How to Run a Scramble Awards Ceremony: A Practical Run of Show

A good scramble awards ceremony starts on the rules sheet, with a card turn-in deadline everyone can see. After that, check signed cards and drive minimums, and settle any ties. Show the leaderboard. Then announce overall gross, flight winners, hole contests and fun prizes, and finish by thanking sponsors. Clean cards make it quick. Messy cards make it a long afternoon on the patio.

The run of show

Put the turn-in deadline on the rules sheet. Say when cards are due and where the scoring table is. Repeat it at the briefing before the horn.
Check signed cards and drive minimums at the scoring table. Every card needs the signatures your sheet asks for, usually the captain plus one teammate. If you run minimum drives, check the tally before the score goes up.
Settle countback ties before everyone's in the room. Apply the tiebreak you published. Don't work it out at the microphone.
Show the leaderboard. Put the final standings up on a screen, a whiteboard or a printed sheet so people can see where they finished.
Announce the overall gross winner. If you run no double-dipping, that team comes out of the flight results.
Announce flight winners. Work through each flight, from whichever end you prefer, but keep the same order every year.
Hand out hole contest prizes. Closest to the pin, longest drive, whatever you ran.
Do fun or last-place prizes if the budget allows. Keep them short. One laugh each, then move on.
Thank sponsors. Name them, thank them, and let people get back to the bar.

Before the day: who does what

Three jobs, three people if you can manage it.

Scoring table. One person takes cards, checks signatures and drive counts, and enters scores into whatever you're using for the field board.
MC. Runs the microphone and keeps things moving. Doesn't touch the scores.
Prize table. Lines up the prizes in the order of the run of show, so there's no digging around for the right envelope.

Write the turn-in deadline, the tiebreak and the prize categories on your scramble tournament rules sheet. If it isn't on the sheet, someone will argue about it later.

The scoring table is where time gets lost

Most slow ceremonies aren't slow at the microphone. They're slow at the scoring table, where someone's adding up a pencil card, counting drive initials and chasing a missing signature.

Captains can help a lot here. If a group scores on the golf scramble scoring app, their card is already added up and the drive counts are already there when the captain walks up. The table just checks it and moves on.

To be clear, Scrambled Eggs is a live card for one group. It doesn't run the field leaderboard, a TV board or a central scoring desk. The field board is yours to run, in a spreadsheet, outing software or on a whiteboard. For a simple way to set that up, see how to run a live scramble leaderboard.

Sort ties before the room fills up

Ties are the classic hold-up. Two teams on the same total, and suddenly there's a debate at the front about which holes count.

Settle it as the cards come in. Use the countback you published on the rules sheet and apply it the same way for every tie, overall and in each flight. The steps for matching scorecards on a shotgun start are in scramble tiebreaker rules.

No double-dipping

Announce the overall gross winner first. That team takes the gross prize and comes out of the flight results. The next team in their flight moves up.

This spreads the prizes around and stops one team walking off with two envelopes. Whatever you decide, publish it on the rules sheet. If your flights are set up after the round, how to flight a golf scramble covers the cut lines.

Hole contests after the flights

Hole contests sit after the team prizes because they're individual and quick. Read the name, the hole, and hand it over. Keep contest results in their own list, separate from the team scores, so nobody mixes them up at the table.

If you're running contests on sponsored holes, mention the hole sponsor when you announce the winner. It's an easy win for them.

Fun prizes and last place

If there's budget left, a last-place prize or a "most balls lost" award keeps the mood light. Only do it if it's already on the prize table. Don't make them up on the fly and don't let them drag.

Thank sponsors properly

Mention sponsors at the start of the day, then do the proper thank-you at the end, when the room's full and paying attention. Name each one. If you want a clearer plan for what sponsors get, the golf scramble sponsorship package template is a good place to start.

When should the awards ceremony start?

Once the last card is in and checked, and any ties are settled. Put the turn-in deadline on the rules sheet so everyone knows when that is. Starting before the scoring table has finished usually means stopping halfway to fix something.

Can one team win overall gross and a flight?

A common approach is no. The overall gross winner takes that prize and drops out of the flight results, so the next team in the flight moves up. It's your call as organiser, but write it on the rules sheet so nobody's surprised.

Do hole contests go before or after flight winners?

After, in this run of show. Team prizes go first while the room is paying attention, then the quick individual contests, then any fun prizes and sponsor thanks. If you have a good reason to swap them, fine, just keep the order consistent.

What if two teams tie for a prize?

Use the tiebreak printed on your rules sheet, often a matching scorecards countback. Sort it at the scoring table before the ceremony starts, not at the microphone. See scramble tiebreaker rules for the order of holes.

Keep reading

Faster cards, faster awards

Give each group one phone for its card. Scores add up as they go, drives are recorded, and captains hand in a card that's quick to check.

Download Scrambled Eggs on the App Store