The CGA opened its Four-Ball Championship registration at 8 a.m. on March 16 and a day later had a full field of 104 two-man teams with a wait list of 23 more and counting! Over on the women’s calendar, hopefuls were already setting their alarms to enter the fields for the partner-formats Mashie, Niblick, Four-Ball and Chapman.
Two’s become pleasant company in our typically lonely game. Partner tournaments have become so popular in golf, the USGA in 2015 replaced the Public Links championships with national four-ball championships for both men and women amateurs.
“I don’t know if there's anything I don't like about it,” says Jon Lindstrom, the Colorado Golf Hall of Famer who has won many four-balls with many partners, most recently the CGA’s 2025 Senior Four-Ball with Richard Bradsby, who also was his co-champion in the 2017 and 2018 Four-Balls. “Golf is usually a solo act, and it's fun to have a partner to strategize and compete with.”
Not only that, says Sam Marley, who won the CGA 2015 Four-Ball with James Richardson and last year teamed up with his boss at Lenny’s, Nick Nosewicz, to beat an elite field in the Wellshire Four-Ball: “I really like playing with a partner, because you can feed off each other’s momentum.”
The CGA has established a variety of partner formats, appealing to a variety of skill levels. At the championship level are the four-balls. This is something of a misnomer, because while each player in a foursome comprised of two two-person teams plays his or her own ball, just the better ball of the two on each hole is counted. The CGA’s Four-Balls are three days of stroke play for men and two for women.
The CGA also offers, for women, the handicapped and flighted match-play Mashie, the high-handicap and four-ball Niblick, and the Dunham Chapman, where partners swap balls after tee shots, hit and then choose which of the two balls from which to alternate.
Some refer to the Chapman as the Divorce format because it can require so much patience – and inspire so many apologies. But every partner format brings together two golfers who may have different personalities, expectations and styles.
How do the elite players navigate that? Here’s a bit of perspective from Lindstrom and Marley that might help the rest of us double our fun.
Somewhat surprisingly, neither Lindstrom nor Marley gives a hoot about whether a player is left-handed or right, a long hitter or a short-game savant, steady or streaky.
“It’s more fun to be competitive, so it’s less about whether we get along or not, or if our games match each other,” says Lindstrom. “It’s just if we both feel like we’re good enough players that we have a chance to win, we’ll do it. I don’t think I’ve ever signed up for a partner event where it’s just hit and giggle, more about the fun of it. I think the big fun is being competitive.”
Lindstrom, a plus-2.8, and Marley, plus-2.6, play in events where gross scores count. For flighted and handicapped CGA tournaments, as well as most league two-player events, it’s worth seeking out a partner whose handicap is within a prescribed number of strokes of our own – usually 6 or 8, depending on the tournament – in order to avoid a reduction in the higher playing handicap.
At every level, though, this tip from Marley applies: “You’re going to be spending a lot of time together, so you might as well pair up with somebody that you like. I’ve always played with really good friends and we can talk about anything.”
CGA tournament host venues make practice rounds available, so partners might assess how each other’s games fit the course and which ought to tee off first, either generally or on specific holes.
Lindstrom’s past all that. He prefers to take strategy hole by hole, depending on course conditions and who’s playing well.
“I’m not the longest, and usually whomever I’m playing with hits it farther,” he says. “So on a par-5 or a drivable par-4 I might say, well, let me go first and I can hit it in the fairway and we’ll give you confidence to do whatever you need to do to try to hit it down there really far.”
For some, who goes first is a matter of momentum.
“There are some superstitions,” says Marley. “Like, who tees off first. If we have a couple of struggle holes, we’ll switch up the rotation who goes first, who putts first. If you’re playing really well, you stick with the rotation.”
One player’s game has suddenly gone south. For most of us, this is uncomfortable because not only are we struggling to fix things but we feel terrible about the pressure we’re putting on our partner to compensate.
Here’s where it comes in handy to have teamed up with a good friend, who might know which option to choose: 1. Notice what we’re doing wrong and point it out; 2. Simply offer encouragement and tell us it will all be OK; 3. Ask if we saw the Nuggets’ game last night.
But consider Lindstrom’s winning philosophy: “If I’m playing a two-man event, my goal is to beat the other two people on my own and beat the course on my own. If my partner can help out, great. So I’m less worried about the other person. It might change my outlook as far as how aggressive I am, but it doesn’t change the idea that my goal is to play really well on the course using just my own ball. Whether my partner is steady or streaky, I just try to leverage their good shots and not worry about their bad shots.”
The alternative Lindstrom has seen: “Bradsby and I played two kids that hit it way farther than us. And we saw them having the expectation that the other guy is going to step up when they have trouble, and you could see them get under each other’s skin. Players get mad at each other when they start expecting the other player to step up at certain times. You can’t do that. You can’t expect them to. You want them to obviously be trying, but you can’t think, well, I get a break for two holes because I chipped in for birdie and he hasn’t, so now he needs to do it.”
We hear a lot in partner golf about “ham and egging” – where players seem to be taking turns having good holes. It seems best to think of this as a happy twist of fate and not a strategy.
Simulator Success: Go to the bar in the offseason and you might be a better golfer by spring
Pouting About Your Putting? Try this novel idea from short-game guru Jerry Walters
Train Your Brain: Ideas for those who spend their offseason thinking about how to play better golf in the spring
