Progressive Best Ball Golf Format Explained

"Progressive best ball" is the name of a team golf format sometimes used for charity tournaments, association playdays, league tournaments and the like. It's a familiar format, even if you don't recognize it under this name.

The gist of Progressive Best Ball is this: 4-player teams compete, using a three-hole rotation for the number of team members' scores that are combined on each each. On the first hole, the best score among the four teammates is the team's score. On the second hole, the two low scores are combined for the team score. On the third hole, the three lowest scores are combined. On the fourth hole, start it over again — the one low ball counts.

Progressive Best Ball goes by a lot of other names, such as 1-2-3 Best Ball. Other names for the Progressive Best Ball format include Waltz, 1-2-3 Waltz and 4-Person Cha Cha Cha.

Each golfer on the team is playing his or her own ball into the hole, in order to record a score that might count for the team. Like most tournament formats, this one can be played using handicap strokes (net scores) or gross scores.

Here's how the scores-per-hole rotation works, with examples of player scores:

• On Hole 1, Golfer A scores 5, Golfer B 4, Golfer C 6, Golfer D 5. The team's score is 4, because the one low score among the teammates is used on the first hole.
• On Hole 2, Golfer A scores 4, Golfer B 5, Golfer C 3, Golfer D 5. The team's score is 7, because the two low scores are combined for the team score.
• On Hole 3, Golfer A scores 5, Golfer B 5, Golfer C 6, Golfer D 5. The team's score is 15, because the three lowest scores are combined.
• On Hole 4, it is back to the one low score. On Hole 5, the two low scores; on Hole 6 the three low scores, and so on, through the end of the round.

There are other ways to create the score rotation in Progressive Best Ball, although the above is the most straightforward and easily the most common. One different way is to vary the scoring based on the par of the holes: the one low score on par-5s, the two low scores on par-4s, and three low scores on par-3s. (This version, however, usually goes by the name Arizona Shuffle.)

On the holes for which only the one low score counts, all four golfers should play aggressively — someone needs to post a low score, after all. But on the holes for which three scores count, all four golfers in the group should play conservatively — you don't want to risk any disaster scores having to be counted.

More golf games:

• How to play the Various Pars format
• The 2-1-1 game explained
• How to play Joker Stableford