The Strategy of Team Match Play

September 3, 2021

Team match play is the most entertaining format in golf, but we might not understand it very well. What factors should team captains consider when pairing players up for foursomes and four-ball? How much does a player’s past match-play record matter? In alternate shot, how should teammates decide who tees off on which holes? Joseph LaMagna (@JosephLaMagna) believes that the conventional answers to these questions rely on faulty reasoning. Joseph runs Optimal Approach Golf, which advises PGA Tour pros on strategy, and writes an excellent newsletter called Finding the Edge. In this episode, he and Garrett Morrison dig into the intricacies of team match play and the tactics that Team USA and Team Europe should use in the upcoming Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup.