How to play foursomes, the fastest format in golf

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In this week’s Presidents Cup, just as in the Ryder Cup, foursomes will play a vital role in deciding which team lifts the trophy.

The two captains have to turn to their data teams, vice captains, caddies and the players themselves to judge who will be best matched as both golfers and competitors.

The format is sometimes referred to as alternate shot and it is both the fastest form of the game (at least in theory) and also the most difficult (because if two players don’t match their partnership could easily disintegrate).

In this video, PGA Tour professional Pete Styles discusses and dissects the foursomes format.

“Foursomes is a really interesting game because it is otherwise known as a game of sorry,” he says.

And why is that? “Because in foursomes, rather than two people playing with their own ball, you’re a team but you only play one ball and take alternate shots.”

Styles imagines playing in a pair and explains the potential strategy.

“We would decide beforehand, me and my partner, that I’m going to tee off on the odd holes (1, 3, 5, etc.) and he’s going to tee off on the even holes (2, 4, 6, etc.).

“That might be because there are more par-3s on the odd holes or more long drive holes on the even holes, whatever it might be.

“So I’m going to tee off on the first hole and I’m a bit nervous, a bit under pressure and I hit my tee shot right behind a bush.

“Normally I’d be a bit disappointed with myself. Normally I’d go and try to hit it from the bush. But this time I’ve hit my playing partner into that bush.

“So straightaway I’m saying, ‘Sorry! Didn’t mean that!’

“They go to the bush and try to hack it out, and they hit a lovely shot. We’re nicely back in the middle of the fairway, and I say, ‘Thanks for that, wonderful.’

“Then I hit another one into a bunker so I’m saying sorry again.

“So you’ll often find in foursomes that you say sorry more than anything else.”

The flipside of this is that many partners make a point of saying on the first tee that no-one is to ever say sorry during the round.

There is a further complication because Styles adds that, “Some golfers would say that foursomes is a difficult game to get into.”

He takes hitting driver as an example.

“I might hit from the first, but the third is a par-3 so I don’t hit another driver until the fifth tee. So I’m not really in the groove or the swing of things.

“And it might work out that my playing partner might hit a few chips but I don’t so I go a long time without hitting one.

“So you can see that sometimes you really struggle to get into a game. It almost feels like half a game.

“But it is a quick format, though, because we’re only hitting one ball and, actually, as I hit my drive my partner might be walking up the fairway getting ready to hit to try and speed up play.”

Pete Styles’ website

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