Competition formats
Parful runs thisIrish Four Ball
Also called Irish four-ball, Progressive four ball.
Irish Four Ball is a team of four playing their own balls, where the number of scores that count steps up as the round goes on: the best one ball through the sixth, the best two through the twelfth, and the best three coming home.
- Players
- Teams of four, own ball
- Holes 1 to 6
- Best 1 net counts
- Holes 7 to 12
- Best 2 nets count
- Holes 13 to 18
- Best 3 nets count
- Ranked by
- Lowest team net total
- Recommended allowance
- 85% of Course Handicap™
How Irish Four Ball works
Four players form a team and everyone plays their own ball for the whole round, exactly as they would in a four-ball. What changes is how many of those balls the team is allowed to count, and it changes three times.
Through the first six holes only the best net score on each hole counts, so the team can afford three poor holes as long as somebody scores. From the seventh through the twelfth the best two count. From the thirteenth home the best three count, and a single bad hole from three of the four players starts to hurt.
Why the step-up changes the round
The progression is the whole design. Early on the team is effectively playing a best ball and can attack, because one good score covers the hole. By the closing stretch three players have to contribute on every hole, so the team that has been leaning on one strong player runs out of cover exactly when the pressure is highest.
It also keeps every player involved to the last green. In a straight best ball the fourth player can be irrelevant by the turn; here they are needed more with every segment.
Handicaps and variants
Each player receives 85% of their Course Handicap™, the same allowance as the other own-ball team formats, and strokes fall on the card by stroke index as usual. Net scores are what count.
The most common variation counts all four balls on the last two holes, making the finish harder again. Parful stores the segments as data rather than as a fixed rule, so a club can run that version by changing the configuration rather than needing a different format.
How Parful runs it
Choose Irish Four Ball on the outing or competition and the scorecard is the ordinary own-ball card every player already keeps. The team score is built from those cards: on each hole Parful takes the required number of best net scores for that segment and adds them, so nobody has to work out which balls count.
A hole where fewer players have posted than the segment requires counts what is actually there rather than waiting or guessing, so a round in progress always shows a real total. The leaderboard ranks on the team net total with countback for ties.
Worked example
A worked example: the three segments
A team of four with net scores of 4, 5, 6 and 7 on a run of par 4s, to show what each segment takes. Real teams vary, but the arithmetic is the point.
| Segment | Holes | Balls counted | Nets available | Counted | Team score per hole |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | 1 to 6 | 1 | 4, 5, 6, 7 | 4 | 4 |
| Second | 7 to 12 | 2 | 4, 5, 6, 7 | 4 and 5 | 9 |
| Third | 13 to 18 | 3 | 4, 5, 6, 7 | 4, 5 and 6 | 15 |
- The worst ball never counts under the standard segments, so the fourth player is a safety net rather than a passenger.
- On a hole where only two players have posted, the third segment counts those two rather than holding the hole open.
Common variants
- All four home
- Counting all four balls on the seventeenth and eighteenth. Parful holds the segments as configuration, so this is a setting rather than a different format.
- Sixes by threes
- Some clubs step up every three holes rather than every six, giving six segments. The same configuration handles it.
- 1-2-3 Waltz
- A related idea where the count cycles one, two, three hole by hole rather than stepping up once and staying. Parful runs that as Cha Cha Cha.