I had to do a bit of a double-take when I was tasked with writing this particular article, because my first thoughts were that all real golfers would surely find the same answer – a resounding “no.” But there are arguments and reasons on the other side that are also worth exploring and addressing, so here goes…
Medal set has always been about getting around it in as few strokes as possible, warts and all, and obviously the only real way to do that is to finish every hole. How else would you decide the winner? The only vaguely conceivable alternative would be to cap the maximum score on each hole. Once you reach that number, you stop counting (and playing) on that hole and just write that score down.
You can punch a hole in a Stableford and still compete, but not for a medal
(Image credit: Kenny Smith)
Ah, I hear you say – isn’t that exactly what we do in a Stableford via the double bogey net setting? Correct! A net double bogey does not earn you any points on a hole in the same way as a net quintuple bogey, so once you get past a net double bogey there is no need to continue on that hole. This is precisely why Dr. Frank Stableford designed its ingenious alternate scoring system all those years ago – so that one bad hole (especially early on) doesn’t have the ability to completely derail things.
And then, of course, it is worth emphasizing that when it comes to disability, you can actually make a hole in a medal because the World Disability System also uses the same net double bogey adjustment in its calculations. For handicapping purposes only, the worst you can make on a hole is a net double bogey. What you can’t do is enter or win the competition if you have a drop on your scorecard.
Going back and replaying stroke and distance is your only option if you lose a ball during a medal run but want to stay in the competition.
(Image credit: Kenny Smith)
I guess the subject of pace of play then comes up. Surely having to go back and play again from the tee or elsewhere is not encouraged in an age where many are concerned about the length of rounds of golf? Well no, but that’s exactly why the provisional ball rule exists, so if you are worried about not being able to find your original ball, you can switch to the provisional ball that you will hopefully have played for the sole purpose of avoiding that long and tedious backtracking.
If you want to keep winning a medal, always play a provisional ball when you hit it offline.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
We have to maintain a pure form of the game, and the medal game is that pure form, where there is no hiding Stableford and every shot you hit counts. If the medal game featured some kind of net double bogey adjustment, not only would it effectively be Stableford by another name, but it would also have meant that when Jean van de Velde finally found the green with his bunker shot on the 18th at Carnoustie in 1999, he needn’t have worried about that seven-footer to qualify for the play-offs. He could have just picked up his ball, scored himself a six and gone for the Claret Jug… which I think we all agree would have been very unsatisfactory, particularly Paul Lawrie.
I don’t see any other way to figure out what to do with a drop in a medal other than by further increasing the maximum score cap… which would kind of defeat the purpose of saving time. So, since I’m quite certain that the R&A would never allow the Open to adopt a Stableford format (!), let’s nip this one firmly in the bud by repeating that resounding “no” from the opening paragraph .
