Handicap Allowance 2 Player Versus 2 Player

[lacmag3]

I'm new to golf. How do you calculate the handicap allowance if two play two in a matchplay situation. For example, one team's handicaps are 15 & 20 and the other team's are 20 and 26. We each play our own ball.
Thanks

[Buenchico]

Does this help?
https://www.golfalot.com/instruction/handicaps.aspx

[grumpy01]

From memory I would assume the player on 15 would “give shots” to the other 3.It would be 3/4 difference between him and the other 3.So he would giving those shots according to the stroke index of the course.

[lacmag3]

Some say it's 3/4 the difference, others say 9/10.

[Ellipsis]

You're playing a four ball better ball. You take off the handicap of the lowest handicap player. For example, if the lowest player is a 10 handicap, and the other three players are 14, 16 and 20 handicap, those three players get shots on holes with stroke index 1 to 4, 1 to 6 and 1 to 10 respectively. It used to be 3/4 the difference - i.e. 3, 5 and 8 shots - but that's recently changed to full difference.

That's the norm but local or competition rules may take precedence.

[Ellipsis]

Sorry, lacmag3, on checking this more closely, what I wrote above is wrong. It's not full difference, it's 90%. Here's what it should have said (I've also used your example handicaps):

You're playing a four ball better ball. Each player gets 90% of the difference between their handicap and the handicap of the lowest handicap player of the four. For example, if the lowest player is a 15 handicap, and the other three players are 20, 20 and 26 handicap, those three players get ((20-15)x0.9)=4.5=5, ((20-15)x0.9)=4.5=5 and ((26-15)x0.9)=9.9=10 shots. Therefore they get shots on holes with stroke index 1 to 5, 1 to 5 and 1 to 10 respectively. It used to be 3/4 the difference - i.e. 4, 4 and 8 shots - but in 2016 that changed to 90% of the difference.

[lacmag3]

Thanks Ellipsis, you have confirmed what I had been told locally. You went to a lot of bother by including so much detail. Cheers.

[Ellipsis]

You're welcome, lacmag3. Thank you for the BA.