At Burlingame Country Club in the heart of Cashiers, NC, we’ve hosted every kind of golf event you can imagine. Corporate outings with first-timers who’ve never gripped a club. Charity tournaments where the whole point is community, not competition. Member events where friendships are tested in the most loving, competitive way possible. And through all of it, we’ve learned one thing pretty clearly: the scramble format has a way of rescuing situations that other formats can’t.

But how do you know if a scramble is right for your tournament? Let’s walk through the signs. You might recognize your group in here.

1. Your Group Has a Wide Range of Skill Levels

This is the big one. If your tournament includes a mix of single-digit handicappers and people who are, let’s say, “enthusiastically recreational,” then stroke play is going to make for a very long, very demoralizing afternoon for a significant portion of your field. The scramble fixes this beautifully.

In a scramble, every player on the team hits their shot, the team picks the best one, and everyone plays from there. Your 28-handicapper can absolutely contribute — maybe they hit the flukiest, most perfectly placed chip of their life on the 14th hole, and suddenly the team has a birdie look. That moment? That’s the one they’ll talk about at dinner. That’s the one that makes them want to come back.

When your group spans from “plays twice a week” to “hasn’t touched clubs since last year’s outing,” a scramble keeps everyone in the game and having fun.

2. The Primary Goal Is Fun, Not Accurate Competition

Some tournaments are really about something bigger than golf — a fundraiser, a company outing, a friend group reunion, a charity event where the golf is the vehicle for connection. If your tournament exists primarily to bring people together rather than crown a serious champion, the scramble is your format.

There’s something almost magical about the scramble energy. Players cheer for each other. They high-five after good shots. They make decisions together. It turns golf — which can be a pretty solitary, head-down kind of game — into something genuinely social. Out here in the mountains around Cashiers, where the Blue Ridge light comes sideways through the trees and the air smells like pine and possibility, you want your group looking up and enjoying where they are. The scramble makes that easier.

3. You’re Hosting a Corporate or Charity Event

If you’re planning a corporate golf tournament or a charity fundraiser, stop deliberating and go with the scramble. Full stop. Here’s why: you likely have sponsors, prizes, and a pace-of-play requirement. You may have people who are playing golf for the first time. You need the round to finish in a reasonable window so everyone can make it to the awards dinner.

The scramble format moves efficiently, keeps energy high, and ensures that no one feels singled out for a bad hole. It’s democratic, and it’s forgiving — two qualities that are very valuable when your focus is raising money or building relationships rather than posting a score.

4. You’ve Had Dropout Issues in Previous Tournaments

Have you run a tournament before where players started picking up their ball and quietly losing interest by the back nine? Where someone had a rough stretch and mentally checked out? That’s a format mismatch. When individual stroke play exposes every bad shot in real time, players who are struggling have nothing to hold onto.

In a scramble, the team carries you when you’re struggling. There’s always a reason to take your shot — because yours might just be the one that saves the hole. Players stay engaged, stay positive, and stay in the cart seat rather than just going through the motions.

5. You Want Faster Rounds

The mountains around Cashiers are gorgeous, but nobody wants to be out there for six hours. The scramble format moves — there’s no searching for lost balls, no grinding out triple bogeys one shot at a time. The team finds the best ball and plays from there. Rounds stay crisp, and players arrive at the 19th hole (or the clubhouse, as the case may be) still smiling.

If you’ve ever been in a tournament that felt like it would never end, you already understand the gift of a well-paced round. The scramble is purpose-built for this.

6. You Want High Scores and Exciting Leaderboards

Here’s a fun truth: scramble teams almost always score better than any individual player in the group would. Birdies happen. Eagles happen. The leaderboard at a scramble tournament looks genuinely exciting — you’ll have teams posting rounds that would make a scratch golfer raise an eyebrow. That energy changes the whole room at the awards dinner. Everyone feels like they had a great round, because they did.

If you want a format that generates stories and scoring highlights, the scramble delivers every time.

Not Sure If a Scramble Is Right for Your Group?

We get it — there are real situations where best ball or stroke play makes more sense. Maybe you’re running a serious member competition. Maybe your group is experienced enough that the competitive stakes matter to everyone involved. Format selection is genuinely about knowing your players.

We put together a full breakdown of the differences between all three major formats to help you think it through. Read our guide to scramble vs. best ball vs. stroke play — it covers the mechanics, the pros and cons, and the scenarios where each format shines. It’s one of the most useful things you’ll read before you commit to a format.

Plan Your Tournament at Burlingame Country Club in Cashiers, NC

There’s something about this corner of the North Carolina mountains that makes golf feel like it was meant to be here. The course winds through hardwood forest and open meadows, with the kind of mountain views that make you stop mid-swing just to take it in. We’ve been proud to host tournaments of every size — intimate member events, large-scale charity days, corporate outings that turn clients into friends.

Whether you’ve already decided on a scramble or you’re still working through the options, our team is here to help you put together a tournament that people talk about for years. Country. Club. We’re pretty good at both — and the combination makes for a tournament experience that goes well beyond the scorecard.

Reach out to us to start planning your golf tournament in Cashiers, NC. We’d love to put this place to work for your group.