How does Luck of the Draw work in golf?

Partners are drawn at random on every tee and play best ball for that hole, one point per winner, or, in the other common form, the counting score for a team of four is drawn after each hole.

How do you draw partners?

Four cards with two marked, a coin per pair, or numbers in a bag. Anything random done on the tee before anyone plays.

Is Luck of the Draw played gross or net?

Net. Because partners change every hole, handicap strokes by stroke index keep each hole fair whoever is drawn together.

Does Parful score Luck of the Draw?

No. The draw happens on the course and changes who is playing with whom, so the game changes the round rather than scoring it. Parful explains it and does not run it.

What happens on a halved hole?

Nothing. No points are scored and nothing carries to the next hole in the common form.

Golf games

Rules and explanation only

Luck of the Draw

Also called Draw partners, Random partners, Blind partners.

Luck of the Draw is a four-player game in which chance, not choice, decides the pairings or the counting ball on every hole. In the common form the partners are drawn at random on each tee and play best ball for that hole; in another, the score that counts for the team is drawn after everyone has holed out.

Players: 4 in one group; team versions use larger fields
The draw: Random partners each hole, or a random counting ball after the hole
Scoring basis: Net best ball per side, or the drawn net score
Points: One per hole won, in the partners form
Kind of thing: A format for the day, not an overlay

How Luck of the Draw works

The game has two common forms that share a name. In the partners form, four players draw for partners on every tee: four cards, two marked, or a coin for each pair. The two who drew together play best ball against the other two for that hole only, and one point goes to each winner. On the next tee the draw happens again. Over 18 holes everyone has been everyone's partner and the points are individual.

In the counting-ball form the group plays as a single team of four, and after each hole one player's number is drawn from a bag. That player's net score is the team score for the hole whether it was a birdie or a pickup. The team is trying to make every score good enough to be drawn, which turns the round into a test of the weakest ball rather than the best.

Both forms are played with net scores and handicap strokes by stroke index. Both are decided on the total after 18 holes: most points in the partners form, lowest total in the counting-ball form.

Why the draw changes the golf

In a fixed four-ball a player knows who their partner is and plays around them. When the partner changes every hole nobody can plan a round, and when the counting ball is drawn nobody can coast: a scratch player who picks up on a par 5 might be the drawn score, and everyone knows it.

The draw has to happen on the course, before or after each hole, with cards or a bag of numbers. It cannot be reconstructed from a scorecard afterwards.

Ties

A halved hole in the partners form scores nothing. A tie on points after 18 is usually split or settled on the last hole won. In the counting-ball form a tie between teams is settled on countback of the drawn scores.

What Parful does

Parful does not score Luck of the Draw. Both forms depend on a random draw made on the course, and the partners form changes who is playing with whom on every hole, so the game changes how the round is played rather than how a played round is scored. It is not offered as a side game for that reason.

This page describes the common forms of the game. Parful has not ratified a version.

Worked example

A worked example: six holes of drawn partners

Ana, Ben, Cal and Dee draw partners on every tee. Net scores are shown. Each side plays best ball and each winner scores one point.

Hole	Draw	Ana	Ben	Cal	Dee	Best balls	Points
1	Ana and Ben v Cal and Dee	4	5	4	6	4 v 4, halved	None
2	Ana and Cal v Ben and Dee	5	4	5	5	5 v 4	Ben 1, Dee 1
3	Ana and Dee v Ben and Cal	3	4	4	4	3 v 4	Ana 1, Dee 1
4	Ana and Ben v Cal and Dee	5	4	4	5	4 v 4, halved	None
5	Ana and Dee v Ben and Cal	4	5	3	4	4 v 3	Ben 1, Cal 1
6	Ana and Cal v Ben and Dee	4	6	5	5	4 v 5	Ana 1, Cal 1

After six holes: Ana 2, Ben 2, Cal 2, Dee 2. Every player has had every partner twice and the draw has produced a dead heat.

Dee's 6 on hole 1 did not matter because Cal had a 4; Dee's 4 on hole 3 did not matter because Ana had a 3. Best ball hides a lot, which is why the counting-ball form exists.
Halved holes carry nothing in the common form.

Common variants

Drawn counting ball: The group is one team and a number is drawn after each hole; that player's net score is the team score. Lowest total wins against the other teams in the field. Parful does not score this either.
Draw for the tee order and the partner: The draw sets both who partners whom and who tees off first, so the honor is random too. It changes nothing in the scoring.
Fixed partners, drawn holes: Partners are fixed but each hole's format is drawn from a set: best ball, worst ball, aggregate. It plays closer to a 6-6-6 than to Luck of the Draw.