We had a Quiz Master Shop team building day at the local nine-hole golf course, and were having a post-game drink and "debrief". One of the members was sitting with a pint and bemoaning his luck out on the course. We listened politely, knowing that it could be any one of us suffering ill winds on the links.
He had played a nine-hole match against each of his three daughters, and to encourage them he had arranged to pay them for holes that he failed to win. Each of the matches was treated separately. If he failed to win a hole he paid £1; if he didn't win on two consecutive holes he paid £3 (£1 plus £2); three consecutive holes meant £6 (£1 plus £2 plus £3); and so on.
He had done badly and paid out £47, and his daughter were now shopping!
Each of the three matches had started badly for him, as he had lost the second hole, The River, in all three matches. Three outrageous bounces into the water apparently.
However, on Twin Brooks he had been able to drive over all the water, whereas all his daughters had laid up short. Because of this he had won this hole against them all.
This was a small mercy, as he had won only two other holes - different holes in different matches.
What number hole is Twin Brooks?
Taking the two matches where he had won two holes, he must have paid out for seven holes in each. The cheapest way to pay out on seven holes is two lots of two holes and one lot of three holes. Two holes cost £3 and three holes cost £6, so £12 in each match, or £24 for the two matches.
As he lost £47 in total and a minimum of £24 in two of them, he can have lost a maximum of £23 in the third match, in which he won one hole - Twin Brooks.
If Twin Brooks is the first or ninth he would lose eight consecutive holes, which would be £36 - too much.
If Twin Brooks is the eighth (it can't be the second) he would lose seven holes for £28 and one hole for £1 giving £29 - again too much.
If Twin Brooks is the third or the seventh he loses a block of two holes for £3 and a block of six holes for £21, making £24 - just too much once more.
If Twin Brooks is the fifth he lose two lots of four holes, which is two lots of £10 making £20. This sounds promising. However, this means that in the other two matches he would have also lost a block of four holes. So the cheapest way to pay out would be four holes (£10), two holes (£3) and one hole (£1) making £14, and two lots of £14 plus £20 is £48. Twin Brooks is not the fifth hole.
So Twin Brooks is either the fourth or the sixth.
In the match where he won one hole this makes three consecutive holes for £6 and five consecutive holes for £15, totalling £21 on that match. This leaves £26 lost on the other two matches.
This can be achieved by three consecutive holes for £6 (either before hole four or after hole six) with the remaining five holes split into a block of three holes for £6, and one hole for £1.
If Twin Brooks is hole six, then the two matches where he won two holes he would have to win four and six in one match and two and six in the other - remember he won different holes in the two matches. But we know he lost hole two in all three matches, so this is wrong.
Thus Twin Brooks is the fourth hole, and he won hole six against one daughter and hole eight against the other.