Best ball for a bigger team: everyone plays their own ball, and the team's best two count on every hole. One hot putter can't carry you. Aka Two Best Balls of Four, or 2 of 3.
Teams of three or four, everyone on their own ball. On every hole the team adds up its best two scores (or its best one, or its best three of four). Lowest team total wins.
Best balls is the league night and member-day standard for teams bigger than two. It is best ball with more than one ball counting, which changes the game: the team needs depth, not one hero, and the golfer having a rough day still matters on most holes. Two best balls of four is the common setting. Two of three is how a threesome plays it, and three of four is the competitive version that keeps nearly everyone in every hole.
Worked example. The 4th, a par 4. The team of four makes 4, 5, 3 and 6. Two best balls count the 3 and the 4: the team scores 7, one under par for its two balls (8). Count one ball and it’s a 3; count three and it’s a 12.
Picking up. A ball picked up counts double par, so picking up is never the cheaper score.
1-2-3. Some events count one ball on the first six holes, two on the next six and three on the last six. Duck Hook Pro counts the same number on every hole.
Shamble. A shamble is scored the same way after everyone plays from the best drive. For a four-person shamble, score it as best balls.
Season teams. In a league with season teams, Duck Hook Pro can also rank the season on each team’s best balls, from individual cards, whatever game the night is.
Best Balls is scored in Duck Hook Pro, for teams of three or four. The pro or organizer builds the teams, chooses how many balls count and keeps the card there; Duck Hook Pro works out the team totals and the settle-up and shows them on a TV leaderboard. It isn’t in the free app yet.
See Duck Hook Pro Browse all 43 gamesOn every hole, take the team’s two lowest scores and add them. A team that makes 4, 5, 3 and 6 on a par 4 scores 7: the 3 and the 4. Add the hole scores over the round; lowest total wins.
Usually net: every golfer takes their own strokes by stroke index before the best balls are picked. Gross works for a scratch event.
Yes, as long as fewer balls count than the smaller team has golfers: two best balls works for threes and fours alike. Counting three balls needs every team to be a four.
A ball picked up counts double par, so picking up is never cheaper than holing out. With two of four counting, it rarely matters.
Same energy, different game. Everything below has a full rules guide of its own.
Duck Hook Golf