Spouse-avoiding 10-couple foursomes

[Richard B]

I have been looking with interest at your website, and wonder whether you have any ideas on the following (golf) tournament design

10 couples (so 20 players) play 6 rounds in 5 groups of 4 each time. Can the schedule be arranged such that each player plays in a foursome with 18 out of the other 19 players and the player he/she does not play with is his/her spouse?

I have had fun learning about Spouse Avoiding Mixed Doubles Round Robin tournaments, and obviously the above maintain the spouse-avoiding characteristic!

Thanks

[Ian Wakeling]

Any solution to the problem above will also be a solution the general problem of arranging 20 golfers in 6 rounds of foursomes, and the latter is known to have no solution.  Look for "20 golfers play in foursomes" on Ed Pegg's social golf page.  Larger tournaments are possible.  The next is 32 players in 10 rounds of foursomes (a spouse avoiding version of this is given on the same page), after that the next would be 44 players in 14 rounds of foursomes.

I am not sure if you appreciate that the format of play here will be different from spouse avoiding doubles, since some of the foursomes might be all male, others all female, and the remainder  somewhere in between.

[Richard B]

Thanks... I was afraid that would be the answer! I did realise that the format would (could) not be mixed doubles though.

Keep up the good work

Richard