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Two team formats that everyone mixes up. One lets each player play their own ball; the other has everyone playing from the same spot. Here's the difference — and when to use each.
These two formats are the most commonly confused in recreational golf, and the confusion makes sense — they're both team formats where you use the "best" result from your team. But they play completely differently.
Best Ball: Every player plays their own ball from their own lie for the entire hole. At the end of the hole, the team uses whichever player's score was lowest. Each player is responsible for their own round.
Scramble: Every player hits a shot, the team picks the best one, and then all players pick up and hit their next shot from that spot. Everyone plays from the same location after every shot. The round is a collaborative effort.
In Best Ball, a bad shot stays bad — it just doesn't count if your partner had a better hole. In Scramble, a bad shot gets erased if your teammate hit a better one. That's the fundamental difference, and it changes the character of the round entirely.
Best Ball (also called Four-Ball in the Rules of Golf) is a team format where two players form a team and play together, but each plays their own ball throughout. On every hole, the team records the lower of the two individual scores.
If player A makes a 4 and player B makes a 6, the team score for that hole is 4. Player B's 6 doesn't count — it's irrelevant. The team essentially benefits from each partner's best hole, and each player is free to play without the pressure of hurting their team by making a bad score (within reason — eventually the scores matter).
Best Ball is typically scored using match play against an opposing team — this is the format described as 2v2 Best Ball in the match play guide. You can also play Best Ball stroke play, where you add up the better ball scores over 18 holes and compare gross or net totals. Best Ball stroke play is common in charity scrambles and member-guest events.
The key tactical element: when your partner has a safe, secure approach to the green, you can take a more aggressive line knowing their safe play backstops you. If both players play conservatively, you'll rarely make birdies. Best Ball rewards one player being bold while the other manages risk.
Scramble is the format of charity tournaments, corporate outings, and "fun days" where you want everyone to participate meaningfully regardless of skill level. The higher-handicap player's great chip or lucky putt is just as valuable as the low-handicap player's perfect approach shot — everyone's shot contributes.
Here's the sequence on each hole: all four players hit their tee shots. The team picks the best drive and marks that spot. All four players pick up their balls and play their next shot from that same spot. After those four shots, the team picks the best one again. Repeat until someone holes out.
The effect is a round that plays much better than any individual in the group could manage alone. A team of average 15-handicappers might post a net 62 in a scramble. That same group playing their own balls might struggle to break 90 individually. The format is designed to be enjoyable, social, and not frustrating for average golfers.
Teams are typically two or four players in a scramble. Four-person scrambles are the standard for charity events. Two-person scrambles (sometimes called "Texas Scramble" with a requirement to use each player's drive at least a certain number of times) add a competitive element while keeping the collaborative feel.
Handicaps work differently in Best Ball and Scramble, and getting this right is important for fair competition.
Best Ball handicaps: Each player receives their full Course Handicap, applied to the hardest holes via the Stroke Index. This is identical to individual stroke play or net skins. Settle Up Golf applies these automatically when player handicaps are entered. The team's Best Ball score on each hole uses each player's net score (gross minus handicap strokes on that hole).
Scramble handicaps: Because the team plays together and combines efforts, individual handicaps are significantly reduced. A common formula: each team member contributes a percentage of their Course Handicap to the team's combined handicap. For a two-person scramble, each player contributes 35% of their handicap. For a four-person scramble, the formula is often: 20% of player 1's handicap + 15% of player 2's + 10% of player 3's + 5% of player 4's (players listed lowest to highest handicap). The resulting team handicap is then applied as strokes on the holes with the lowest Stroke Index numbers.
Scramble handicapping is imprecise compared to Best Ball because the format itself is non-standard. Many casual scramble events just set a maximum team handicap (e.g., "teams play to a maximum of 20") rather than doing precise calculations. Settle Up Golf supports scramble tournaments with a simplified team handicap calculation.
The choice between Best Ball and Scramble comes down to what your group wants from the round.
Choose Best Ball when:
Choose Scramble when:
A good rule of thumb: Best Ball is for your regular foursome; Scramble is for when you're introducing people to golf betting for the first time.
Both formats adapt well to multi-group tournament settings.
Best Ball tournaments are essentially individual stroke play events run alongside the team format. Each player records their own score; the team uses the best ball. Leaderboards can show both individual scores (for skins, for individual awards) and team Best Ball scores (for the main competition). Settle Up Golf's tournament mode supports this with per-group scoring and a cross-group leaderboard.
Scramble tournaments have only one score per team per hole. The team score is the record. Leaderboards show team totals. These are common in charity events because the format finishes quickly — a four-person scramble on a par-4 might take 20 minutes where the same group playing individual Best Ball takes 35.
If you're setting up a tournament and want to add skins, Best Ball works more naturally because individual scores still exist. Scramble skins are possible but require agreeing on whether ties within a hole (all teams made birdie) carry over or cancel.
Best Ball: Don't play it safe just because your partner is on the green. The best Best Ball teams have one player playing aggressively and one playing conservatively on each hole — the aggressive player makes birdies when the shots come off, and the conservative player backstops with a bogey when they don't. Talk to your partner about who's taking which role on each hole.
Scramble: Make your best drive count as the team's drive whenever possible. Tee shots from the fairway give everyone better lies and better angles into the green. The team's low-handicapper should be encouraged to hit driver hard on holes where they can find the fairway — the team benefits from their distance even if higher handicappers prefer shorter, safer clubs.
Both formats pair naturally with a Nassau bet structure — just apply the Nassau's front/back/overall match play contest to the Best Ball or Scramble team score rather than individual scores. The betting mechanics are identical; only the score being compared changes.
Settle Up Golf tracks every bet, calculates every payout, and tells you exactly who owes what — so you can focus on your game.