Foursomes golf: how alternate shot works

Format type: A formal partner format under Rule 22 of the Rules of Golf. Known as alternate shot in the United States and foursomes almost everywhere else.

Free tool: Foursomes handicap calculator (50% of combined handicaps, strokes by hole) →

How foursomes works

• Two sides of two, one ball each. Each side plays a single ball. The partners share it for the whole round.
• Strokes alternate. After one partner plays a stroke, the other partner plays the next one, and so on until the ball is holed. Nobody plays two strokes in a row.
• Tee shots alternate too. The side chooses who tees off on the first hole; after that the partners take turns playing first from the tee on each hole. Who holed the last putt makes no difference.
• Penalties do not change the order. A penalty stroke is added to the side's score, but the partner who was due to play next still plays next.
• Partners act as one side. Either partner may mark, lift, replace or drop the side's ball, and partners may give each other advice at any time.

The Rules of Golf define it in one line: foursomes is "a form of play where two partners compete as a side by playing one ball in alternating order on each hole."

Rules source: The R&A — Rules of Golf, Rule 22: Foursomes (Also Known as Alternate Shot). The USGA publishes the same rule.

Order of play, hole by hole

Everything in foursomes comes back to one question: whose turn is it? Rule 22.3 answers it in four parts.

• On the tee. One partner tees off on the 1st, the other on the 2nd, the first again on the 3rd. In a standard round that means one partner takes the odd-numbered holes and the other the even-numbered holes. Decide before the 1st tee who takes which, because the choice shapes the whole round: whoever tees off on the par 3s plays every tee shot to a green.
• Through the hole. After the tee shot the partners simply alternate. Tee shot, approach, chip, putt, putt: partner A, B, A, B, A.
• After a penalty. Penalty strokes are counted but ignored for order. If partner A's tee shot is lost or out of bounds, the side is playing its third stroke from the tee and it is partner B's turn to play it. If partner A hits into a penalty area and the side takes relief, partner B plays from the drop.
• After a cancelled stroke. If a stroke is cancelled or does not count under any Rule (for example, an opponent in match play cancels a stroke played out of turn), the same partner who made it plays again.

Two more points of order. A provisional ball must be played by the partner whose turn it is to play the side's next stroke, not by the partner who hit the original. And the choice of who tees off first is the side's unless the Terms of the Competition fix it (Rule 22.4a).

A worked hole

Blue (Alex and Morgan) play Red (Jordan and Casey) in foursomes match play, all square after two holes. The 3rd is a par 4. It is an odd-numbered hole, so Alex tees off for Blue and Jordan for Red.

Blue: Alex and Morgan

Red: Jordan and Casey

Red make 4, Blue make 6. Red win the hole and go 1 up. Two things in that hole catch people out. First, Alex's tee shot went out of bounds, so under stroke and distance Blue were playing their third stroke from the tee, and it was Morgan, not Alex, who had to hit it. Had Alex re-teed, Blue would have lost the hole for playing in the wrong order. Second, Alex holed the final putt on the 3rd, but that has no bearing on the 4th tee: it is an even-numbered hole, so Morgan tees off for Blue and Casey for Red.

With handicaps, nothing about the order changes; only the net score does. If Blue were receiving a stroke on this hole they would be net 5 against Red's gross 4, and Red would still win it.

Foursomes rules that catch people out

Playing in the wrong order

This is the format's signature penalty. If the wrong partner plays a stroke, the side gets the general penalty: loss of hole in match play, two strokes in stroke play. In stroke play the stroke made out of order, and any further strokes before the error is corrected, do not count, and the correct partner must play from where the side's previous stroke was made. A side that does not correct the mistake before teeing off on the next hole is disqualified (Rule 22.3).

Scoring in match play and stroke play

In match play the side with the lower score on the hole wins it, equal scores halve it, and the match is scored in holes up until one side leads by more holes than remain (3&2, 2&1 and so on). In stroke play the side's hole scores are added for the round, gross or net. Foursomes Stableford is also common at clubs: the side's net score on each hole is converted to points against the side's Playing Handicap.

Starting the round

The partner playing first must be at the 1st tee at the starting time. The other partner must also be present at the starting time, either at the tee or out on the hole near where the first tee shot is expected to finish (Rule 22.4b). A partner who simply has not arrived cannot be covered for.

