How To Play Four Ball Best Ball Golf

Golf Rule 30, Three-Ball Best-Ball And Four-Ball Match Play
Golf Rule 30, Three-Ball, Best-Ball and Four-Ball Match Play – Simplified Version

Note: This section deals with three unique match-play formats.

A three-ball match involves three golfers, each playing his own ball against the other two individuals; in other words, each player is competing in two separate matches, one against each competitor.

Best-ball match play pits one golfer against a two- or three-man team. The team's best score on a hole is matched against the individual golfer's score.

A four-ball match involves two teams of two players apiece. Each team's best score (best ball) on a hole is matched against the other team's best score.

30-1. The Rules of Golf apply to three-ball, four-ball and best-ball matches, except where the rules are at odds with the specific rules in this section.

30-2. In a three-ball match:

If an opponent is penalized for moving or purposely touching a player's ball at rest, the penalty only applies in the match between the opponent and the player whose ball was affected.

There's no penalty if a player's ball is inadvertently stopped by his opponent, the opponent's caddie or equipment. In his match with that opponent, the player can either cancel the shot and play his ball as it lies, or take a free drop as close as possible to the spot from which the last shot was played. He must play it as it lies in the match with the other opponent.

30-3. In a best-ball or four-ball match:

A single player can represent a side (team) for any part of a match, or for an entire match. An absent partner can begin playing on any tee, but not in the middle of a hole.

Partners can play their shots in any order they choose. In other words, the golfer who's away (farthest from the hole) doesn't have to hit first if it's his team's turn.

If a player on one team is penalized for hitting a wrong ball, he's disqualified from the hole. However, his partner can play on without penalty.

A team is penalized if any of its players breaks Rule 4 (Clubs), Rule 6-4 (Caddie) or any local rule or condition of competition that calls for an adjustment to the state of the match as a penalty.

A team is disqualified if any of its players is disqualified under Rule 1-3 (Agreement to Waive Rule), Rule 4 (Clubs), Rule 5-1 or 5-2 (the Ball), Rule 6-2a (Handicap), Rule 6-4 (Caddie), Rule 6-7 (Undue Delay; Slow Play), Rule 11-1 (Teeing), Rule 14-3 (Artificial Devices, Unusual Equipment and Unusual Use of Equipment) or Rule 33-7 (Disqualification Penalty Imposed by Committee).

A team is disqualified if all of its players are disqualified for violating Rule 6-3 (Time of Starting and Groups) or Rule 6-8 (Discontinuance of Play).

In all other instances where breaking a rule would bring disqualification, the player is only DQ'd for that particular hole.

If a player breaks a rule by helping his partner or negatively impacting an opponent, both the player and his partner are penalized accordingly.

In all other cases where a player is penalized for a rule violation, his partner is not penalized. If the penalty is loss of hole, only the rule-breaker is disqualified for the hole; his partner plays on.