12 golfers playing 5 rounds in groups of 4. Schedule so each person plays once with every other golfer?

Question

12 individuals - playing 5 rounds of golf. Would like to know if scheduling can be arranged so that each of the 12 golfers plays at least once in a foursome with each of the other 11 players

Answer 1

At first glance, I thought this was a fairly easy question to resolve until I tried to make the pairings for golfers 1 through 12.  Not as easy as it seems, so I gave up.

You might consider doing it randomly by drawing numbers from a hat.  Then give the players the option of switching to the other foursome if they've already been matched up with the others.

Answer 2

I can get this with 1 condition.  Each golfer also plays with 1 other golfer on every day. It may work another way but I can't confirm it.  Golfers 1  and 2 play together each day. They play 3 and 4 on day 1. They play 5 and 6 on day 2.  They play 7 and 8 on day 3.  They play 9 and 10 on day 4 and 11 and 12 on day 5. Yahoo format will not allow a table so here goes:

day 1  --------  -day 2 ------  day 3 --------- day 4  ---     -----day 5

1,2,3,4 ------- -1,2 5,6  -----1,2,7,8   ------ 1,2 9,10 ---1,2,11,12

5,6,7,8   --------3,4,11,12---3,4,9,10------ 7,8,11,12--- 3,4,7,8

9,10,11,12  ---7,8,9,10 -----5,6,11,12-----3,4,5,6   ---- 5,6,9,10

Good Luck