We all naturally think of a low score in golf as being good and a high score not so good. If you hear that a professional golfer shot a round in the 50's, you know that is very rare and a fantastic score. Few have done it. But what about in the golf Stableford scoring system? What's a good round? Fantastic round?
The USGA covers Stableford competitions in the Rules of Golf - Rule 21 - Other Forms of Individual Stroke Play and Match Play. In a Stableford scoring system, you award points in relationship to "fixed score" on a hole. The "fixed score" is usually par or net par. Points are awarded in golf Stableford scoring system as follows:
Given this scoring system, and assuming the "fixed score" is par, then a par round would be 18 holes multiplied by 2 points, or 36. Now if you shot a birdie on 16 holes and par on 2 holes, you would - in addition to being Superman/Wonder Woman - receive 16 holes multiplied by 3 points and 2 holes multiplied by 2 points, or 52. A 52 in Stableford would be beyond a fabulous round. It would be an exceedingly rare score, the equivalent of 16 under par in normal stroke play (or a round of 56, assuming a par 72).
There is also what's called the Modified Stableford scoring system. "Stableford" is more for "normal" golfers. Modified Stableford is for pros. In Modified Stableford penalties are high for shooting a bad hole and the rewards are greater for an excellent (Eagle, Double Eagle) score on a hole. Here are the point distributions for Modified Stableford:
Wow! If you shoot a par round under Modified Stableford, you receive 0 - that's ZERO - points. Compare that to 36 points in Stableford! In the same scenario as above, if some alien golfer shot 16 birdies and 2 pars, it (s/he?) would receive 32 points (compared to 52). As you can see, the modified system is for pros!