Foursomes (alternate shot)

How foursomes works

Before the round the pair decides who will tee off on the odd-numbered holes; the partner tees off on the even. From the tee the players strike the ball alternately until it is holed: A drives, B plays the second, A the third, and so on. The order carries through penalties. If A's drive is out of bounds, A does not replay it; the stroke and distance penalty is added and B plays the next shot from the tee. A provisional ball is played by the partner for the same reason.

The alternation resets at every tee. Whoever holed the putt on the fifth has no bearing on who drives the sixth; the even-hole driver drives the sixth. That is what makes the choice before the round matter: the pair works out which player should drive the par threes and the tight holes, and gives that player the odds or the evens accordingly.

The team handicap

A foursomes pair plays half the shots each, so the USGA® allowance is half the pair's handicap: 50% of the combined Course Handicap, rounded to a whole number. A pair with Course Handicaps of 10 and 22 has a combined 32 and plays off 16. Parful applies that split by default on every foursomes competition. The team then receives strokes by stroke index like a single player, and the team net is the team gross minus those strokes.

The pair plays one tee, designated by the committee. Parful designates the tee with the lowest Course Rating™ among the tees the two players hold and works the pair's Course Handicaps from it.

Ties and the honor rules

A tied foursomes stroke play or Stableford competition goes to countback on the team card, back nine first, then the last six, three and one. A pair may not decide hole by hole who drives; the order is fixed before the first tee shot. Playing out of order costs the general penalty and, in stroke play, the pair must correct it before playing from the next tee.

How Parful runs it

Choose Foursomes when you set up a club competition, an event round or a cup session. Parful takes the two Course Handicaps, halves the sum, places the strokes from the designated tee and gives the pair one card. Clubs can run it as stroke play or Stableford; the scorer enters one number per hole and the leaderboard ranks gross and net with countback. In a cup session the same pair card feeds a match against another pair.

The card carries no individual scores, so side games that read a player's own ball are unavailable on a foursomes round; a Custom bet is the one side game the pair can carry. Who drove which hole is not recorded and the alternation is kept by the pair on honor. Nothing from a foursomes card is posted to a handicap record.

Worked example

A worked example: a foursomes pair, front nine

Gia plays off a Course Handicap of 10 and Hal off 22. Combined 32, halved to 16. The pair receives a stroke on stroke index 1 to 16, which on this front nine is every hole except the third. Gia drives the odd holes and Hal the even.

• infoOn hole 7 Gia drove, Hal played the second, Gia the third, Hal the fourth, Gia the fifth and Hal holed the sixth. Hal then drove the eighth because it is an even hole, not because he holed out.
• infoThe pair's 16 is half of 32. Neither player's own handicap is used anywhere else on the card.

Common variants

Greensomes

Both players drive, the pair chooses one ball and alternates from there. Parful runs it as its own format with a 60/40 handicap split.

Chapman

Both drive, each plays the partner's ball for the second shot, the pair chooses one and alternates in. Parful runs it as its own format.

Mixed foursomes

A man and a woman as partners, often from different tees. The order of play is the same; Parful designates one tee for the pair and does not run separate tees inside one foursomes card.

Foursomes match play

Pair against pair, hole by hole, with strokes on the difference between the two pairs' handicaps. Parful runs it on club competitions and cup sessions.