Competition formats
Parful runs thisBest 1 of 4
Also called Best ball of four, One best ball, 1 of 4.
Best 1 of 4 is a team format for four players in which everyone plays their own ball and keeps their own card, and on each hole only the single lowest net score among the four counts for the team. Each player receives 85% of their Course Handicap™.
- Played as
- Own ball, own card, teams of 4
- Team score
- The single lowest net score on each hole
- Ranked by
- Team net total, lowest wins
- Allowance
- 85% of Course Handicap™ per player
- Tie on the leaderboard
- Lower team gross total, then shared
- Runs on
- Parful Clubs competitions and Events rounds
How best 1 of 4 works
Four players make a team. Every one of them plays their own ball on every hole and records a gross score on their own card. After the hole, each gross is reduced by the strokes that player receives there, and the lowest of the four nets is the team's score for the hole. Eighteen of those make the team's round.
One counted score out of four is the most forgiving of the counted-score family. Three players can make a mess of a hole and the team still posts a par if the fourth holes a putt. That is exactly why charity days like it: nobody's bad hole hurts anyone, and every player has a reason to keep going because their next hole might be the one that counts.
The other side of that coin is bunching. On most holes at least one of four players makes net par, so the field finishes within a shot or two of one another and ties are common. Committees that want more spread use best 2 of 4.
Handicaps and where the strokes fall
Each player takes their own strokes at 85% of Course Handicap™. There is no team handicap and no blending. An 8 receives 7 strokes (6.8 rounded), a 14 receives 12, a 20 receives 17 and a 26 receives 22, which is one stroke everywhere plus a second on stroke index 1 to 4. Strokes are placed by the stroke index of the player's own tee.
The allowance is below 100% because the team benefits from the best of four attempts on every hole. Fuller allowances would hand the day to the teams with the highest handicaps, since a high handicapper with two strokes on a hole makes net birdie with a bogey.
Ties and ranking
Teams are ranked on net total, lowest first. When two teams tie on net, Parful's counted-scores leaderboard ranks the team with the lower gross total of its counted scores ahead; if that is level too the position is shared. A club can settle a shared position by countback on the team card under its own conditions.
How Parful scores it
Best 1 of 4 runs on Parful Clubs competitions and on Events rounds. Every player scores their own ball on the group scorecard; the team card is never typed in. As each score lands, the counted-scores engine works out the four nets for the hole, keeps the lowest, and updates the team total and the leaderboard. The result records which player counted on each hole, so a team can see who carried them.
A hole with no scores yet contributes nothing. A hole where only two of the four have scored counts the better of the two until the others arrive, and a corrected score reruns the whole team card from hole one. Nothing is cached that a later edit could leave stale.
Because every player plays their own ball from the tee, every own-ball side game is available alongside the competition: Wolf, Dots, Arnies, Fairways and Greens, Skins, Nassau and the rest run from the same card.
Worked example
A worked example: holes 1 to 6
Ana, Ben, Cal and Dee play off Course Handicaps of 8, 14, 20 and 26. At 85% they receive 7, 12, 17 and 22 strokes. Net scores are shown after strokes by stroke index; the lowest net on each hole counts.
| Hole | Par | Stroke index | Ana net | Ben net | Cal net | Dee net | Counts | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | Ana | 3 |
| 2 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | Ana or Ben | 5 |
| 3 | 3 | 17 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | Ana or Cal | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | Ben or Dee | 5 |
| 5 | 4 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | Ana, Ben or Cal | 4 |
| 6 | 3 | 15 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | Ana or Cal | 3 |
- On hole 4 Ana, the lowest handicapper, made a gross 7 for a net 6 and it cost the team nothing: Ben and Dee both had net 5.
- Dee, playing off 22 strokes, received two on hole 2 and hole 4 (stroke index 3 and 1). Her gross 7 on hole 4 became the counting net 5.
- Every hole on this card was a net par or better for the team. That is normal for best 1 of 4, which is why the format bunches.
Common variants
- Best 2 of 4
- The two lowest nets are added on each hole. The team total roughly doubles and the spread between teams widens. Parful runs it as its own format.
- Four-ball (two a side)
- The same rule with two players instead of four. On Parful Clubs this is the four-ball competition type.
- Gross best 1 of 4
- No strokes; the lowest gross counts. A scratch setting on the same format.
- Best 1 of 4 with a drive requirement
- Some clubs also require each player's drive to be used a minimum number of times. That is a scramble or bramble rule, not a counted-score one, and Parful does not track drive counts on this format.