Stableford

Points for your score vs par — highest wins

The basics

Stableford turns every hole into points against par: albatross 5, eagle 4, birdie 3, par 2, bogey 1, double or worse 0 — all adjustable in Battle Tees, including negative values for modified Stableford.

Highest total wins. Blow-up holes stop hurting after double — pick up and move on, which also keeps pace of play honest.

⚡How to actually win it

Aggression is mathematically correct here. This is the key insight most players miss. A bogey costs you one point below par; a birdie gains you one above. But a double bogey costs the same as a bogey in most setups — so the downside of going for it is capped while the upside isn't.

Never lay up out of fear on a par 5. Eagles and birdies are where Stableford rounds are won, and the penalty for a big number is limited. The player grinding out pars finishes second to the player who made four birdies and three doubles.

Know your point table before you tee off. Groups run wildly different values, and the whole strategy shifts with them. If your group pays 5 for an eagle, par-5 strategy changes completely.

Once a hole is lost, it's lost. Pick up. There are no points below the bottom rung, and the pace of play improvement is free.

🔥Why it rewards the brave

Stableford is the antidote to defensive golf. It was invented precisely because stroke play punishes ambition, and it turns a round into a series of independent gambles rather than one long exercise in damage control.

The scoring is also just satisfying. Points accumulate, the number only goes up, and a great hole feels great in a way that "one under" never quite captures.

It's the format that produces the most "go for it" moments per round — and in a money game, those are the shots everyone remembers.

💰The wager

Settled on total points, paid on the difference between players.

Friendly · $0.25 / ptStandard · $0.50 / ptGrown folks · $1–2 / pt

With a standard table, a good round is 36–40 points and a rough one is in the low 20s — so spreads of 10–18 points are normal. That makes Stableford one of the higher-variance point games, especially with aggressive point values.

Mixed handicaps? Play it net.Stableford applies each player's full course handicap, so the points table works identically for a scratch and a 25 — both are scoring against their own net par. Battle Tees computes every player's course handicap from their index and the tees they actually played, then keeps gross and net side by side, live, on every phone — so the scratch sees their real number while everyone bets the one that decides the money. It is the difference between a group that bets and a group that talks about betting.

Battle Tees never touches the money. The app scores it, applies your handicaps, and shows exactly who owes whom at the end — one clean list, no arguing on the tailgate. You settle it in the parking lot, the way golfers always have.

In Battle Tees

Your group, your point structure.Every group has its own house rules, and the app bends to them instead of the other way round. In Stableford that means all six point values — albatross, eagle, birdie, par, bogey and double — each adjustable from −5 to 10. The defaults are 5·4·3·2·1·0, but plenty of groups run a harsher table to punish the blow-up. Change any of it in setup before the round — the scoring, the standings and the settle math all follow automatically, and the numbers ride along to every phone in the group.

Works with one to four players; net plays off your full course handicap.

Set your own point structure in setup — the classic, the modified, or your group's house rules.

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⚔️ Play Stableford in Battle Tees — request beta access Battle Tees — thirteen golf games, one scorecard, settled before the parking lot