Best Ball Basics

Play will be as teams. Teams can have 2, 3 or 4 players. Teams of 2 may be combined with other teams of two.  Players in a team are working together as part of a team.

Each player tees off and plays the hole in the order of the team's choosing, with each player completing the hole with their own ball.

At the end of the hole, only the best score handed in by any player on the hole is counted as the team's score. If, for example, Team A plays a hole and the players shoot 3, 5, 5 and 6, respectively, and Team B has all players with a score of 4, Team A would have the better score for the hole, 3 to Team B's 4, even though A had 19 total strokes to B's 16.

Team Management

When playing shots in a normal round of golf, the order off the tee is determined by the scores of the players on the previous holes, and all future shots are determined by the player farthest from the hole.

In best ball, however, as all four players are working together, the team may select the order of the shot for all four players as they see fit. Often, teams will elect to have at least one each of a consistent player, who can be relied on to score decently on each hole, and an aggressive player, capable of both low and high holes. When the aggressive players shoot well, their low scores can be used, and holes where they struggle allow the consistent players to prevent the team from having to hand in a high score.