May 7, 2009

AMHERST, VA — The Captains Club announced Wednesday the plans for the traditional 4-man Scramble during the Carl Spackler Open Championship. The optional event will return on Friday afternoon teeing shotgun style in eightsomes.

The event will take place at the tournament course, Poplar Grove, for several reasons including price, control of format, lack of transportation time, course quality, lack of bag transportation, and beverage prices.

"We scrambled things up at last year's scramble," said Brian Flanagan, a.k.a. Butter, winner of the 2008 Golden Jacket. "The longest hitters teed from the tips. We have whacked that idea and plan to bring dice into this year's event."

The scramble will tee in eightsomes and two four-man teams per hole. Each eightsome will be provided a large foam 6-sided die. "We are once again pretty excited the eightsome format," added Butter. "We have added a die to the event this year, but with the understanding it will be reviewed for popularity.

Each player on each team will be assigned a number that corresponds to their name on the pairing sheet. Someone from each eightsome will roll the die at each tee box. The number rolled will indicate which player will tee off for each team. The two players and their shots will be used by each team regardless of the outcome."

The blue tee will play 6,557 yards. Butter was asked about the baseball bat used in June 2007. He replied, "Good question. We have eliminated the baseball bat until we have a really short course again."

The same reporter asked about the "throw" from last year's event. He quickly replied, "Are you kidding? Of course that will return. That idea is legendary because it adds strategy and team camaraderie."

A throw allows each participating golfer one chance to advance any best team shot by throwing it, tossing it, or rolling it. It is not a stroke, but an advancement of a team ball. A throw cannot be voided regardless of what happens to the ball.

"We hope our eightsome format continues to bring camaradrie throughout the evening," said Flanagan. "The key will be pace of play as always. The die will hopefully speed up play."

The 4-man Scramble is expected to return with a point handicapping system, which equally matches teams regardless of size or skill.

"The handicap system will allow our single 3-man team to compete against our rare 5-man teams," said Butter. "This is a critical improvement with 5-man teams winning the stroke event in 2005 and 2006."

The handicap system does not consider long drivers and great putters, but does use golfer stroke handicap to establish target scores. "As an example, four Jason Ridgeway's are expected to shoot 19-under par," says Flanagan. "A team of four Rick Dosky's is expected to shoot 6-over par. The system converts these projected team handicaps to a set of usable points. It looks pretty good on paper."

Last year's event at Rock Hollow Golf Club was cancelled due to a thunderstorm. Brad Green, Jason Watson, Matt Pritchard, and Rob Reustle won the 2007 event in Michigan with 111 points. The team won with 9 birdies and two eagles shooting 13-under par. They were considered a -6.51 stroke handicap. They doubled their handicap with four 'throws' and shortened tournament course.

Nick Casale asked, "What happens if someone rolls a 5 or 6 on the die?" Flanagan replied, "Sorry about that. The entire eightsome will tee just like a traditional scramble. We call the 5 and 6 'neutral'."

The 2009 Carl Spackler Open Championship is scheduled for June 10 in Amherst, VA. The 4-man Scramble will be played shortly after Round 2 is completed. There will be 20 teams, 10 eightsomes, and a shotgun off 10 holes.