Help !! Maths question

day 2

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

day 3

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

day 4

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

day 5

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

how does that sound

pair them up so you have 6 pairs then 5 days playing the 5 other pairs each day

You have a possible 495 different four ball combinations...so you may need to add a couple more rounds to achieve what you want to do

5 and 6 never play with 11 and 12.

i must have duplicated 1. but it does work as you would have 6 groups of 2. and each group would play one of the other 5 groups 1 a day

day 1

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

day 2

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

day 3

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

day 4

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

day 5

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

totally distracted me from what I was doing.

Also with eroginous's solution 7 and 8 never play with 9 and 10

At the risk of some smart arse coming up with a soltion 2 minutes after I post this:
1 - This is a very hard problem
2 - It's quite possible that there is no solution (my gut tells me there is one, but not many)

there are required 72 pairings (12*12/2). 
ER answer makes 64 pairings
I can get to 68 pairings like this:

1,2,3,4 - 5,6,7,8 - 9,10,11,12
1,4,7,10 - 2,5,8,11 - 3,6,9,12
1,5,10,11 - 2,3,6,7 - 4,8,9,12
1,2,9,12 - 3,6,8,10 - 1,5,7,11
1,4,6,8 - 3,5,9,12 - 2,7,10,11
(missing 3v11, 6v11,7v9,7v12)

I had to make a spreadsheet - DM me if you want it.

the mans a genious!

or smart arse 

have to agree with you though mate, very distracting!!!!! haha. its only hard if you dont pair them up isnt it, far too many combinations. once youve got your 6 pairs then its pretty simple that they play each of the other 5 pairs one a day, its just putting them in an order i must have duplicated on the first one

if the solution above isnt to your liking ...

ask for "baggers" on the golf forum

he is the master of these things

yeah - really nice approach.... (golf chat).

I didn't go that way, because I felt that buy playing every day with a 'buddy', you're wasting the opportunity to play with new people.  But I think not that doesn't really matter because there are too few players.

yeah, would be better as a competition as well because being paired with another player you could play not only a singles tournament but a fourballs as well. as well as seeing how yourself and your pairing got on against all the other singles and pairings at the end of the week