When you commit to playing a lot of Stableford, I mean many, many rounds, you’ll unlock some new higher levels of the game. One of those is streaks. As you play the format, when will you put together a bunch of numbers with no interruption, hole for hole? When you score points on successive nine…
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Your First Three Golf Holes Playing for Points (Or: How to Play Stableford)
Today you’re playing for points. You’ll be playing Stableford and you’ll be scoring Stableford. (Consider that these are discrete but related acts.) You know your handicap on this course is going to be eight, so you circle those eight hardest holes on your card. Those circles are good news—each one is an extra chance to…
The Case for Stableford, part 8
Dr. Frank Stableford’s scoring format is a great one to travel with. Yes at our home club we’re accustomed to the usual haunts—”the snuffbox” off of the 13th green, the trap short of number one, the false front on 18—and the friendly ghosts too and maybe even the one or two cups that feel cribbed…
The Case for Stableford, part 7
Gimmes might be your thing or might not be. To my way of thinking they’re occasionally a true relief from the legendary knee-knocker, but more often, way more often really, they’re regretfully accepted, ignored, half-heard, offered too early, offered too late, taken as an insult, and on and on. The finer points of the etiquette…
The Case for Stableford, part 6
Yes, some of us play “strict rules” baseball as adults. And naturally we keep score. More of us are playing softball, or even kickball. The fun factor is still there, but the tedium and test reduced. Reduced primarily because we are adults, definitionally busy and old. If we’re at play, it’s going to be more…
The Case for Stableford, part 5
To have the option, but not the obligation. It feels good. It’s a subtle distinction, but key to understanding the Stableford mindset. Part of the chore of medal golf is the continuous obligation to hole out. It’s right there in the rules for stroke golf: A player must hole out at each hole in a round. If the…
Par 500 (Ireland 2022)
We squished eight golf courses into an epic week in across three of the provinces of Ireland. The cards all happened to sum to 500, so it felt like a fitting way to sum it up. Each course warrants an 18 word review: How was the trip? Well, my clubs never made it out of…
Detachment, Zen State of (無心)
Attachment leads to suffering. Or so they say. They often being golfers. A ball at rest of the deck of a driving range has little in attachment. Our brain knows we won’t have to go after it, so our swing knows as well. Our emotions know the result won’t be committed to the scorecard, so…
The Case for Stableford, part 4
“From a competitive standpoint, to me, it is the hardest game to play. I can always respond to an opponent, a defensive guy, an offensive guy, whatever, but in golf, it’s like playing in a mirror.” – Michael Jordan Stableford is a chambered nautilus. There are games within games. Where do you want to press? Where…
Homecoming
For a particularly fun patch concept, it was fun to bring it out to the no. 4 fairway and make an assessment. Despite the distraction I think I had my usual result: second shot short, up and down and missed the putt.