Foursomes, or alternate shot, is a great format that raises several questions on how to approach these matches with one main rule. Never say sorry. The R&A official rules of foursome can be found here and they don’t publish this rule but I will try and explain why this is important in amateur foursome competitions.
Most famously played on the first and third rounds of The Ryder Cup the format compliments the four-ball competition played on the same days before the final round singles competition. Unusually in Golf, Foursomes is a team game where the shot you play directly affects your partner’s next shot. In other team games in golf, you are largely playing your own game and it is the collective points that count. Foursomes can be played as stableford, matchplay or strokeplay all with the same premise that you take an alternate shot with your playing partner. This creates a new pressure in golf as a poor shot doesn’t just affect you, it will be your playing partner that has to deal with the result of that bad shot.
Credit: David McLean – Wayward drive into heather
Foursomes Tactics
When setting up for a round of foursomes you will need to decide between you who will take the odd number holes and who will take the even number holes. At Saffron Walden where we played our foursome matches, the longer holes are predominantly on the odd number holes so we opted for our longer hitting player to take those holes. This also meant the longer the same player had three out of the four par 3’s also fell into the odd numbers, but those were played well.
The big disadvantage of foursomes is trying to get into a rhythm which will undoubtedly lead to a few misses when you will feel inclined automatically to say “sorry”. However don’t say sorry. The important strategy on foursomes is play your own game and play the shots you would normally play, even when you are out of normal position. I can guarantee your playing partner will also feel the need to want to say sorry whether it’s a wayward drive or the inevitable putt that will end up at that horrible distance where it’s not a tap in and the pressure will be put back on your playing partner.
The prompt for this story is I have played in two separate foursomes matches in the last few weeks, one with my fellow OG editor Eddie May and the second is part of a knockout competition at our club played over the Summer. My first knock out match had the hall marks of going badly wrong being 2 down after 3, but we turned that match around and won convincingly at the 13th. Our next match in that competition is coming up against two of the best golfers at the club. Really looking forward to see how they tackle the course and if our shots will be enough to compete!
Tips from The OG Team
1. Work out for the course you are playing whether the odd or even holes are going to favour either your own or your playing partners game and also consider any particularly hard holes and have a strategy for those.
2. Play for position to set up your partner’s shot to play to their strengths and playing safe to the fairways is always a smart play.
3. On the greens, discuss the shots, its not often you are given others advice.
4. Enjoy it, it can be a really fun format, and of course never say sorry.
Eddie May