The 'Four Horsemen' Tournament Format Explained

"Four Horsemen" is the name of a golf tournament format for teams of four golfers. Each golfer in the game gets to play normal stroke play and post a score, but handicaps are applied at the end and scores are combined for the team score.

Each Four Horsemen team is comprised of four golfers. All four golfers should have handicaps. The full handicap of each should be registered with tournament organizers before the round, and will be used at the end of the round.

These are the rest of the basics:

• Each player on the team (every player in the tournament) is playing regular stroke play — playing his or her own ball into the hole.
• Players' actual scores (gross score) are recorded on the scorecard and tallied at the end.
• Each player's full handicap is deducted at the end from their gross score.
• The resulting net scores of each team member are added together, creating the team's final score.

And, obviously, the team with the lowest score wins. Really, Four Horsemen just boils down to combining the net scores of the four team members to produce the final team score.

The Minnesota Golf Association offers this advice for tournament organizers: "If the field is 48 players or less, it is recommended that each foursome have a Good, Better, Best and Primo player. If the field is larger than 48 players, consider flighting the teams according to handicaps — Good, Better, Best & Primo."

More formats:

• How to play Four-Ball Aggregate
• How the Low Ball-High Ball format works
• The formats known as 'Odds and Evens'