The Pinehurst format: both partners drive, swap balls for shot two, then pick one ball and alternate it into the hole. The thinking golfer's team game.
Everybody tees off, then you play your partner’s drive for the second shot. After that you choose the better of the two balls and alternate shots until it’s holed. It’s the fairest two-person format going — both players matter on every hole.
Chapman — also called Pinehurst or American Foursomes — is a two-person team format that softens the terror of pure alternate shot. Both partners hit drives, then each plays the other's ball for the second shot. Only then does the team commit: pick the better-placed ball, and alternate shots from there until it's holed. Every player is guaranteed two swings on every hole, and the ball-swap on shot two creates the format's signature decisions. It's named for Dick Chapman, the decorated amateur who popularized it at Pinehurst, and it remains a staple of couples' events and member-guests.
Worked example. Par 4. Alex drives the fairway; Dana finds the rough. They swap: Dana plays Alex's ball to 15 feet, while Alex hacks Dana's ball up to 60 yards. The team keeps Dana's approach. Since Dana hit the chosen second shot, Alex plays next — and rolls in the 15-footer. The kept ball's scorecard reads drive (1), approach (2), putt (3): birdie.
The third-shot rule is the whole format. Whoever hit the ball you keep does not hit the next shot. Keep your partner's great approach and you're the one putting it. This drives every Chapman decision: sometimes the ball 10 feet farther out is the right pick because it leaves the right player hitting.
Handicaps. The standard team allowance is 60% of the lower course handicap plus 40% of the higher, rounded, applied as one team handicap by stroke index. A 10 and a 20 play off 14.
Match play Chapman. Head-to-head against another pair, hole by hole — the allowance difference between teams sets the strokes, exactly like match play.
Penalties. A penalty stroke never changes whose turn it is. Ball in the water on your partner's third shot? They drop and it's still your fourth.
Modified Chapman. Some events let the team choose which ball to keep before the second shots (that's greensomes, strictly) or keep both balls through the third shot. If the sheet says “modified,” ask exactly where the choice happens.
In the app. The app scores Chapman as stroke play: gross, or net off the 60/40 team handicap above, which it works out and applies by stroke index for you. Match play Chapman and the “modified” versions aren’t separate games in the app yet — a modified Chapman scores the same way, since the app only needs the team’s number on each hole.
Set up a Chapman game in about thirty seconds, pair the teams, and let everybody watch it play out.
The partner whose second shot was NOT selected. If the team keeps the ball Alex just hit, Dana plays the third shot, Alex the fourth, and so on, alternating until the ball is holed.
The standard allowance combines 60% of the lower partner's course handicap plus 40% of the higher partner's, producing one team handicap. A 10 and a 20 would play off 6 + 8 = 14.
Yes — Chapman, Pinehurst, and American Foursomes all describe the same format. The name Chapman comes from Dick Chapman, the champion amateur who popularized it at Pinehurst.
In pure alternate shot (foursomes), the team plays one ball from the first tee shot on. In Chapman, both players hit drives and second shots (swapped), so each player is guaranteed two swings per hole before the alternating begins — more golf, less pressure.
In greensomes, the team picks the better drive and alternates from the second shot on. Chapman adds one more step: both players also hit second shots (playing each other's balls) before the team chooses a ball and starts alternating.
Same energy, different game. Everything below has a full rules guide of its own.
Duck Hook Golf