Best to Next is a 2-on-2 golf game built on four-ball, with one addition. When both teams’ low balls tie on a hole, the higher balls break the tie, which means a team that makes 5 and 5 beats a team that makes 5 and 7.
That one addition changes how a match feels. When only the low ball counts, holes halve a lot, and a halved hole doesn’t do much for anybody. Here most of those ties get settled, and your partner’s score still matters.
Below is the setup, hole-by-hole scoring, how handicap strokes apply, and the variations worth trying.
MORE 2-ON-2 GOLF MATCHES
Other formats where your partner’s ball keeps mattering:
- Low Ball Low Total — one point for the better low ball, one for the lower combined total
- Tug of War — a running 2v2 bet that swings back the other way on every hole
- Sixes — partners rotate every six holes, so you play with and against everyone
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How Best to Next Works
Best to Next is played by four golfers split into two teams of two. Everyone plays their own ball for the full hole, and all four scores get written down. That last part is the only real change to your scorecard habits, because in a normal four-ball you stop caring about three of them.
You’re playing it as a match rather than a stroke-play event. Every hole is worth a point or a set amount, the same way any other match play game runs, and whoever’s up after 18 collects.
The format needs a full foursome. There’s a three-player workaround further down, but the tiebreaker only functions when both sides have two balls to compare. That puts this alongside the rest of the golf games for 4 players you’d rotate through on a Saturday.
The partner who normally coasts once the hole is covered is the one who gets exposed here, because turning a scrappy 7 into a 5 wins holes in this format. If that’s usually you, our practice games and drills library is built around the recovery and short-game shots that do exactly that.
Scoring a Hole in Best to Next
Every hole gets settled in one or two steps, and the second step only happens when the first one doesn’t produce a winner.
When One Team’s Low Ball Wins
Compare each team’s lower score. If one is better, that team wins the hole and you move on. The other two scores never come into play.
A blow-up costs you nothing on a hole you already won. If your partner makes a 3 and you make a 9, and the other side’s best is a 4, you take the hole with a 9 sitting on the card and nobody blinks.
When Both Low Balls Tie
Now the higher of each team’s two scores decides it. The lower second ball takes the hole. So don’t go picking up to speed up play unless you know for a fact the second ball is out of it.
If the Low Balls Tie and the High Balls Tie
Then and only then is the hole halved.
The three outcomes look like this across a stretch of holes.
| Hole | Team A | Team B | Won by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 and 6 | 5 and 5 | A, low ball |
| 2 | 5 and 5 | 5 and 6 | A, 2nd ball |
| 3 | 4 and 7 | 4 and 7 | Halved |
Grab a download of our on-course reference to keep handy when you take this game to the course.
Playing Best to Next With Handicaps
Log your score as gross first, apply handicap allowances, then you compare. Net low ball against net low ball, and if those tie, net second ball against net second ball. Never mix a gross score into one side of the comparison and a net score into the other.
The usual method is to run it off the low handicap player in the group. Everyone subtracts that player’s course handicap from their own, the low player plays off scratch (no allowance), and the rest get their difference.
The recommended allowance for four-ball match play is 90 percent of course handicap, which stops a soft index from swinging too many holes. Our free golf handicap calculator turns an index into a course handicap and applies that allowance for you, and if you want the arithmetic underneath it, how a golf handicap is calculated has the explanation of an index, slope, and rating side of it.
Where the strokes fall matters more in this game than in straight four-ball. A pop on a stroke-index hole doesn’t just give the higher handicapper a shot at the low ball. It can turn their 6 into a net 5, and that’s the number that wins the tiebreak.
STRATEGY TIP
Read the stroke holes off the card early. The holes where your side gets a pop on the second ball are the ones you’re most likely to steal, and playing those conservatively is usually worth more than chasing birdies.
Best to Next Variations
Second Ball (the same game, different name)
You’ll also see this format called Second Ball, which describes the mechanic more literally. Same rules, same tiebreaker. If somebody in your group knows it under that name, you’re not learning two things.
It works as a points game across a bigger field too. Award a point for each hole won and a half for each hole halved, then post the totals, which lets three or four teams play the same format against each other instead of a single head-to-head match.
Playing It With Three
There’s no standard three-player version, and the reason is structural. One player against two leaves one side with no second ball, and every tied hole would go to the pair by default.
If you want to force it, the workable fix is to count the solo player’s score as both of their balls and give them strokes to compensate. They’ll only steal a tied hole when their single number beats the pair’s worse one, which is a real disadvantage. Threesomes are usually better off with one of our formats built for three.
Paying the Second Ball Its Own Point
Instead of holding the second ball back as a tiebreaker, put a point on it every hole. One point for the better low ball, one point for the better second ball, two points on the line each time out.
At that stage you’re playing Low Ball-High Ball. Our guide to that format is where you’ll find the full scoring grid and the sweep bonus most groups bolt onto it. Best to Next keeps the second ball in reserve, and Low Ball-High Ball puts money on it from the first swing.
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Common Questions About Best to Next
What should you play Best to Next for?
A flat amount per hole works fine, and a front-nine, back-nine, and overall split works just as well if your group already bets that way. What you want to adjust is the size of the unit.
Fewer holes end level, so more of them pay out. The same dollar figure you’d use for a straight four-ball match moves noticeably more money over 18 holes. Start smaller than you think you need to and raise it next time.
Does Best to Next slow down play?
A little, because all four players hole out on every hole instead of two or three of them scooping up. The maximum-score cap is what keeps it reasonable, since it puts a ceiling on the worst hole anyone can have.
Play ready golf around the green and you’re looking at a few extra minutes across a round.
Swapping It Into Your Regular Foursome
If your group already plays four-ball, there’s nothing to teach. You’re adding one sentence about the second ball and a max score, and everything else about the round stays where it was.
Run it for nine holes next time out and count how many of them would have halved under your normal rules. That number is usually what sells it to the rest of the group.
