A Las Vegas Scramble needs one piece of equipment a normal scramble does not, and it fits in a pocket. After all four players hit their tee shots, somebody rolls a single six-sided die, and the number that comes up decides which drive the team plays.
Each player carries a number from one to four for the round. Roll a three and the team plays from whatever the number three player hit, whether that finished in the middle of the fairway or out in the desert. Roll a five or a six and the hole reverts to an ordinary scramble with a free pick of all four balls.
Everything after the tee shot works the same as any scramble. The die only decides where the team starts.
WHEN SOMETHING ELSE PICKS FOR YOU
Three more formats where the choice is out of your hands:
- Heads-Tails — a coin flip on every tee decides who partners up and who plays alone
- Gruesomes — your opponents choose which of your two drives you have to play, and they will pick the bad one
- Florida Scramble — whoever hits the chosen shot has to sit out the next one
Setting Up a Las Vegas Scramble
There are four players to a team, same as a standard scramble. The only addition is a single six-sided die.
Every player is assigned a number from one to four and that number stays the same for the whole round. It does not matter who gets which number, but the numbers have to be locked in and known to the group. Swapping them mid-round is not acceptable.
Handicaps work the way they do in any scramble. The common four-person method takes 20 percent of the A player’s course handicap, 15 percent of the B player’s, 10 percent of the C player’s and 5 percent of the D player’s, then adds the four together. Our handicap calculator handles team allowances, if you need the assist.
How the Roll Works
All four players tee off. Then the die is rolled. Never before, because doing so would tell somebody their swing is the one that counts ahead of time, which defeats the purpose of the game.
Rolling a one through four
The team plays the player’s drive belonging to that number, with no discussion and no alternative. If the number two player pulled it into a bunker, the die comes up a two, and everyone else is safely down the middle, the team is playing from the bunker.
A drive that finished out of bounds or in a penalty area is handled the way it would be for any game, so the team takes its relief and its stroke and carries on from there. Our guide to golf course penalties has the relief procedures if the group is unsure how to handle penalty zones, with a super handy image to download and keep in your phone.
Rolling a five or a six
A five or a six gives the team a free pick of all four drives, and the hole plays as an ordinary scramble. Two of the six faces do this, so it comes up on roughly a third of the holes.
Playing out the hole
Once the drive is settled, the hole finishes as a normal scramble. Everyone plays from within a clublength of the chosen spot, no nearer the hole, the best of those shots is selected, and it repeats until somebody holes out. One score goes on the card for the team.
PACE NOTE
The die speeds up the tee shot and nothing else. Groups lose the usual minute of standing around and debating which drive to pick, which is why organizers reach for this format with a full field.
Screenshot the card above and keep it on your phone for the round.
What the Die Does to Your Tee Shot
In a standard scramble, when there’s a good ball in play, the fourth player can swing as hard as they like, because a good shot is no longer required, and a power drive is worth the potential throwaway.
A die takes that away. Each number comes up once in six rolls, so across eighteen holes every player’s drive is the team’s ball on about three of them.
Every player is one roll away from being the whole team’s tee shot. That changes what a good drive is worth here. A ball in the fairway forty yards short of everyone else costs the team very little when the roll singles them out, and a ball in the desert can cost them the hole.
It also solves a problem Texas Scramble has to solve with paperwork. That format requires each player’s drive to be used a set number of times, which somebody has to track on the card all afternoon. A Las Vegas Scramble distributes the drives by chance instead. The same spread happens on its own and nobody has to count anything.
Variations Worth Knowing
Three-player teams
With three players, assign numbers one through three and treat four, five or six as a free pick. That leaves half the holes open to choice, which is looser than the four-player version. Groups that want the pressure back reroll any four instead. That returns the split to one third being free holes.
Rolling for every shot
Some groups keep rolling after the drive, using the die on approaches and again on the green. It turns a scramble into something closer to a lottery and adds a stroke or three to the team total, which suits a casual round with nothing on the line.
A gentler middle version rolls off the tee and on approach shots, then lets the team choose freely once every ball is on the putting surface. Putts are where a forced selection stings most, because a forty-footer instead of a tap-in is a two-stroke swing.
ORGANIZER CALL
Put the dice rule on the entry sheet. Teams that find out halfway around that everyone else has been rolling on approach shots will have a fair complaint about their score.
How Far to Take the Dice
For a first run, keep the die on the tee box only. That version keeps the scramble a team scoring game but still adds a little bit of luck to each hole. Surprisingly, scores tend to land within a few strokes of a straight scramble.
Put a die in the bag the next time you’re looking to play a friendly scramble and see how your group takes to having the choice made for them.
Enjoy your round.
