How best ball works

1. Form sides of two partners. In a match, two sides play against each other in one group of four.
2. Every player plays their own ball from tee to hole, exactly as in a normal round.
3. On each hole, the side's score is the lower of the two partners' scores. In a net game, each player's strokes are taken off first and the lower net score counts.
4. In match play the side with the lower score wins the hole, and equal scores halve it. In stroke play the side adds up its counting scores over the round.

Under Rule 23 of the Rules of Golf, once one partner has completed a hole, the other does not have to hole out. A partner who is out of the hole can pick up and the side's score is the other partner's. If neither partner completes the hole, the side has no score: in match play it loses the hole, and in stroke play it is disqualified unless the mistake is corrected in time.

The names get mixed up. Most golfers say best ball for what the Rules call four-ball, in which two partners play their own balls against another pair and the better score on each side counts. In the Rules, "best-ball" is a less common match where one player plays against the better score of a side of two or three. This page uses the common meaning.

Four-ball match play is the version most groups play on a Saturday and the one used in Ryder Cup sessions. Each hole is won, lost or halved by the sides' better scores, and the match status reads the same as any match play game: 2 up, all square, dormie, 3 and 2.

Four-ball stroke play is a team score over the round. On each hole the side records the better score, and the side with the lowest total wins. It suits a larger field, such as a member-guest or a club event, where every side plays the course rather than another side.

Best ball rewards aggressive play. A player whose partner is safely on the green in two can go for a risky shot, because a bad result costs the side nothing. It is also the friendliest team format for mixed handicaps, since every player hits every shot with their own ball.

Because only the better score counts, a side with full handicaps gets more benefit from its strokes than a single player does. The USGA's Rules of Handicapping (Appendix C) recommend these allowances, which you apply to each player's course handicap for the tees played:

• Four-ball match play: 90%. The player with the lowest playing handicap of the four plays off zero, and each other player receives the difference between their playing handicap and the lowest.
• Four-ball stroke play: 85%. Each player receives their full playing handicap, because the side plays the course rather than an opponent.

Here is how that works for one match. Chris (course handicap 10) and Morgan (20) play against Pat (15) and Riley (25). Each playing handicap is rounded to the nearest whole number, with a half rounding up.

Chris has the lowest playing handicap, so Chris plays off zero in the match and the other three receive 9, 5 and 14 strokes on the holes ranked hardest by stroke index. In a stroke-play event the same players would receive 9, 17, 13 and 21 strokes. The course handicap calculator works out four-ball playing handicaps for you.

USGA rule and Wedge: Appendix C's general rule gives each player a playing handicap first and then takes the difference from the lowest, which is what Wedge does, while its four-ball examples describe the strokes as 90% of the difference in course handicaps. The USGA also applies the allowance to the unrounded course handicap, where Wedge uses the rounded one. The two methods usually agree, as they do above, but can differ by a stroke when a half is rounded. With course handicaps of 6 and 15, Wedge gives 5 and 14 at 90%, a difference of 9 strokes, while 90% of the 9-stroke difference is 8.1, or 8 strokes.

Chris and Morgan play Pat and Riley in a net four-ball match with the 90% allowance, so Morgan receives 9 strokes, Pat 5 and Riley 14. The match was all square after nine holes. On the back nine, the strokes fall on the holes with the stroke indexes shown: Morgan gets one where the index is 9 or lower, Pat where it is 5 or lower, and Riley where it is 14 or lower. Scores with a stroke show the net score in brackets.

On the back nine Chris and Morgan won 2 holes (10 and 15) and Pat and Riley won 3 (12, 13 and 18), so the match that was all square at the turn finished 3 - 2 = 1 hole in Pat and Riley's favor. Riley, the highest handicap, made par on the 13th and the 18th, the same gross score as Chris, and a stroke turned each par into a net birdie that won the hole. That is how best ball keeps every player involved.

Wedge scores best ball in three places. In each one, every player keeps their own card and Wedge picks the better score for the side on every hole.

• A 2-on-2 match. In Match Setup, a match play or Nassau game with four players is played as two teams of two, and the better score on each side wins the hole. A net match gives strokes off the lowest course handicap of the four, using 100% of each course handicap.
• A Ryder Cup session. On a golf trip, a cup match between two players from each team can be set to best ball. The tee time's handicap allowance starts at 90% and the organizer can change it in steps of 5%. Strokes come off the lowest of the four, and the match is worth its points to the winning team. See the Ryder Cup guide for how sessions and points work.
• Best Ball Stableford. A tournament side game for pairs, where the pair scores the higher of the partners' Stableford points on each hole, gross or net. Net points use each player's full course handicap.

How Wedge scores it: an ordinary 2-on-2 match in Wedge uses 100% of each course handicap, not the USGA's recommended 90%. For a 90% four-ball match, set it up as a cup match on a golf trip, where the allowance is part of the tee time. Wedge also counts a hole only once every card in the match has a score on it, so a partner who picks up still needs a score entered, such as the score they would most likely have made.

A four-ball match is usually played for a stake per player. When the match ends, each player on the winning side collects the stake from one player on the losing side, so a $20 match moves $40 in total. In the example above, Pat and Riley each collect $20, one from Chris and one from Morgan.

Many groups play the four-ball as a Nassau, with separate bets on the front nine, the back nine and the full 18, and presses for the side that falls behind. A stroke-play four-ball event is normally paid by place, with each side's prize split between the partners.

• Full handicaps in match play. At 100%, the side with the higher handicaps gets more help than the format intends. The USGA recommends 90% for four-ball match play.
• Strokes from each player's own number. In match play, strokes come off the lowest player of the four, not off each player's partner or direct opponent. Giving everyone their full playing handicap is the stroke-play method.
• A partner does not show up. Under Rule 23.4 one partner can represent the side for all or part of the round. Under the USGA's allowance guidance, the strokes received stay the same even if the lowest handicap player cannot play.
• Tied scores on a side. When partners make the same score, either one counts. Nothing changes in match play, but in stroke play the side's card must show which partner made the counting score.
• Posting the round. Each player plays their own ball, so a four-ball round is an acceptable score for a Handicap Index. Holes a player picked up are posted with their most likely score.