How to make fair scramble teams: the A-B-C-D method that keeps it competitive

The Presidents Cup tees off at Medinah this week, and before a shot is struck the captains face the same problem every outing organizer does: how do you split a group of players into sides that are actually even? Get it wrong and the result is decided before anyone reaches the first tee. When you are the one assembling scramble teams from a pile of individual sign-ups — not honoring foursomes that registered together, but building the groups yourself — that same risk is real. Let three low-handicappers land on one team by accident and the scramble is over before it starts: one group laps the field while everyone else plays for second. The fix is a simple, repeatable method that has kept club scrambles fair for decades — the A-B-C-D draft.

What are fair scramble teams?

Fair scramble teams are foursomes built so that every team carries a comparable spread of ability, rather than one team stacking the best players. In a scramble, all four players hit, the group plays the best shot, and repeats — so raw talent compounds. A team with several strong ball-strikers gets several good options on every single shot, while a team of higher handicaps is choosing from four misses. That gap widens over eighteen holes. Balancing the teams does not remove skill from the equation; it just makes sure the teams are even to start, so the day comes down to who plays well on the day instead of who got lucky in the draw. This only applies when you build the groups. If players bought in as a pre-set foursome, you honor those teams as they registered — that is a different job, and our guide to golf outing pairings covers how to place intact groups and slot the leftovers.

What is the A-B-C-D method?

The A-B-C-D method is the cleanest way to build balanced scramble teams from a field of individuals. It works in three steps:

1. Collect a handicap or a rough skill number at sign-up. You do not need an official index — even a self-reported average score or a low/mid/high tier is enough to sort by. Just ask the question on the registration form so you are not guessing on the morning of the event. (For how to gather and apply these cleanly, see golf outing handicaps.)
2. Rank the whole field and cut it into four tiers. Sort every player from best to worst, then divide the list into quarters. The top quarter is your "A" players, the next quarter "B," then "C," then "D." If you have 40 golfers, that is 10 in each tier.
3. Deal one from each tier onto every team. Each foursome gets exactly one A, one B, one C, and one D. Now every team has a strong player, a steady player, and two who will still catch fire on a hole or two. No team is stacked, and none is hopeless.

That is the entire system. It takes minutes, it is easy to explain to anyone who questions their team, and it produces groups that are close enough in ability that the winner is genuinely in doubt at the turn.

Handling the edge cases

Real fields are never clean multiples of four, so plan for the ragged parts:

• Fill within the tier, not across it. If your numbers leave a team short a "D," pull the next-closest player from the same tier rather than dropping in a spare "A." One extra strong player unbalances the whole team.
• Honor real requests where you can. Two friends who both signed up as individuals and asked to play together can go on the same team — just make sure their combined tiers roughly match what the other teams carry. Fairness first, friendship a close second.
• Keep beginners together thoughtfully. A true first-timer paired with three low handicaps often feels like a passenger. Spreading absolute beginners as your "D" players across teams usually plays better than isolating one on a group that never needs their shot.
• Separate team balancing from competitive brackets. Balancing teams is about the draw; deciding who competes against whom is a different lever. If you want closer competition across a wide range of ability, run skill flights on top of even teams rather than trying to make one system do both.

Let the draw run itself

Sorting forty players into ten balanced foursomes by hand — then redoing it when three people drop and two more sign up the night before — is exactly the kind of quiet, error-prone work that eats an organizer's evening. This is where the right tool earns its keep. With Greenside Golf, players enter their handicap or skill level when they register, and the team builder sorts the field into tiers and deals balanced A-B-C-D foursomes in a few clicks — reshuffling instantly when the roster changes, then feeding the same teams straight into your pairings, cart signs, and live leaderboard with nothing retyped.

Even teams are the whole foundation of a scramble that stays fun to the last hole. Ask for a number at sign-up, sort the field into four tiers, deal one of each onto every team, and you turn a draw that could decide the day into one that simply sets up a fair fight — which is exactly what the captains at Medinah are trying to do all week.