Four Ball Stats

[kintap]

I played in a regional four ball competition yesterday and my partner and I played poorly.  We both play worse in tournaments and the goal was just to get some experience.  After the round, I was looking for a way to evaluate our performance and couldn’t find any stats for how players of various abilities should expect to perform in better ball.  For reference, we’re both currently ~2.5 index and shot +5 (+4 and +1 on each 18) over 36 holes.

 

To help evaluate our round, I went through my last 20 rounds at my home course from the blue tees and combined them into better ball rounds by pairing them together in order and found the following:

 

Avg score 18 individual: +6.5

Low score 18 individual: E

High score 18 individual: +10

 

Avg score 18 “better ball”: -1.1

Low score 18 “better ball”: -6

High score 18 “better ball” +5

 

So for 20 rounds, the avg better ball score was 7.6 lower than the avg individual score.  The low was 6 lower than the individual low and the high was 5 lower than the individual high.  

Anyhow, I know there are many variables when it comes to who the players are and how they score as well as lack of strategy etc… but I figured I’d share this info for anyone who is curious.

[larrybud]

What this a handicapped event? If so, what was the average course handicap?

It is an interesting math problem, and could probably be answered by figuring out a single hole score distribution, which would allow you to calculate how often one player beats another, average low ball score per hole, etc.

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by larrybud

[larrybud]

Addition, I had to look this up and found this article:

https://chance.amstat.org/2015/04/best-ball/

 

[kintap]

It was not handicapped.  The average (median) competitor was probably +0.5. Course was rated 72.5/132, similar to my home course.  We came in 36 out of 40.  -17 tied for first. 🤯

[kintap]

12 minutes ago, larrybud said:

What this a handicapped event? If so, what was the average course handicap?

It is an interesting math problem, and could probably be answered by figuring out a single hole score distribution, which would allow you to calculate how often one player beats another, average low ball score per hole, etc.

 

 

Also, I agree with you on the interesting math problem.  I just haven’t found info where anyone has solved it for what a team should expect to shoot based on handicaps.  I’d love to look at it myself as I’m a data scientist, but the data isn’t publicly available.

[larrybud]

Two man fourball got to -17? That's nuts!

Was just looking through the GAM (Golf Association of Michigan) four ball results. A lot of good top players in the state, winning score in the last usually from -7 to -12.

 

Oh wait, sorry, -17 for two rounds... Still a great score, and in line from what I've seen.

 

You could always take the data you have from these two rounds and compute something. 

Edited August 16, 2022 by larrybud

[NJBigFish22]

I follow your logic, but I don’t think it is an accurate representation. You may not hit a certain shot in an individual round that you would with a partner.  If your partner puts his approach in the water, it may sway your shot choice.  These types of variables do make an exact formula difficult.