Competition formats
Parful runs thisModified Stableford
Also called Modified Stableford points, Aggressive Stableford.
Modified Stableford is a points format with a steeper table than standard Stableford: 8 for a net albatross, 5 for an eagle, 2 for a birdie, 0 for par, minus 1 for a bogey and minus 3 for a double bogey or worse. Par earns nothing, so the format rewards attacking play and punishes the player who protects a score.
- Played as
- Own ball, own card
- Ranked by
- Total points, highest wins; totals can be negative
- Points
- 8 albatross, 5 eagle, 2 birdie, 0 par, -1 bogey, -3 double or worse, against net par
- Ties
- Countback on points: back 9, last 6, last 3, last hole
- Recommended allowance
- 95% of Course Handicap™
- Runs on
- Club competitions and events; not a club outing tile
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.
Try it
Points tables side by side
Pick a table and a result against net par. Net par already includes your strokes on the hole.
| Against net par | Points |
|---|---|
| Albatross (−3) | 8 |
| Eagle (−2) | 5 |
| Birdie (−1) | 2 |
| Par (0) | 0 |
| Bogey (+1) | -1 |
| Double or worse (+2) | -3 |
Par (0)
0 pts
Aggressive table: par scores nothing, a bogey costs a point.
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.
| Hole | Par | Stroke index | Strokes | Gross | Net | Against net par | Modified points | Standard points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 4 | Level | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 | One under | 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 3 | 17 | 0 | 4 | 4 | One over | -1 | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 6 | Two over | -3 | 0 |
| 5 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 3 | One under | 2 | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 3 | 3 | Level | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 | Two under | 5 | 4 |
| 8 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 4 | Level | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | 4 | 13 | 0 | 5 | 5 | One over | -1 | 1 |
| Front 9 | 36 | 4 | 40 | 36 | 4 | 18 |
- Hole 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.
- On 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.