Concessions

Match play concessions work as in singles: either partner may concede the opponents' next stroke, the hole or the match on behalf of the side, and once given a concession cannot be withdrawn. Agree between you who speaks for the side, so one partner does not concede a putt the other wanted to see missed.

Advice, clubs and standing behind your partner

Partners may give each other advice freely and either partner may act for the side before a stroke, but a partner's help is limited to what a caddie could do, so a partner cannot, for instance, stand behind the ball on the line of play while the other partner sets up. Partners may share clubs as long as the two bags together contain no more than 14 (Rule 22.5). And a player must not stand on or near the extension of the line of play behind the ball while the partner makes a stroke, to learn something for the side's next shot (Rule 22.6). Watch from the side.

Foursomes handicap allowance

Because two players share one ball, foursomes does not use either player's full handicap. The World Handicap System's Rules of Handicapping, Appendix C, recommend the allowances below. Add the two Course Handicaps, apply the percentage and round to the nearest whole number to get the side's Playing Handicap.

Worked example (match play). Side A is Alex (Course Handicap 8) and Morgan (18); Side B is Jordan (12) and Casey (24). Side A: (8 + 18) × 0.5 = 13. Side B: (12 + 24) × 0.5 = 18. Side A plays off scratch and Side B receives 18 − 13 = 5 strokes, taken on the holes with stroke index 1 to 5. The strokes belong to the side, not to a player: Side B gets its stroke on stroke index 3 whichever partner happens to be putting. Appendix C describes the same calculation as 50% of the difference between the two sides' combined Course Handicaps, which gives the same answer: (36 − 26) × 0.5 = 5.

Stroke play. The same 50% applies. Side A plays the round off 13 and Side B off 18, each deducting its own Playing Handicap from its gross total.

The match play handicap calculator does this for any four Course Handicaps, switches to greensomes when you need the 60/40 split, and lists the exact holes if you enter the stroke index.

Allowances source: Rules of Handicapping, Appendix C: Handicap Allowances, which states that in match play "the player with the lowest Playing Handicap plays off zero strokes relative to the other player(s)" and gives a foursomes example in which the higher side "would receive 19 strokes (50% of the difference between each Team's combined Course Handicaps)."

Greensomes, Pinehurst and other alternate-shot variants

Pure foursomes puts a lot on one tee shot. Clubs and societies soften it with variants that let both partners drive. None of these is a format in the Rules of Golf; they are run under the Terms of the Competition, with Rule 22 applying once the alternating starts.

• Greensomes (Scotch foursomes). Both partners tee off. The side chooses the better drive, and the partner whose drive was not chosen plays the second stroke. From there the side alternates to the hole. Recommended allowance: 60% of the lower Course Handicap plus 40% of the higher.
• Pinehurst (Chapman). Both partners tee off, then each plays a second stroke with the partner's ball. The side then chooses one ball, and the partner who did not hit that second stroke plays the third. Alternate from there. Same 60/40 allowance.
• Mixed foursomes. Standard foursomes with one man and one woman per side, a club staple. Where men and women play from different tees, each partner's Course Handicap is worked out from the tees they actually play before the 50% is applied.
• Modified alternate shot. A loose American label that usually means greensomes or Pinehurst. Agree on the 1st tee which one you mean and who plays the second stroke after a chosen drive.

Greensomes worked example. Side A: 0.6 × 8 + 0.4 × 18 = 4.8 + 7.2 = 12. Side B: 0.6 × 12 + 0.4 × 24 = 7.2 + 9.6 = 16.8 → 17. Side B receives 17 − 12 = 5 strokes. The calculator's greensomes setting produces the same figures.

Foursomes as a betting game

Foursomes match play works well for money because rounds are short and every hole is a genuine two-against-two contest. The usual ways to play it for something:

• A straight match. One stake on the 18-hole result. Quick to settle, but a match that ends 4&3 leaves three dead holes.
• A Nassau. Three bets: front nine, back nine and the overall 18, each scored as a foursomes match, with presses to reopen a lost nine. The Nassau calculator keeps all three and the presses straight.
• Foursomes skins. Each side's hole score competes for a skin; ties carry over. The skins calculator works out who collects.

Whatever the game, agree the allowance, who tees off on the odd holes and the stake before the 1st tee. More ideas in the golf betting games guide.

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Explore the complete golf match-play format library, or compare four-ball (own ball, better score counts), better ball, individual match play, scramble, Nassau and skins.

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