In other points-based games, like basketball, soccer or baseball, the most points, goals or runs determines a winner, but in golf the objective is to get the ball from the tee into the hole in the fewest strokes in order to win.
Get the ball from the tee to the hole in the fewest strokes possible, that’s the goal.
The thrill of competition is one of the great joys in life for many of us, whether spectating or participating. And golf, by virtue of the handicap system, is tailor made for competition in a sport we can play across both our early and later years. Golf competition takes two basic forms, match play and stroke play.
Match Play vs Stroke Play
So what is match play as opposed to stroke play?
Technically, both formats are stroke play, it’s just that in match play every hole is its own stroke play competition and score is kept by how many holes you’ve won. Stroke play on the other hand, tallies total strokes across a set of holes, generally 18 or 9, with the lowest stroke total deciding who won.
Stroke Play – add up the strokes, lowest number wins, gross and/or net categories
Match Play – most holes won wins. How to win a hole? Take less strokes on that hole than your opponent
How It Breaks Down
Among professional and top amateur golfers, virtually all of the competition is stroke play across multiple 18 hole rounds, typically 4 rounds (72 holes) at the highest level. Every stroke counts and the lowest total wins. As you might imagine, this puts a premium on consistent, faultless execution and amazingly these contests are often decided by a stroke or two or even extra holes in the event of a tie. Yes, these players are really, really good!
Stroke Play – geared to the best players that are close in ability and can play straight up with no handicap. Stroke play is how professional tournaments and championship flights at golf clubs are either decided or used as a means to qualify. That being said, with a course handicap, golfers of differing skill can also compete strokewise in a net category. One prize for lowest gross strokes and another prize for lowest net strokes, meaning gross strokes minus course handicap (which still puts a premium on minimizing blowup holes but gives everyone a chance at winning something). In stroke play you are usually competing against the field, however many players there are, your stroke total versus everyone else’s.
For the record, there are a few match play tournaments for the pros, and it remains the standard for prestigious events like the U.S. Amateur but they are few and far between. Going back in time, even the PGA (Professional Golfer’s Association) Championship utilized match play from its inaugural in 1916 through 1957. There are also team-based match play tournaments, foremost among them the Ryder Cup.
Notable Team Match Play Events
Match Play – In match play you compete head-to-head against one opponent, hole by hole, instead of the entire field at once. “You” could also mean a team of two vs another two person team where the lowest scores from each side are compared (also known as Four-Ball, Best ball or Better ball).
For recreational golfers, who are prone to inconsistency and mistakes, match play is by far the preferred format. It’s more forgiving than stroke play and one could argue more engaging as you can choose to play more aggressively, especially as part of a team. After all if you blowup you’re only losing that one hole. To level the playing field, Course Handicap is applied on a per hole basis and each hole becomes its own competition with lowest net score determining who wins.
Match Play Scoring – Each hole is either won, lost or tied and at the end most holes won wins the match. And when a side is up more holes than are left to play the match is over. On the card you can use a plus sign + to indicate being up followed by how many holes and conversely a minus sign – for being down. Note the progression is always stepwise in by one. If for instance you’re +3 (up 3 holes) you either stay at +3 with a tie, go to +4 with a win or +2 with a loss. Here’s a sample across 9 holes using E (Even) to indicate where the match is tied:
In this example, Al and Bob are playing straight up (no strokes). Match score is shown from Al’s perspective as the running count (tied 1 E, won 2 +1, lost 3 back to E, won 4 +1, tied 5 still +1, lost 6 back to E, lost 7 -1, lost 8 -2, won 9 -1). Although they both shot 40 for 9 holes Bob won the front by 1. Such is match play and better luck to Al on the back 9!
Al is down 1 in the match after 9 holes. Now if this were a 9 hole match it would’ve ended after hole 8 because Al went down 2 with only 1 left to play and the 9th hole wouldn’t matter. But it certainly will matter when presses are in play – more on them later as they are a bit more involved and as such worthy of a separate article. Also, note that the score depends on perspective – Bob’s card, if he kept one, would have the signs reversed and show +1 after 9 holes.
Match Score Notation & Terms – Given that matches are decided when one side is up by more holes than are left to play, the convention is to show how many holes a side won by on the left and how many holes were remaining on the right, separated by an & sign (unless the match ended on the final hole).
Sample Match Scores:
2 & 1 – up 2 holes with 1 hole left (the 9-hole example above)
3 & 2 – up 3 holes with 2 holes left
4 & 3 – up 4 holes with 3 holes left
1 UP – up 1 hole with 0 holes left
2 DN – down 2 holes with 0 holes left
Here’s a list of all the possibilities:
18-hole match, Round ends after hole:
18 – 2UP, 2DN, 1UP, 1 DN, EVEN (tied, may go to extra holes)
17 – 2 & 1, 3 & 1 close match
16 – 3 & 2, 4 & 2 pretty close
15 – 4 & 3, 5 & 3 not that close
14 – 5 & 4, 6 & 4 entering beatdown territory,
13 – 6 & 5, 7 & 5 decent handicap adjustment
12 – 7 & 6, 8 & 6 most likely follows
11 – 8 & 7, 9 & 7 ugly
10 – 10 & 8, 9 & 8 wipeout, ouch, no holes won by one side
In a 9-hole match, anything from 5 & 4 up (5 & 3, 4 & 3, 4 & 2 etc) is possible.
