Match Play – Defined

Had a few emails asking about match play so I thought I’d spend some time looking at how it differs from medal, or stroke play. Match play differs from medal play in that opponents compete to win individual holes, and once a hole is completed, strokes are reset for the next hole. For example, let’s say Gary and Perry are competing against each other in match play and on the first hole, Gary gets a 4 and Perry gets a 5. Gary wins the 1st hole and is considered 1-up (or up 1 hole) in the match (assuming the match is 18-holes long).

On the 2nd hole Perry scores a 3 and Gary scores a 5. Perry wins the hole this time and and the match is considered all square (or even since they’ve each won 1 hole). In match play, the number of cumulative strokes are not counted and therefore completely irrelevant to the outcome of the match. Each hole is played as a seperate entity and all that matters is who wins the hole and as you can see, you could have a horrible hole, shoot triple-bogey and all you’ve lost is the hole and not three shots to par.

There’s also a lot of gamesmanship involved in stroke play because you can concede strokes (putts for the most part) if you’re feeling generous. For example, let’s assume Gary is 15 feet away putting for birdie and Perry has chipped to 3 feet and has that left for par. Gary has a couple of options here; he can make an aggressive putt and try to sink the birdie (which would win the hole outright), or he could lag the birdie putt close enough to tap in for a par. Let’s assume Gary tries to make his birdie putt but runs the putt approximately 3 feet past the hole (but inside of Perry). Gary putts out for par and now it’s up to him whether he makes Perry putt his ball, or allows him to pick up, conceding him a par and a tie on the hole.

The act of conceding putts is a huge part of match play and can be used as a way to get inside your opponents head. It’s not unusual for a player to not concede a short putt to his opponent, knowing full well that the opponent would make the putt, but also knowing that making him putt will make him boil a little bit. Of course that can backfire because you could either motivate your opponent to the point that he kicks your butt, or he could turn the tables on you and make you putt when least expect to.

I hope this clears up the basic concepts of match play and you’re able to enjoy watching match play compeition even more!

[Note: Gary and Perry finished their match all square and were headed to a sudden death playoff where they were both heard mumbling something about those stupid coins.]