Four-ball (best ball): the friendliest team format
Two players, two balls, one score: whichever partner plays the hole better is the one that counts. It is the format most weekend fourballs default to without ever naming it.
In four-ball, each of the four players plays their own ball for the whole hole. At the end of the hole the team takes its better score and discards the other. Two teams of two therefore produce two numbers per hole, and those two numbers decide the hole.
The name confusion is worth clearing up. In Ryder Cup broadcasts "four-ball" means the match-play version of this format, and "best ball" is the American term for the same idea. Strictly, best ball can also describe one player against a team of two or three. In practice, if someone in your group says "best ball", they mean two-player teams taking the lower score.
Match play or stroke play
- Four-ball match play — the better ball of team A against the better ball of team B, hole by hole. Win the hole, go one up. This is how the Ryder Cup runs it and it produces the most drama, because a single conceded putt swings a hole.
- Four-ball stroke play — add the eighteen better-ball scores into one team total. Common in club opens; steadier, less exciting, easier to run for a big field.
Handicap allowances
Because the better ball is already a low score, giving both partners their full handicap inflates a team's advantage. The World Handicap System recommends 85% of course handicap for four-ball stroke play and 90% for four-ball match play, applied per player and then per hole by stroke index.
Casual groups usually simplify: play off the lowest handicap in the game and give everyone else the difference. If the low player is a 6 and the others are 10, 14 and 22, they receive 4, 8 and 16 strokes respectively. It is not statistically ideal but it is instantly understood on the first tee, which matters more.
Worked example
Par 4, stroke index 5. Team Blue is a 6 and a 20 handicap; Team White is a 12 and a 14.
- Blue's 6-handicap makes 4; their 20-handicap makes 6 but receives a stroke, so net 5.
- Blue's better ball is the 4.
- White's 12 makes 5 with a stroke, net 4; their 14 makes 5 with a stroke, net 4.
- White's better ball is also 4. Hole halved.
Notice that White wasted a good hole — both partners produced the same net score, and one of them contributed nothing. That is the strategic core of four-ball: your job is not always to score, it is to make sure the team has at least one ball in play.
Strategy
Decide the order of play deliberately. If your partner has already put a ball on the green in two, you are free to take on the pin from the bunker — there is no downside to a six when the team already has a four banked. Conversely, if your partner has just found the trees off the tee, hit the fairway even if it means a shorter club. Good four-ball partners talk on every tee about who is the safe ball.
The most common mistake is both players attacking the same tucked pin and both finishing short-sided. The second most common is a player picking up "to speed things up" when their partner is in trouble — keep playing until the team's score is secure.
Betting on it
A four-ball match is naturally a two-sided bet, which makes settlement easy: a fixed amount per hole, or a fixed amount on the match with automatic presses. Adding a Nassau structure — front, back and overall — is the standard upgrade and gives a team that loses the front nine something to play for. Junk bets (birdies, closest to the pin, sandies) sit on top happily because they are individual, not team.
Variations worth trying
- Aggregate four-ball — both scores count and are added together. Punishes the wasted ball and makes every shot matter.
- Better ball plus worst ball — the team records both, and the worst ball match runs as a separate side bet.
- Rotating partners — change pairings every six holes so everyone plays with everyone, which is the same idea as Las Vegas re-pairing.