At our club we have specific starting times (off the 1st and 10th) for 2-ball play (singles or foursomes) and for 3- and 4- ball play, cleverly worked out so that you don't as a singles or foursomes end up being held up by a slower match. We have several foursomes knock out tournaments which are quickly fully subscribed and there are many 9-hole mixed foursomes and dinner social matches, plus a few 18-hole mixed foursomes and lunch or dinner events - again very popular. While very often husbands and wives play together regularly there are sufficient loose men and loose women to make up further teams.
For one of our men's knock out competitions partners are drawn so you may find yourself as a 19-handicapper playing with a 3-handicapper. Both find themselves playing second or third shots from positions in which they never otherwise find themselves. Thought is then required which really spices up the round. Suppose on a par 5 I hit my usual feeble drive of 180 yards. My 3-handicap partner could leave me 50 yards from the green, but with my poor chipping is that wise? Would it not be better to leave me 100 yards from the green so that I can play a full shot with a 9-iron? You long hitters don't recognise that 100 yards IS a full 9-iron shot to me, but it is, and it causes my partner to have to think on every shot. Also I get the occasional chance of hitting a full 5 wood second shot onto the green of a par 5 because of my partner's long driving, an opportunity that I haven't enjoyed as a single for 25 years or more.
And it is this thoughtful approach to the game which is necessary in mixed foursomes. In general few of the ladies are long hitters and few get the height on the ball that men tend to. But most of the ladies are very consistent, very straight and excellent at those short shots around the green. Of course, there are ladies who hit it prodigious distances for whom the normal ladies' worries, such as this or that long carry is no problem. Partnered with one of these I play the ladies' shots and my partner plays the men's shots.
I played with a lady partner in a mixed knock out only last week. She has a handicap of 11 and plays to it, and I a handicap of 19 and rarely play to it. Our opponents were a man off 3 and his 8-handicap wife. They should have wiped the floor with us, even giving us quite a few shots, but we took them to the 16th largely by intelligent play. We consulted each other on just about every shot. 'From where would you like to play your next shot?' was the frequently asked question. 'Do I try to carry the cross-bunkers? What if I fail?' It is such good fun. Although we lost we felt that we had put up a good show, and we hadn't wasted any of our handicap shots.
One of my sons and I played with a friend who is a member of Hunstanton. 3- and 4-ball play is prohibited, except by advance arrangement with the Secretary. So my friend and I played alternate shots and my son played as a single. We got round comfortably in two and a half hours, had lunch and did the same thing in the afternoon, wisely keeping to the same pairs, except that my friend swopped which tees, odds or evens, we drove at.
I can quite see that if you are paying $100 dollars for a green fee you want to get your full money's worth. But if you are a member of a club and can play whenever and however you want, you don't think about how much each shot costs but how much fun you are getting for your annual sub. Foursomes is certainly part of that.