PGA Tour Best Ball: Your Guide To The Scramble 2026

Dylan Wilkerson Sports Betting Expert

13 minute read

_{Image Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images}

TLDR: Draft the best golfers that will be playing a lot of golf in order to try and qualify for the signature events. Include a few golfers that are already qualified for all of the signature events. More information (and golfers to target late in draft) below.

As the calendar year winds down and football comes to an end, the PGA Tour season is upon us. This means PGA Tour best ball is ramping up. You may be looking for the best strategies for PGA Tour best ball this season, how the tournament works, or the best way to maximize your money to get as many entries as possible.

This article will focus on The Scramble for 2026, which is a PGA Tour best ball tournament that is only available on Underdog. New users on Underdog can claim our Underdog promo code VIBONUS to Play $5, Get $100 in Bonus Entries!. Click the module below to get started.

Updated on 12/5/25

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The Scramble Format

The price to enter this contest is $10 per entry. You will enter a draft with 6 other people and everyone will draft 12 golfers. You will be randomly assigned a draft spot once the draft fills. It works just like any other draft. You will have 20 seconds to make your picks, although there is another draft option that allows users to have 8 hours per pick. This is perfect for those that want to draft but do not want to be tied to their computer/phone.

Rosters consist of 12 golfers, where 6 golfers count towards your score on a weekly basis. It should be your goal to always ensure that you have at least 6 golfers playing every given week. This is a key part of the strategy, but we will get to that later.

The PGA Tour Schedule

The contest has 4 rounds, each consisting of a certain amount of PGA Tour events. To the left, you can see the events that are within each round.

There is a wrinkle to consider when drafting your rosters. There are set signature events that have a limited field and only a subset of golfers who qualify can play. Here are the current signature events for 2026:

• AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
• The Genesis Invitational
• Arnold Palmer Invitational
• RBC Heritage
• Miami Championship
• Truist Championship
• The Memorial Tournament
• Travelers Championship

The Scramble Scoring Format

The 2026 scramble brings us a lot of scoring changes that helps dictate our approach to drafting teams. Golfers now get awarded for finishing positions, which is completely new to the contest. This awards teams with better golfers, where previously the focus was much more focused on drafting players that would play a lot of golf. There is still an emphasis on drafting players that will be playing a lot of golf, but player performance has been prioritized by Underdog this season.

Under-par hole results also see a reduced point total, but over-par hole results also see a reduction in penalty. Below is a comparison of The Scramble 2025 scoring and 2026 scoring.

Advancing In The Scramble

As mentioned before, the tournament has 4 rounds. The first three rounds consist of 6 person groups, ending with a 261 person group fighting for the grand prize of $50,000. In order to advance rounds, you will need to place first in your 6-person pod. This is the only way to advance into the next round, unless the tournament does not fill and they have wild card spots to advance.

Prizes for The Scramble

The grand prize for The Scramble is $50,000. If you just so happen to find yourself in the final 261 seat final, you will lock up $250 in prizes at minimum. By just advancing out of the 1st round, you will make $20 which doubles your entry of $10.

See the picture on the left for a complete breakdown of the prize pool for this contest.

The Scramble Strategy - How To Draft Correctly

This format prioritizes drafting golfers that will be playing a lot of golf. However, the implementation of Signature Events throws a wrench in this strategy. You need a mix of golfers that have qualified for these signature events and those that have not and will be trying to play their way into these events. How do golfers qualify for signature events?

• Be in the top 50 in the prior season’s FedExCup standings
• Aon Next 10: Top 10 in the current year FedExCup standings (not otherwise exempt)
• Aon Swing 5: Top five FedExCup points earners between Signature Events (not otherwise exempt)
• Current-year tournament winners (full FedExCup points events)
•  PGA TOUR members in the top 30 in the OWGR
•  Sponsor exemptions

Any golfer that placed in the top-50 in the FedEx Cup last season automatically qualifies for all of the signature events for the 2026 PGA Tour season. Here are the golfers that have automatically qualified for this season's signature events by being in the top-50 in last season's FedEx Cup Standings:

Players that also finished in the top-ten in the FedEx Cup fall qualify for the first 2 signature events of the season via the AON Next 10. This is every signature event in the first round. Here are the 10 players that have qualified for the first 2 signature events:

While these 10 players will be in the first 2 signature events, their status for the rest of the signature events are not solidified like the 50 players above. These ten spots are revolving, mean players will be competing in non-signature events for the right to play in the signature events moving forward. This is where the AON Swing 5 comes in We do not know who these qualifiers are yet, since they will be represented by the top-5 FedEx Cup points scorers in the Sony Open, American Express, Farmers Insurance Open, and WM Phoenix Open. The AON Swing 5 points reset once the signature events have been played. This allows the hottest golfers to play in the signature events that would not qualify any other way.

The Scramble: Proper Roster Construction

Ideally, you want a good mix of players that have qualified for all of the signature events, as well as golfers that HAVE NOT qualified and will be playing in a lot of non-signature events to try and qualify for the signature events. This years' format offers a wrinkle though. Since finishing positions are awarded points, you want to pick the best of the golfers that will be playing in non-signature events in an effort to try and qualify. Let's take a look at one of my rosters that I have drafted and walk you through my thought process.

On this roster, I have 6 players that have qualified for all of the signature events for 2026 in McIlroy, Im, Conners, Poston, Taylor, and Fitzpatrick.

I also have a golfer that will be playing in the first 2 signature events in Rico Hoey. Assuming that these 7 players will be playing in all of the signature events they are qualified for, I will be able to at least have a full roster of 6 for all of the signature events in the first round. I then have 5 guys that will likely play in the non-signature events in Olesen, Mouw, Highsmith, Thorbjornsen, and Yu in an effort to try and get access to the signature events.

I am also assuming these golfers that have already qualified for the signature events will also play in non-signature events. Something else to consider is a golfer's age. Younger golfers without families are likely to play more than their older, married counterparts. For example, I am fading Tony Finau this season even though he has not qualified for the signature events. Although we may think that he will be playing more golf to try and qualify, I know he has a large family and may not be playing as much as someone that has no family. Young guys like Michael Thorbjornsen play a lot of golf. He played in 25 events last season, and I can only expect the same rate as he sits outside the signature event threshold and he tries to play himself in.

Golfers to Target Late in Drafts

This is a list of golfers who I think will play a lot of golf and play well enough to play into signature events:

Thank you for reading. This contest is very complicated, but if you are willing to do the research it is a contest where you can win big since most players just draft the best golfers. Make sure you understand the contest and best of luck drafting!

Dylan Wilkerson

Dylan Wilkerson has over 5 years of experience reporting and analyzing the sports betting industry for various sites. His portfolio includes work for SportsHandle and Action Network, in addition to VegasInsider. His favorite sports are the NFL, College Football, The PGA Tour, the LIV Tour, and Cricket. Dylan has a broad and deep understanding of various sports-related topics. More from Dylan Wilkerson