Competition formats
Parful runs this, with a caveatTeam Stableford
Also called Team points, Aggregate Stableford (four), Stableford team event.
Team Stableford is a team format in which every player plays their own ball and scores a normal Stableford card, and the team total is every member's points added together. Nothing is dropped and nothing is chosen; the highest team total wins. The usual allowance is 95% of Course Handicap™, set per competition.
- Played as
- Own ball, own Stableford card, teams of 2 to 4
- Team score
- The sum of every member's Stableford points
- Ranked by
- Team points, highest wins
- Allowance
- 95% of Course Handicap™ is usual, chosen per competition
- Team par
- 36 points per player: 144 for four
- Runs on
- Parful Clubs competitions only
How Team Stableford works
Every player plays their own ball and scores an ordinary Stableford card: 2 points for a net par, 3 for a net birdie, 1 for a net bogey, 0 for anything worse, using their own strokes on each hole. At the end of the round the team adds every member's points together. That total is the team score, and the highest total in the field wins.
Because every hole on every card counts, this is a true aggregate: nobody is carried and nobody is dropped. What keeps it from being brutal is Stableford itself. A wrecked hole scores zero rather than a 9, so the worst any player can do to the team on a hole is contribute nothing, and everyone picks up and moves on. It is the format for a members' team day where the committee wants every player's round to matter but does not want anyone ruining the afternoon.
A team of four playing to handicap scores 144. Most winning totals land in the 150s, which means the team beat its combined handicap by a dozen or more points.
Handicaps and where the strokes fall
Each player takes their own strokes, placed by the stroke index of their own tee, and scores their own points. Parful does not lock a fixed allowance on this format; the competition sets it, and 95% of Course Handicap™ is the usual choice because it matches the individual Stableford recommendation. At 95% an 8 receives 8 (7.6 rounded), a 14 receives 13, a 20 receives 19 and a 26 receives 25.
Since every point counts, high handicappers are as valuable as low ones. A 25-stroke player who plays to handicap contributes 36, the same as the scratch player who plays to hers. Clubs that want to reward the better players use a lower percentage; clubs that want a level day use full handicap.
Settling a tie
Teams on the same points total are separated by countback on the team's points: the combined points over the back nine, then the last six holes, the last three, then the eighteenth, exactly as in individual Stableford but on the added cards. Where the club prefers, positions can simply be shared.
How Parful runs it
Team Stableford is a Parful Clubs competition format. Players are entered in teams, every player scores their own ball on the group scorecard, and the points are worked out per player exactly as for individual Stableford: strokes by stroke index from each player's tee, points hole by hole as scores go in. The team card is then synthesized by adding the members' points, so the leaderboard shows team totals that update on every score, and a pickup records the hole at its cap with zero points.
The format is not offered on Events, where the team choices are the scramble family, shamble, best 1 of 4 and best 2 of 4. Because every player plays their own ball from the tee, the full set of own-ball side games is available alongside the competition, and Aggregate Stableford, the pairs side game, is the same arithmetic on a pair.
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 8, 13, 19 and 25 strokes at 95%. Each cell is that player's Stableford points on the hole; the team score is the four added.
| Hole | Par | Stroke index | Ana | Ben | Cal | Dee | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| 2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 3 | 3 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 5 | 4 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| 6 | 3 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
- Ana's 3 points on hole 1 is a gross 4 less one stroke, a net 3 on a par 4. Her 0 on hole 4 is a gross 7 less one stroke, a net 6; in stroke play that hole costs the team two shots, here it costs two points.
- Dee received two strokes on holes 1, 2 and 4 (stroke index 7, 3 and 1 are within her 25). Her gross 6 on hole 1 became a net 4 for 2 points.
- The individual cards were Ana 11, Ben 9, Cal 9 and Dee 7. Nothing was dropped; the team is simply the sum.
Common variants
- Four-ball Stableford
- Only the better points score on each hole counts for a pair. Parful scores this through the four-ball competition with Stableford as the scoring method.
- Best 2 of 4 Stableford
- The two highest points scores on each hole count. Parful's counted-score formats count net strokes, not points, so this is a variant Parful does not score as such.
- Aggregate Stableford (pairs)
- Two partners' points added on every hole. Parful scores it as a side game from the group card.
- Team Stableford with a drop
- The lowest individual card is discarded before the team total. A variant Parful does not score; the format counts every card.