Matches that are tied (Even) can also be referred to as “All Square”, using the symbol AS on the card.
Here’s another match play term you’ll eventually come across – “Dormie”.
“Dormie” – a match is dormie when one side is ahead by the same number of holes as are left to play. Must win situation for the side that is down. For the side that is ahead a tie or win on any of the remaining holes ends the match. From the French/Latin “dormir”, meaning to sleep.
Historical Aside – Tiger Woods vs Stephen Ames
There’s a famous Tiger Woods match play example from when the WGC Dell Match Play was a regular event on the tour back in 2006. Tiger was at the height of his powers yet his first round opponent Stephen Ames had the temerity to suggest that Tiger wasn’t driving the ball well. “Anything can happen, especially where he’s hitting the ball” was the quote. The dig backfired as Tiger came out the next day and administered a lopsided 9 & 8 beatdown, the largest winning margin in the tournament’s history. The match was over after 10 holes with Tiger winning 9 of them, shooting 7 under on the first 9, with only a missed putt on 10 preventing it from being 10 & 8, the largest possible margin. Morale of the story – don’t piss Tiger off!
Match Play Tournaments
Besides the prestigious international tournaments mentioned earlier, mano a mano match play is also the dominant format in club level tournaments, at least in the United States.
Match Play Brackets
Bracket style tournament where winners advance and losers go home. Players are seeded and handicap strokes apply in non-championship (A,B,C) flights, with percentages taken in team events, like 90% in Four-Ball. Bracket size is some power of 2: 8, 16, 32, 64 and eventually two sides meet for all the marbles. Stroke play may be used in a qualifying round to see who makes the bracket (and in what order) with a sudden death playoff to break ties. Overall winners must go undefeated and win every match (3-0 across a round of 8, 4-0 across 16, 5-0 across 32). Some clubs have a season long “Armageddon” tournament that starts with 128 players – the champion has to win 7 matches in a row, quite the challenging task.
Match Play Flights
This is a preferred setup for Member-Member and Member-Guest events utilizing two-person teams in a best ball format. Combined handicap determines placement with six teams per flight. Teams plays 9-hole matches in round-robin fashion, five matches in all, facing every other team in the flight. One point is earned for winning a hole and ½ a point for tying, plus an additional point if the match is won or ½ each if tied (essentially 10 points are up for grabs in each match). At the end, teams earning the most points in each flight advance to a shootout to determine the overall winner. These events are further prefaced by healthy doses of head-to-head (most points) and Calcutta style action, where participants bid on teams to create a prize pool.
For many club golfers, these flight-based match play tourneys continue to be the most cherished event on the calendar.
Ryder Cup Style
Not to be confused with the actual Ryder Cup, this popular format mimics the real deal by pitting two 12-person teams against one another, earning points for the team by winning (1 point) or halving (½ point) a match. At the end of course, the team with the most points wins. A variety of match formats may be utilized, again modeled after the actual Ryder Cup, like Foursomes (2v2 alternate shot), Four-Ball (2v2 best ball) and Individual (1v1) match play. Given time constraints matches at the local level may only last 9-holes each. And teams can be devised as organizers see fit – Old vs Young, US vs International, North vs South, whatever they fancy.
Match Play vs Par
In a match play vs par event you play against each hole to earn points, comparing your net score versus the hole par. You’ll earn 1 point for bettering par, 0 points for equalling par and lose 1 point if your net score exceeds par. Most points at the end of 18 holes wins, and something in the range of zero to +5 (shooting your handicap or a few strokes better) typically determines the winner.
Match Play – Personal Experience
I’ve been a golfer for over thirty years but didn’t discover match play until about ten years in. Those early days there was hardly any competition, I was only trying to shoot a new personal best – break a 100, break 90 etc. Then I joined a private club and the first thing they wanted to know was “What’s your handicap?”. That’s when I was introduced and became immersed in match play games and golf got way more interesting. Plus the money aspect considerably upped my incentive to improve. The cauldron of match play, it’s sink or swim. Hard to say how much I initially lost to older guys that I could easily outdrive but somehow have their bogey net to par and beat my bogey.
“Three on and two putts, that’s a five for four, thank you very much.”
Match play for stakes tremendously reinforced the power of the short game – putting, chipping, getting down in two from off the green, minimizing 3 putts, credible bunker play. For all the people that want to track distance or fairways or greens in regulation or putts, if you really want to get better, put some action on the matches. Tracking those other stats? Hit more greens and take less putts, that’s about it. Don’t focus too much on stats, your score easily reveals the story of how you did. The damages (what you won or lost), how well you played relative to your playing partners, that’s the genuine indicator of performance and what ultimately matters for a recreational golfer. And yes, shameless plug here, the best way to track those matches, wins and losses is with the Golf Crow app!
Overall, I can confidently state that participating in match play, whether as a member of a team or as an individual, in a tournament or during a regular round, will significantly enhance your passion for golf, without a doubt.
Play well, hit ‘em straight and not too often!