The 'American Foursomes' Format Explained

American Foursomes is the name of a golf format that you might actually know under a different name. That's because American Foursomes is just another name for the format more commonly called Chapman System.

This format goes by many different names, including Chapman Scoring, Pinehurst System and Pinehurst Scoring. That's because it was invented by a famous amateur named Dick Chapman while playing golf with his wife and another couple at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina.

But "American Foursomes" is one of the names it acquired in the 1950s. And although that is among this format's lesser-used names, you do still find the name American Foursomes used today.

So let's state the basics about how to play the American Foursomes format:

• It's a 2-person team format.
• Both golfers on the team hit drives, but they swap golf balls for the second strokes — Golfer A walks to Golfer B's ball after the drives, Golfer B plays Golfer A's ball after the drives.
• The best of the two second shots is selected (hence this format is sometimes referred to as "selected seconds"), and the other ball is picked up.
• The golfer whose ball was not selected plays the third stroke.
• The golfers play out the hole alternate shot — if Golfer B played the third shot, then Golfer A plays the fourth, and so on for as many strokes as necessary.

So both play drives, they swap balls for the second shots, select the best of those strokes and finish out the hole alternating strokes.

We go more in-depth on this format in our article about how to play Chapman System, including information about handicaps and how the game was invented. That page also includes a video demonstration of the format.

More golf formats:

• How to play St. Andrews foursomes
• The Gruesomes game explained
• How to play the Threesomes format