Should You Be Able To Blob A Hole In A Medal?

I had to do a bit of a doubletake when I was commissioned to write this particular article, for my initial thoughts were that surely every true golfer would come up with the same answer – a resounding ‘no’. But there are arguments and reasons on the other side (plus the permitted Maximum Score format) that are worth exploring and addressing, too, so here goes…

Medal play has always been about getting it round in the fewest number of strokes, warts and all, and obviously the only true way of doing that is to complete every hole. How else would you decide a winner? The only remotely conceivable alternative would be to cap the maximum score on each hole. Once you reach the agreed number, you stop counting (and playing) on that hole and just write that score down, more on which in a moment.

Ah, I hear you say – isn’t that exactly what we do in a Stableford via the nett double bogey adjustment? Correct! A nett double bogey scores you zero points on a hole the same as a nett quintuple bogey does, so once you go beyond a nett double bogey there’s no need to continue on that hole. That is precisely why Dr Frank Stableford devised his ingenious alternative scoring system all those years ago – so that one bad hole (especially early on) didn’t have the capacity to derail things completely.

Interestingly, the current Rules of Golf do allow Maximum Score stroke play competitions that aren't Stablefords under Rule 21.2, primarily for scratch competitions but it can be adapted for handicap competitions too. But many golfers won't know about this because, as far as we're aware, very few clubs have chosen to adopt it for any of their competitions. For those rare competitions being played under the Maximum Score rule, you could blob in a medal and still compete.

Then it’s worth pointing out that for handicap purposes, you can effectively blob a hole in a medal not being played under Maximum Score format because the World Handicap System also uses the same nett double bogey adjustment as Stableford in its calculations. For handicap purposes only, the worst you can achieve on any one hole is a nett double bogey. What you can’t do is actually compete in or win the competition if you have a blob on your scorecard when Rule 21.2 is not in force (the overwhelming majority of medal competitions!).

I guess the topic of pace of play then rears its ugly head. Surely having to go back and play again from the tee or wherever is not to be encouraged in an era when many are concerned about how long rounds of golf are taking? Well, no, but that is exactly why the provisional ball rule exists, so if you fear you may not find your original ball, you can switch to the provisional ball you will hopefully have played for the very purpose of avoiding that long, time-consuming walk back.

We need to retain a pure form of the game, and medal play is that pure form, where there’s no Stableford-style hiding place and every shot you hit counts. If medal play always offered some kind of nett double bogey adjustment, not only would it effectively just 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 make the play-off. He could just have picked up his ball, marked himself down for a six and walked off to collect the Claret Jug… which I think we all agree would have been most unsatisfactory, especially Paul Lawrie.

So let’s just nip this one firmly in the bud by repeating that loud resounding ‘no’ from the opening paragraph.