Competition formats
Parful runs thisBest 2 of 4
Also called Two best balls, Best two of four, 2 of 4.
Best 2 of 4 is a team format for four players in which everyone plays their own ball, and on each hole the two lowest net scores among the four are added together for the team. Each player receives 85% of their Course Handicap™. It is also how Parful scores a shamble once the cards are in.
- Played as
- Own ball, own card, teams of 4
- Team score
- The two lowest net scores on each hole, added
- Ranked by
- Team net total, lowest wins
- Allowance
- 85% of Course Handicap™ per player
- Net par for the team
- Twice the card par, 144 on a par 72
- Runs on
- Parful Clubs competitions and Events rounds
How best 2 of 4 works
Four players form a team and every one of them plays their own ball on every hole. After the hole, each player's gross score is reduced by the strokes they receive there. The two lowest nets are added and the sum is the team's score for the hole. On a par 4 the team's net par is 8, on a par 5 it is 10, and a team that counts a net birdie and a net par writes 7.
Counting two scores instead of one changes the feel of the day. One player cannot carry the team; on every hole somebody else has to post a respectable net too. Blow-up holes still get thrown away, since the two worst scores never count, but the spread between good teams and ordinary ones is much wider than in best 1 of 4, and ties are rarer.
The format is the usual choice when a committee wants a team day that still rewards playing well, and it is the standard scoring for a shamble, where the team plays from the best drive and then everyone plays their own ball in.
Handicaps and where the strokes fall
Each player takes their own strokes at 85% of Course Handicap™: an 8 receives 7, a 14 receives 12, a 20 receives 17 and a 26 receives 22 (one everywhere and a second on stroke index 1 to 4). Strokes fall by the stroke index of the tee each player is using, so the same team can play from mixed tees and still be scored fairly.
The 85% figure is the World Handicap System™ recommendation for the four-ball family, and it holds for two counted scores as it does for one. Where a club finds the high-handicap teams winning every week it can lower the percentage per competition.
Ties and ranking
Teams rank on net total, lowest first. A tie on net is broken on the Parful leaderboard by the lower gross total of the counted scores, then shared. A club can apply countback on the team card under its own conditions.
How Parful scores it
Best 2 of 4 runs on Parful Clubs competitions and on Events rounds, where it sits in the format list beside scramble and Stableford. Every player scores their own ball on the group scorecard and the counted-scores engine builds the team card: on every score it recomputes the four nets for the hole, keeps the two lowest, and updates the team total and the leaderboard. The result records the two players who counted on each hole.
Events also use this format to score a shamble. Once the individual cards are in, a shamble and a best 2 of 4 are the same arithmetic; the shared tee shot changed how the players reached the green, not how the team score is counted. The leaderboard for a shamble round is therefore a best 2 of 4 leaderboard.
A hole where fewer than two players have scored counts what is there until the rest arrive, and a corrected score reruns the team card from hole one. Every player plays their own ball from the tee, so every own-ball side game in the library is available alongside the competition.
Worked example
A worked example: holes 1 to 6
Ana, Ben, Cal and Dee play off Course Handicaps of 8, 14, 20 and 26, receiving 7, 12, 17 and 22 strokes at 85%. Net scores are shown; the two lowest on each hole are added.
| Hole | Par | Ana net | Ben net | Cal net | Dee net | Counted | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | Ana 3 + Ben 4 | 7 |
| 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | Ana 5 + Ben 5 | 10 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | Ana 3 + Cal 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | Ben 5 + Dee 5 | 10 |
| 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | Two of Ana, Ben, Cal at 4 | 8 |
| 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | Ana 3 + Cal 3 | 6 |
- The same four cards score 23 in best 1 of 4 (level par) and 47 here (one over). Counting the second ball exposes hole 4, where nobody made better than net 5.
- On hole 5 three players tied on net 4; any two of them count and the hole is 8 either way. The engine records the first two in its sorted list, which changes nothing about the total.
Common variants
- Shamble
- Best drive selected, then everyone plays their own ball in, scored as best 2 of 4. Parful runs it as its own format on Events and Clubs; the tee shot is shared so tee-shot side games are unavailable.
- Best 2 of 4 with a par-3 rule
- Some clubs count three scores on the par 3s, or all four, to add pressure on the short holes. Parful scores a fixed two per hole; a rotating count is the Cha Cha Cha format.
- Best 1 of 4 and best 3 of 4
- The same format with one or three counted scores. Both are pages of their own and both run on Parful.