12 golfers play 6 rounds

[IronCityPutter]

I have 12 men going on a 6 day outing and would like to have them play with every golfer at least once and nogolfer more than twice, if possible.  Can anyone make a schedule that will maximize the number interacting? We must play in foursomes due to course restraints.  :question

[Ian Wakeling]

When the number of groups is less than the number of players per group, then there is a fundamental problem assigning the players to groups and there are no nice solutions unless the number of rounds is large.

Here is one for 5 rounds with an alternative based on buddy pairs

Here are some more for 8 or 9 rounds

I think your best option is to use this schedule for 6 rounds of foursomes + one optional round of threesomes.  It is the same principle as the 2 groups of 5 schedule that I posted yesterday as it involves dividing the players into teams and not playing with your own team members.

[IronCityPutter]

Appreciate the fast reply, but I must have every golfer play with all the other golfers once at least.  The pairs means you play 6 times with one golfer and only 1 time with others, hopefully there is a more equitable solution even if not equal.

[Ian Wakeling]

I don't believe that there is a solution with 6 rounds.  The closest I can get is to have one pair that never meets and two pairs that meet three times, all other pairs meeting once or twice.   This is very ugly and is down to the problem that I mentioned above.

[IronCityPutter]

I appreciate your effort.  Now I know why I could not solve my problem over the last 9 years.