They’re so dominant now in the calendar that the Stableford is almost synonymous with a club competition. It’s no real surprise. Have a nightmare on one hole in a medal and your day is basically over. In a Stableford, simply put down zero or a dash on the card and move on. It doesn’t necessarily define your event.
But did you know that there are subtle differences between Medal and Stableford when it comes to the Rules of Golf?
They are covered in Rule 21 so, points aside, let’s look at a trio of things you might not have known about Stableford if you hadn’t been peeking in the book…
Stableford scoring: Did you know these Stableford rules?
You are only responsible for your gross score
Your committee might like you to add up your points totals, they can encourage that you do so as part of their Terms of Competition ,and they can even sanction you if you repeatedly refuse.
But you can’t be disqualified from a competition, or have a penalty applied under the Rules of Golf, if you don’t.
Your responsibilities are to enter your holes scores on the scorecard – either with the actual score if you’d get points, or showing no score or any score that would result in zero points being awarded – and to make sure both you and your marker have signed that scorecard.
Adding up the points, and applying handicap strokes to the scores entered for each hole before working out the points total, is actually down to the committee. So don’t worry if you’ve totted up the points wrongly. As long as you’ve got your hole scores right you’ll be fine.
You won’t be disqualified for all sorts of things that you’d be booted out for in a medal
One of these is obvious: failure to hole out. A big no-no in a medal, you’ll just get zero points for the hole if you pick up in a Stableford because you can’t score. We’ve all done it and, indeed, we’re even encouraged to do so.
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But that same premise applies to a few other penalties that would have you ripping your scorecard up elsewhere.
These include:
– Not correcting the mistake of playing from outside the teeing area when starting a hole
– Playing a wrong ball and not fixing the error
– Playing from a wrong place, when it is a serious breach, and not correcting the mistake
Don’t worry if you stop a ball if a player can’t score
There is an exception to Rule 11.2 in Stableford. If your ball needs to be holed to get a point, and someone deflects it or stops it, when there is “no reasonable chance it can be holed”, they won’t get a penalty as they would in a Medal.
Now have your say on Stableford scoring
What do you think about these Stableford golf rules? Why not let us know by leaving a comment on X?
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