Stableford scores points instead of strokes. Make a good number, bank the points; make a mess, you just score low and move on. One snowman can't sink your whole round, which is exactly why high handicaps and aggressive players both love it.
Forget your stroke total. Each hole pays points, and points are all that matter.
Take your gross score, apply your handicap strokes for that hole, and you have your net score. Stableford is almost always played net, so every player is measured against their own par.
Compare your net score to par and collect points. In the standard scale a net par is 2 points, a birdie 3, an eagle 4, and a bogey still earns 1. A double bogey or worse scores 0. The better the hole, the more you bank.
This is the whole appeal. In stroke play a quadruple bogey can wreck an otherwise great day. In Stableford it just scores zero. You pick up, take your nothing, and tee off fresh on the next one.
Total your points across the round. Highest total wins. If you are playing for money, FLOG settles per point against every other player based on the point differences.
The points scale is the whole game. Pick standard for a friendly round, modified when you want guys taking on flags.
Par = 2, birdie = 3, eagle = 4, bogey = 1, double or worse = 0. Steady and forgiving. A round of pars and the odd birdie scores well, and a blow-up only costs that one hole.
Big rewards for birdies and eagles, and bogeys actually cost you points. A common scale: eagle +5, birdie +2, par 0, bogey −1, double+ −3. It pushes everyone to be aggressive.
Albatross, eagle, birdie, par, bogey, double: every value is editable in FLOG. Dial the rewards exactly how your group likes them, then it sticks for the round.
Set a value per point and FLOG settles each player against every other on the point difference. Leave it at zero to play for bragging rights only.
Play strokes relative to the lowest handicap in the group, or give every player their full handicap off the scorecard. Your call, set once at setup.
Stableford stacks with your other games. Play it on top of a Nassau or skins for a second way to win the day, all scored from the same card.
FLOG turns every net score into points automatically, keeps the running total, and settles the per-point money so nobody has to add it up.
Scott made an 8 on the par 5 and it cost him exactly one hole: zero points, then right back in it. In stroke play that 8 buries the round.
Stableford rewards a clear head. Because a wipe-out only scores zero, you can be aggressive on the holes that suit you and bail out cheaply on the ones that don't. The math forgives the disaster, so play the percentages.
FLOG scores every hole, runs standard or your own modified scale, and settles the per-point money to the dollar.