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 from Dante’s hierarchy of unfair pin positions. But the sum of all these challenges can still be met—even when playing “SROG”—because of familiarity.
But what about when there’s no familiarity? When we don’t know what’s long of that green or around that shaggy dogleg? On a course for the first time, it can be harder to avoid unforced mistakes. And even harder when, after flying halfway around the world, the day you’ve booked has been blessed by a three-club wind and spitting rain.
This is all to say that Stableford was an invention born from bad weather. We know there are days when scoring is less than likely. Whether the weather comes to us or we pack it in the travel bag, Dr. Frank Stableford’s goal in 1931 was playability in the face of acts of god.