How does Disaster golf game work?

Disaster causes players to focus on the deficiencies of their game, rather the strengths. It encourages players to grind out a score.

Disaster, or Trouble, is a golf game which punishes mishaps. As such it works well as an exercise in game improvement. It is popular with mid-ranking players.

The aim of Disaster is to incur as few penalty points as possible. The winner is the player with the fewest points.

The rules and penalties of Disaster vary. But the general basis is that certain mistakes on the course are penalised:

Ball hit out of bounds - 1 point

Ball hit into a water hazard - 1 point

Three putts on a green - 1 point

Ball hit into a bunker - 1 point

Falling to get the ball out of a bunker first time - 1 point

Hitting the ball out of one bunker straight into another - 2 points

Air shot- 4 points

Some versions have a rule that if par is made on a hole no penalty points can be incurred on that hole. Others include a further 4pt penalty for any player who four putts on a green.

The focus of the Disaster golf game is on avoiding the potential card wreckers. It can be played by golfers of any ability, but it works best perhaps for those golfers who have a decent level of ability but cannot get their medal scores as low as they feel they should be.

Disaster causes players to focus on the deficiencies of their game, rather the strengths.

In short, it encourages players to grind out a score.

The game can be played by those of any ability, and the system of penalties can be modified any way the players fancy - so long as all agree in advance.

I have known a group of single-figure handicappers play this. They extended the list of penalties to include 1pt penalties for missing the fairway, missing the green from the tee on a par 3 and for any putt missed from within 3ft.