Each player plays their own ball. The team's score on each hole is the lower of the two teammates' scores. Available in stroke and match-play variants.
No shared shots, no rotation — you play your own ball all the way in and your team writes down whichever score was lower. Works as a stroke event or a match, and it’s forgiving enough that a beginner still has fun.
Best Ball is a 2-person team format where each player plays their own ball through every hole, and the team's score on a hole is whichever teammate played the hole better. It rewards both consistency and one-off heroics — one teammate's birdie covers the other teammate's blowup. Duck Hook supports it in two flavors: stroke (lowest team total wins) and match (hole-by-hole between teams).
Lower of two wins the team's score. On each hole, the app compares the two teammates' scores and takes the lower one as the team score. If the scores are equal, the team still gets that score — the tie just doesn't matter for the team total.
Missing teammate scores. If only one teammate has a score on a hole (the other was conceded, or didn't post a score), the present teammate's score becomes the team's hole score. If neither teammate posted a score, the hole has no team score.
Front 9, Back 9, Overall. In stroke Best Ball, Duck Hook Golf tracks the team's totals for the front nine, back nine, and overall round — same segment structure as a stroke-play tournament.
Hole winner highlighting. The app marks which teammate's score was the team's score on each hole, and which team had the overall low score across all teams on that hole — useful for both bragging rights and post-round analysis.
Best Ball Match (the match-play variant). Same scoring rule — team's score is the lower of two — but team scores are compared hole-by-hole between two teams. The team with the lower team-score on a hole wins that hole; tied holes are halved. The match is decided when one team is up by more holes than remain. Select "Best Ball Match" instead of "Best Ball" in Duck Hook to score this variant.
Gross or net. With handicaps on, each player's gross score on a hole is reduced by their handicap stroke for that hole before being compared with their teammate's score. Net Best Ball is the standard for mixed-handicap groups.
USGA or relative handicaps. USGA by default; relative is available.
Presses and side bets. Play it as a match and the trailing side can press: a new bet on the remaining holes, or a 2x on what’s left. The app scores both. It also tracks side bets like closest to the pin and long drive on top, and settles them with the rest of the round.
Set up a best ball game in about thirty seconds, hand out the code, and let everybody watch it play out.
Same energy, different game. Everything below has a full rules guide of its own.
Duck Hook Golf