Four-Ball Stroke Play (85%)

Two competitors play as partners, each playing their own ball. The lower net score of the partners is the score for the hole and the total score for all holes played is the team score.

In mixed four-ball stroke play, strokes are taken as assigned on the player’s respective stroke index allocation, and players must play from the sets of tees designated by the Competition Committee.

One of the recommendations under the previous USGA Handicap System (not in use since 2019) was to try to keep the difference between partners' Course Handicaps to 8 strokes or less. If this difference could not be avoided, then an additional 10% reduction for both partners was encouraged. However, with four-ball stroke play having a lower handicap allowance under the WHS (85% for all players) as compared to the previous USGA Handicap System (90% for men and 95% for women), the 8-stroke limit between partners is not necessary to produce equity among teams of various handicap levels. As a result, it is no longer recommended to assign an additional reduction if partners have more than an 8-stroke difference in their Course Handicaps.