Scoring
What is Stableford scoring?
Stableford scoring awards points at each hole based on your score against a fixed target — usually par adjusted for your handicap — with more points meaning a better round, rather than counting every stroke.
Standard Stableford points run from nought to six: nought for a net score of double bogey or worse, one for a net bogey, two for a net par, three for a net birdie, four for a net eagle, five for a net albatross, and a rarely-awarded six for four under. The difference from strict stroke play shows up most on a genuinely bad hole — once you're out of the points, there's no reason to keep hacking away purely for the card, since a nine counts exactly the same as a six. That's part of why it suits club competitions and mixed-ability fields so well: a high handicapper competes on points against low-handicap players. The fixed target on each hole is the score most golfers already know as par. Whatever the format your regular four-ball plays, our golf gifts mark the course where the points get argued over.
Written by Craig Fearn, The Golf Gift Co.
From the journal