An introduction to the game of holes in golf

For the casual golfer or hobbyist, Match Play can be confusing. With terms like All Square, Halve and Dormie, 1-UP, 5 and 4, Match Play is a whole new ball game.

Most golf tournaments are “Stroke Play”. In these events, all golfers play a certain number of holes, and the player with the lowest combined total score is the winner.

In Match Play, golfers go head-to-head against each other. A player doesn’t care about the whole course, just about beating the opposing golfer (or side, in team play).

Scoring in Match Play is quite different from scoring in stroke play. Each hole in Match Play is scored as a separate event. The player (or team) who completes a hole in the fewest strokes is the winner of that hole. At the end of the match (regardless of how many holes are played), the player who has won the most holes is the winner.

The scoring system leads to some unusual terminology. Match event results are not reported by strokes or total number of holes won, but by how many MORE (or fewer) holes a player has won, along with the number of holes remaining in the match. So if after 10 holes, Tiger Woods has won six holes and Phil Mickelson has won four, the announcers will report that Woods is up 2 to 10. At the same time, Mickelson is down 2. If both players have won the same number of holes, the match is “All Square Through 10”.

Because each hole is played as a separate event, it is possible for one player to advance so far in a match that the other has no chance of winning. For example, if Woods and Mickelson finish the 16th hole and Woods has 3-Up, there is no need to continue. The best Mickelson could do is win on 17 and 18, and he would still lose by a hole. So the match ends right there.

The score would be reported as Woods wins, 3 and 2. That means Woods won because he was up three holes, with only two holes to play.

If a player wins 1-up, that means the match has gone to 18 holes. The last hole was played because the match was tied after the 17th, or because one player was only 1 up, and the other player could have tied the match on the last hole.

If the match is All Square in individual stroke play, the two players usually play until the tie is broken. In many team events, such as the Ryder Cup, a tie would result in both sides getting half a point. This is known as “Half”

Confusingly, the term Halve is also used when players tie on an individual hole. Tied holes, however, are not counted in the scoring of an individual match. You will never see a score like Woods 3 1/2 Mickelson 1 1/2.

This also explains why there will often be a result where the holes just don’t add up. Woods could win four holes, Mickelson could win three and they could tie the other 11. If you just add up the number of holes won, it would seem like they didn’t play a full game.

The term “Dormie” is used to describe a situation where a player wins by the exact number of holes remaining in the match. The best the opponent can do is draw. So if Woods and Mickelson were on the 16th hole, and Woods was 3-Up, the match is Dormie. The best Mickelson can do is win the last three holes (16, 17 and 18) and get it right.

A seemingly strange score is when one player wins 5 and 3. On the surface, it looks like the match should have ended with four holes to play, because one player was leading by five. But what actually happened was that the match was Dormie with four to go. That is, Woods was 4-Up on the 15th hole (four holes to go). At this point, Mickelson can cut the match in half if he wins the last four holes. But Tiger wins on 15 and the match is over. Woods wins by five, with three to go, or 5 and 3.

Another interesting aspect of Match Play is that players do not have to complete every hole. Consider the following situation: Mickelson hits a hole-in-one on a par three. Woods hits the green inches from the cup, but the ball misses. At this point, there is no need for Woods to finish the hole and he will concede to Mickelson. Even if Woods ends up with a birdie, he still has lost the hole. And there’s no need to see if Woods can putt because, unlike in stroke play, the score doesn’t carry over to the next hole.

Similarly, players will often “concede” a hit. This usually happens on a short putt. Mickelson knows Woods is going to tap in, so he concedes the gimmie. The real question for that hole is whether Mickelson can hit 12 feet to win the hole, or whether he two-putts for a medium.

However, players must ensure that a ball is awarded before picking it up. In the last President’s Cup competition, Davis Love picked up a ball, thinking Mike Weir had conceded. Weir had not, so a one-stroke penalty would normally be assessed. However, because Love honestly thought he heard Weir concede (Weir said something that could have been reasonably misheard), there was no penalty.

There are also a couple of other important differences in the Match Play rules. For example, in Stoke Play, if you play out of order, it’s just a breach of etiquette. But in Match Play, your opponent can force you to retake the shot.

The other major changes usually have to do with the penalty for breaking the rules. In stroke play, most penalties involve the addition of strokes. In Match Play, rule violations generally result in the automatic loss of the hole.

Match play is very exciting golf. But one of the reasons you don’t see much on TV is that it’s unpredictable. Individual matches can end suddenly, because it is not necessary to play all the holes to determine a winner. In fact, you don’t even have to finish every hole. A network might schedule three hours for a match, just for one player to win the first ten holes. The game would be over and the network would still have an hour of programming to fill.

Match Play events are also often played in brackets, such as the NCAA basketball tournament. The winner goes on and the loser goes home. This means that games at the weekend, when TV audiences are highest, are likely to have no stars. In match play, a bad round means you’re finished. In stroke play, you can have a bad round and still come back the next day, have a good round and make the cut.

Match play events are mostly played in international competitions, such as the Ryder Cup, President’s Cup, Walker Cup and Solheim Cup. It is also the featured format in the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship.