Scramble and Best Ball putting rules

I was playing in a scramble tournament. Where we had fairly long putts the first gut would attempt to sink the putt as normal. If he was particularly close he would simply putt out. Each of the remaining players would continue to attempt to putt out from the original landing spot. On a couple of occasions one of us did manage to get the ball in the hole after one.

One of the rules guys came over and said "In Best Ball or Scramble" once one of the players has putted out, that's it for our team, and that score stands. We should have made sure that the first player did not play his second shot if the rest of the team intended to continue to try to putt from the initial ball location.

What do you think?

Dead right.
Though not true in better ball, in better ball you all hole out and pick the best one.
In a scramble there is only once score, ie the number of shots it takes the team to get the ball into the hole, once.

Uh, what?

In Best Ball: Each player plays their own ball. The best score for the hole is the team score.

Now, the proper form for the scramble should have been that you each attempt the first putt (marking misses), then take the 2nd putt; as a scramble is played from one shot location at a time (to exaggerate, one player wouldn't tee off, then hit his second shot before everyone else hit; whether he pured it or duffed it, right?)

That said, when we play scrambles on Mens' Night, if you put the first putt close, then tap in, you have your 'guaranteed score' - everyone else tries to make the putt for the better score (like you were doing).

The danger in having someone 'tap in' is; if they miss the tap in (and it happens) then what is your group to do?

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Thats exactly what I said. You pick the best nett score for each hole after everyone has finished that hole.

Thats why the rule is there, once anyone has the ball in the hole, thats it hole over.

Most of the scrambles I have played in (not all) tell you up front that it is OK for some one to tap in or to concede short putts to speed up play. If they do not I think I have heard that you must mark.

Bob

The whole point about scrambles is that there aren't any world wide rules.
They are down to the organiser on the day. Virtually every time I've played a scramble there has been some variation in the rules.

Thanks all.
I was just wondering. Scramble is after all a friendly kind of game isn't it? I think the tap-in is simply to speed things up. If no-one even comes close on the first putt, you're on to the next hole. It may not be kosher but what the heck. It's good to know the real rule in any case.