Vic,
It is possible to arrange 7 rounds of foursomes such that each of the 8 players gets to play together with the other 7 players exactly 3 times.
So I have made a suitable schedule below that is balanced for rounds 1-7 as well as for rounds 8-14.
Round
1 (2 8 7 5) (3 1 4 6)
2 (7 1 8 4) (5 2 6 3)
3 (8 6 2 4) (7 3 1 5)
4 (1 6 5 8) (3 4 7 2)
5 (8 3 7 6) (2 4 1 5)
6 (3 8 2 1) (6 5 4 7)
7 (4 5 3 8) (1 6 7 2)
8 (2 7 8 6) (4 3 5 1)
9 (4 6 8 1) (5 7 3 2)
10 (8 4 2 3) (7 5 6 1)
11 (1 8 3 7) (5 2 6 4)
12 (6 3 5 8) (1 7 4 2)
13 (8 1 2 5) (7 4 3 6)
14 (4 8 5 7) (6 2 1 3)
You could use this property to decide on a winner for each week as well as the overall winner. The foursomes are also arranged so that each player appears either 3 or 4 times in each of the four positions in a foursome, and so this could be used to balance the tee-off order within a foursome as fairly as possible.
Regards,
Ian.
Thursday, November 10 2005, 02:38 am