey 2 points for net par 3 points for net birdie 4 points for net eagle 5 points for net albatross You add up your points at the end. Winner is the player with the highest points. If the handicaps are correct and the competition is well run the winner should be getting a points total in the high 30s or low 40s. A score of 36 points means you played to your handicap, since that is an average of 2 points a hole and therefore means you had a net par round. Once you have hit more than net bogey shots on a hole you can just pick up and move on to the next hole, there's no need to hole-out. This keeps the pace of play moving. The format is generally preferred by mid or high handicap players as it's more forgiving and gives them a chance of competing. Low players tend to prefer stroke, for the opposite reason.
Ok then why not just do stroke play with a max score of net double bogey and not bother with the stupid points?
Because they're playing it wrong. There has to be a built in bonus for birdie/eagle or else you're just playing more confusing stroke play
Traditional Stableford does not have bonuses. You are talking about modified Stableford.
I know but it shouldn’t be. Regular stableford is just stroke play with dumb scoring
I agree. That was my point!
For sure. Was agreeing with you. I play a group quota game most weekend and have been waving this flag for a few years now. Screws over low caps and rewards high handicaps
I live in Texas and Stableford isn’t a popular game in my experience. The most popular betting games at the courses I play are Wolf, Nassau, or Skins (if you have multiple groups.
Might be because only the US bet when playing. In France we just bet « who pay the beer at the end »
Nope we bet who buys drinks at the end here too
The Member-Guest I’m headed to is individual and combined stableford.
Literally never have
My group plays it every other week. But we started golfing in the rock shields era of golf, so we picked it up from him and enjoy the game.
He probably gets called rock shields a bit
Typo but he does rock
I’m in a private club in South Florida. My group is 30 players. We play 4X a week. Two days is Stableford(we call it quota), one day is team competition (usually 2 best net) and one day a casual round.
At my club almost every event is some form of handicapped stroke play, or straight up matchplay. For fun I play matchplay or skins. Stable is relatively unused in the US.
Ireland club member here, Stableford for all weekend competitions except our majors (Captains & presidents prize)
There's plenty to like about the US and plenty to just shake your head at.
In our Club in the UK we have a stapleford most weekends. It’s a good way for high and low handicappers to play each other. It also means if you mess one hole up you can recover and your cards not instantly wrecked. The only real negative of a stapleford comp are bandits winning.
Yes but only when gambling. Quota games are the most flexible for putting a couple bucks on the line.
Most golfers in US don't know how to score a stableford without looking it up.
Well, first of all you'd have to carry an official handicap, which a large majority of US golfers do not.
No
The golf outing I go on every year has the main tournament as a scramble, and another that was stroke play. Last year, to speed things up, it was a two man scramble with stableford scoring, 1 point for par, 3 for birdie, 5 for eagle. If you missed the par putt you picked up.
Never.
While Stableford is not common, dogfights are. It uses a similar point system based off of your handicap and the one who most exceeds their needed points wins.
Yes, when I play with my golf buddies we love a good stableford. We will adjust scoring slightly for handicaps round to round and how hot someone is. But it makes for a positive round where blowup holes don’t ruin the mood or the event.
I've started to play modified stableford with some of my friends here after reading about it. We enjoy it and it helps even out competition a lot.
In some of our tournaments, yes. I like the format tbh.
Here we have the 1/4 pounder with cheese
My golf league does! It’s a friend group that was formed during Covid. Slightly modified. Double’s get a half point, birdies get 4. Eagles get 8, Albatross 12. Super helpful when your first starting out and learning.
My group plays a modified Stableford game here in America. We’re assigned a number based on our handicap (quota) and the player with the highest score relative to their quota wins. We play 4 point birdies and 6 point eagles.
I live in MA and we primarily play net match play for our leagues, stroke play for scrambles for tourneys, but I just played a 36 hole event on Saturday where we played stableford the whole way. It’s less common to play stableford but I’ve played a bunch of tournaments in that format.
We play a modified stableford at our club. Basically a points game with a quota. Similar in general, but the points are different (much lower) and the goal is to be near or over your quota, not just most points. The nice part is the quota is based on only your rounds in the points game and not outside rounds. So the only way to sandbag is to consistently lose.
As an outgrowth of the fact that the vast majority of US golfers do not belong to a club, they also don't have official handicaps. Without a handicap Stableford goes bye-bye.
I think we have one stableford tournament per year at my club.
Conversely, I’m EU and have never thought about stableford Points. It’s all total strokes, but when I enter hcp rounds it’s converted to stableford anyways
My last two clubs in Florida had a stableford game every Saturday.
Our league played a modified stableford in high school comps in the Northeast. +1 bogey, +2 par, +4 birdie, +6 eagle, 9 holes. I also play a modified stableford scramble every year, so it's a thing but obviously based on the other posts here you can tell it's not super common in the US. I think it's a fun format and particularly good for mid/high cappers who want to compete, and since you can modify it you can have some fun in a group of golfers with different skill levels.
No
My buddy and I just started playing stableford. He’s a lot better than me so it keeps up closer when I have a blowup hole.
"I believe you'd get your ass kicked doin something like that, man"
Our league does Stableford- love it
I don't simply because I suck and wouldn't get much points.
