Do You Know the Game You’re Playing?
We can’t choose the game. We can’t choose the rules. We can only choose how we play. In finite games, like football or chess, the players are known, the rules are fixed, and the endpoint is clear. The winners and losers are easily identified. In infinite games, like business or politics or life itself, the players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined endpoint. There are no winners or losers in an infinite game; there is only ahead and behind.
The above is from the introduction to the Infinite Game by Simon Sinek.
If you see golf a finite game where the score matters the most, then foursomes seems to be torture for these players, the score dictates how they feel about the game and they can't figure out their contribution to the score or how they feel about it.
If you see golf as an infinite game, to paraphrase Bagger Vance, a game that can't be won only played, then foursomes is a great game. It's a terrible pity that the card and pencil spirit means we see little of such a great format.