Competition formats
Parful runs thisBramble
Also called Bramble golf, Scramble shamble, Best drive then best ball.
Bramble is a team format that starts each hole as a scramble and finishes it as best ball: every player tees off, the team picks the best drive and everyone plays their own ball from that spot, and the single lowest net score among the team counts for the hole. Each player receives 85% of their Course Handicap™.
- Played as
- Shared drive, then own ball; teams of 4
- Team score
- The single lowest net score on each hole
- Ranked by
- Team net total, lowest wins
- Allowance
- 85% of Course Handicap™ per player
- Side games
- Own-ball and tee-shot games are unavailable
- Runs on
- Parful Clubs competitions
How bramble works
On every hole all four players hit a tee shot. The team chooses the best of the four drives, and each player drops within a club length of that spot and plays their own ball from there to the hole, keeping their own score. After the hole each gross is reduced by the strokes that player receives there, and the lowest net counts for the team. Eighteen hole scores make the round.
The shared drive takes the worst part of the game away from the weaker players: nobody has to play a second shot from the trees. From the fairway everyone plays their own ball, so the format still rewards approach play and putting, and a high handicapper who chips in can post the counting score. It sits between a scramble, where the whole hole is shared, and best 1 of 4, where nothing is.
Bramble and shamble are close cousins and clubs use the names loosely. On Parful a bramble counts one net score per hole and a shamble counts two. If your club's bramble counts two balls, it is a shamble in Parful terms.
Handicaps and where the strokes fall
Each player takes their own strokes at 85% of Course Handicap™, placed by the stroke index of their own tee. An 8 receives 7, a 14 receives 12, a 20 receives 17 and a 26 receives 22. The allowance is the four-ball family figure; the shared drive already narrows the gap between strong and weak players, and a committee can lower the percentage further per competition.
Some clubs require each player's drive to be used a minimum number of times, as in a Texas scramble. That is a physical-play rule the team polices itself; Parful does not track drive counts on a bramble.
Ties and ranking
Teams rank on net total, lowest first. A tie on net is broken on the Parful leaderboard by the lower gross total of the counted scores, then shared. A club can apply countback on the team card under its own conditions.
How Parful scores it
Bramble runs on Parful Clubs competitions. Every player scores their own ball on the group scorecard and the counted-scores engine builds the team card: on every score it works out the nets on the hole, keeps the lowest and updates the team total and the leaderboard. The chosen drive is a decision the team makes on the tee; it does not change the arithmetic and the card does not need it to score the hole.
It does change what else the card can support. Because the team plays from one chosen drive, no player owns their own tee shot, so Parful treats bramble as a shared-drive format: individual hole scores and post-drive facts such as putts are kept, but own-ball identity is not. Games that depend on each player's own tee shot or own ball, Wolf, Dots, Arnies, Fairways and Greens and Greenies among them, are unavailable on a bramble day. Games that only need each player's hole score, such as Skins, Nassau, Nines or Snake, still run.
Worked example
A worked example: holes 1 to 6
Ana, Ben, Cal and Dee play off Course Handicaps of 8, 14, 20 and 26, receiving 7, 12, 17 and 22 strokes at 85%. Each hole shows whose drive the team used and every player's net score from there; the lowest net counts.
| Hole | Par | Drive used | Ana net | Ben net | Cal net | Dee net | Counts | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Ben | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | Ana | 3 |
| 2 | 5 | Ana | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | Ana or Ben | 4 |
| 3 | 3 | Dee | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | All four | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | Cal | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | Ana or Dee | 4 |
| 5 | 4 | Ana | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | Ben | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | Ben | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | Ana, Cal or Dee | 3 |
- Compare the best 1 of 4 page, where the same four players scored 23 from their own drives. Playing from the best tee shot on every hole is worth about a shot every two holes to a team like this.
- Hole 5 counted Ben's net 3 even though the team played from Ana's drive. Who hit the drive is irrelevant once the balls are in play.
Common variants
- Shamble
- The same shared drive with two counted scores per hole instead of one. Parful runs it as its own format on Clubs and Events.
- Scramble
- The whole hole is shared: best drive, then best second shot, and so on, with one team ball. Parful runs it as its own format with a blended team handicap.
- Bramble with a drive quota
- Each player's drive must be used at least a set number of times, usually three or four. A physical-play rule Parful does not track; the team keeps count.
- Gross bramble
- No strokes; the lowest gross from the chosen drive counts. A scratch setting rather than a different format.