Modified Stableford

How Modified Stableford works

Every hole is scored on its own against net par, exactly as in standard Stableford. What changes is the table. A net par scores 0 rather than 2, a net birdie 2 rather than 3, a net eagle 5 rather than 4 and a net albatross 8 rather than 5. A net bogey costs 1 point and a net double bogey or anything worse costs 3.

The effect is that a round of eighteen pars scores exactly zero and a round of nine birdies and nine bogeys scores plus 9. The player who takes on the par five in two and makes eagle or double bogey comes out ahead of the player who lays up, which is the point of the table. It is the format used on the PGA Tour at the Barracuda Championship and it is the one to choose when a club wants a day that makes people go for it.

Where the strokes fall

Net par on each hole is the card par plus the strokes the player receives there, placed by stroke index from the player's Playing Handicap™. The recommended allowance is 95% of Course Handicap™, the same as standard Stableford and individual stroke play; Parful applies 95% by default and a club can choose full handicap when the competition is created.

Because a double bogey costs 3 whether it is a double or a nine, a player who cannot score better than a net double bogey can pick up. The hole is recorded at its cap for handicap purposes and the points stay at minus 3.

Settling a tie

Ties are settled by countback on points: the back nine, then the last six holes, then the last three, then the eighteenth, on the final round of a multi-round competition. The player with more points over the later stretch wins. A front-nine countback is available for nine-hole competitions. If nothing separates the players the position is shared.

How Parful runs it

Modified Stableford is a competition format on Parful and an individual format on events. The scorecard places the strokes by stroke index from each player's tee, applies the 8/5/2/0/-1/-3 table hole by hole as scores go in and ranks the leaderboard on total points with countback applied automatically. Negative totals are shown as they are, because on this table a poor day is a negative number.

There is no Modified Stableford tile on a club outing, by design: an outing is a playing day without a format, and the competition that plays on it carries the format. Assign a Modified Stableford competition to the outing and the group scorecards score it.

Worked example

A worked example: an 8 handicap on the front nine

Cal has a Course Handicap™ of 8. At 95% that is 7.6, so Cal plays off 8 and receives a stroke on stroke index 1 to 8: four of them on this front nine.

• infoHole 7 is the swing: a net eagle is worth 5 here against 4 on the standard table, and it is the reason Cal is in credit after a 7 on hole 4.
• infoOn the standard table hole 4 cost Cal nothing beyond the zero. Here it cost 3, the same as a ten would have.

Common variants

Standard Stableford

The everyday table: 5/4/3/2/1/0 with par worth 2 and nothing below zero. Parful runs it as its own format on outings, competitions and events.

International points

The professional tour version of the modified table with the same values: 8 for an albatross, 5 for an eagle, 2 for a birdie, 0 for par, minus 1 and minus 3. The name differs; the arithmetic is identical.

Custom tables

Some clubs run their own tables, for example 10 for an albatross or minus 5 for a double bogey. Parful stores a per-hole points table on the competition rules, but the two tables it scores as named formats are standard and modified.

Related terms

• Format

  Stableford

  Stableford is a points format: each hole earns points against your net par, with 2 for a net par, 3 for a net birdie and 0 for anything worse than a net bogey. The highest total wins, and a disaster hole costs you at most one hole's points.

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• Format

  Par / Bogey

  Par / Bogey is match play against the course: on every hole a net score under par wins the hole, a net par halves it and anything over par loses it. Each win is plus 1, each loss minus 1, and the player who finishes the most holes up on the course wins.

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• Format

  Points Quota

  Points Quota is a Stableford format where every player has a personal target, 36 minus their handicap, and earns points on each hole: 1 for a bogey, 2 for a par, 3 for a birdie, 4 for an eagle. The biggest margin over quota wins, so a 4 handicap chasing 32 and a 22 chasing 14 compete on equal terms.

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• Handicap

  Stroke index and stroke allocation

  The stroke index ranks the eighteen holes from 1, the hardest, to 18, the easiest, and decides where your handicap strokes fall. A Playing Handicap™ of 12 gets one stroke on stroke index 1 through 12. Above 18 the allocation wraps: every hole takes one stroke before any hole takes a second.

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• Competition

  Countback

  Countback settles a tied stroke play or Stableford competition without a playoff: compare the tied players over the back nine, then the last six holes, then the last three, then the eighteenth. The first stretch that separates them decides it.

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Modified Stableford questions