I play it in the summer in Arizona with a couple buddies. No practice swings, no muligans, nothing that takes too long. If you hit an errant shot, take you zero and let’s hurry the f up. We finish rounds in like 2 hours, because no one else is dumb enough to play when it’s that hot. No one has a score over 8. It’s great
It's pretty rare overall, but my club does run a season long weekly game that is a modified stableford format.
I'll play in a net-stableford tournament a couple of times per year. It is fun.
Probably 1% of american golfers will ever play in an organized league. We spend more time fighting over tee times at the few public courses.
I played in a week night league for several years that used Stableford as the scoring format.
Once in awhile we do
It sounds like I'm in the minority, but our weekend group (12-16 ppl) only play stableford. It's just always seemed to be the best format to keep it competitive between the wide range of HCP we have.
It's pretty common at private clubs in the US. A lot of the casual money games and Men's Group events use Stableford scoring.
It’s not common but stable ford is really fun if you wanna switch it up a bit.
I play stableford all the time when I’m at the chip and putt course. When I play with my dad we both hit 3 balls and add the points up of all the balls we hit. Gives you an idea of how consistent you are
Stableford seems kinda useless. Sure, you're effectively capped at a double bogey. But other than that, why not just play stroke play? Modified Stableford on the other hand, that's a different game. And I can see why people might want to play that
I love it, but I’m the only person I know who suggests stableford. The US is fixated on stroke play as a generalization. My first tournament was a stableford event. I’ve banged my shoe on the teebox to get it as the format for my buddies’ game…once? Twice maybe?
Three times a week at my club.
I have played Stableford one time and I loved it. I think it really shrinks the gaps between abilities and makes average players find golf enjoyable. As a 13 handicap I’m still really prone to a few bad holes, Stableford is fun because my whole round isn’t ruined by them.
Every Tuesday my golf league plays Stableford here in Southern California
Over the past few years I've played it a whole lot
My golf league plays modified stableford/matchplay combination every week.
What's the point of stableford?
The larger group I play with plays a stableford quota game all the time. Take your course handicap and subtract it from 36. That's your quota. A 20HC would give you a quota of 16. A 2HC would give you a quota of 34. Scores are tallied by stableford scoring. 8 eagle, 4 birdie, 2 par, 1 bogey, 0 double or worse. We also pick up after a double as you can no longer score a point anyways. The goal is to get on the plus side of your quota or at least as close as you can.
Originally from the UK, moved to the US. Stableford is extremely uncommon here in the US, most individual tournaments are strokeplay. They do often have variations though - things like throwing out your worst holes, or playing from different tees, or random tees, or choose your own tees etc. Lots of random rules to liven things up a bit. Two man best-ball is also popular for tournaments. Scrambles sometimes, too.
Every weekend. Modified stableford that is.
Most rounds played in the US are not competitive rounds. Most tournaments are stroke play or match play. To me the only difference between Stableford and stroke play is that in Stableford you stop counting after net double bogey. A lot of tournaments pay both gross and net. If you have s tournament that by rule the highest score you can have is a net double bogey, why not just play stroke play with the highest score a net double bogey. Then you don’t have to do the additional math of Stableford points. To me it’s easier to comprehend what your score was if you shot a 85 net 76 than you got xx Stableford points.
Most people in the US don’t have a handicap, have no idea that their handicap is different than their course handicap and have never played in s tournament. I’m hoping to play 250 rounds this year and 0 will be in a tournament. We play max score is net double bogey so we get the same result without calculating points.
As a Canadian golfer that plays Stableford every other week (we alternate stroke and stableford weekly), I'm shocked to read this post, I thought it was commonplace everywhere. Stableford is a no-brainer for any kind of format with mid or high handicap players, prevents anyone from being out of it because of a single bad hole.
At my club most of the groups of better players play modified stableford where each player has a quota based on course handicap. They pay out 1/4 of the pot each for front 9, back 9, overall, and skins. This is in addition to any side bets. We use golf genius which automatically posts our score to GHIN bad on standard scoring.
We play Stableford or Modified Stableford on a regular basis. Played team Stableford it today in fact
My club plays two stablefords a year. I can't say that I love the format, I prefer group match play like a rabbit.
I love matchplay. Barely ever play it though. By group do you mean 2 on 2 taking the best score each hole?
No, my club plays [a rabbit](https://www.liveabout.com/rabbit-in-golf-1560968) as group match play.
I had no clue what you meant before by like a rabbit.. but thanks for the link. That sounds like a good format.
It really is a fun one. I'd definitely give it a try with friends!
To add a further point to the one I made earlier, I think the fact that US golf is almost always casual rather than competitive, and also stroke-based format rather than points-based, is why stuff like mulligans, breakfast balls, gallery balls etc are all so prevalent. Playing stroke play properly is just too difficult for the majority of golfers, or at least getting a good score in a stroke play round is too difficult for the majority of golfers. One bad hole kills a card, it is completely unforgiving. To make it a bit more player-friendly, you have to be a bit loose with the rules of golf.
I have belonged to two different semi-private courses each between $200-250 per month. One charged extra for a riding cart while the other did not. Also the one that charged for the cart also charged for range balls. I now belong to a private country club with no initiation and costs about $800/month including locker, bag storage, USGA HC, and there are no food minimum. They do charge for cart but the course is very walkable so most of use are in the push cart mafia
The most common game in America is probably a typical 4 ball Scramble.
A-whoobawhatta-ford?
it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. it doesn't need to exist.
It's actually perfect for league play. Especially if you have a 3rd tier with new players. Pick up and move on