12 golfers & 4 rounds of golf

[miz8]

PLEASE HELP!!! We have 12 golfers going on a golf trip and are playing 4 rounds of golf (in foursomes). Is there anyway of being able to be in a different foursome for each of the four rounds?
thanks

[Ian Wakeling]

There is no good solution to this problem.  For example the schedule:

(7 3 12 8) (1 11 5 9) (2 4 6 10)
(5 3 10 6) (9 11 8 2) (1 12 4 7)
(2 10 7 11) (5 12 8 6) (3 1 4 9)
(7 9 3 6) (10 12 1 11) (8 2 5 4)

is about the best that is possible, yet 12 pairs of players never play together and 18 pairs play together twice.


4 rounds of threesomes would be a much better option.

[miz8]

thank you...