golf pairings

[jsimonton]

We have 24 people, playing eight rounds of golf in foursomes.  We would like all 24 to play with each of the others over the eight rounds.  What is the scheduling formula to accomplish this?

[Ian Wakeling]

Have a look at this schedule.  For the eighth round play the 8th round of threesomes given in the footnote, this is the most elegant solution as all players are paired with each other exactly once.  Otherwise you could break up two of the threesomes from the footnote and make the other six threesomes upto foursomes, but of course this will leave pairwise balance uneven.