Match Play Scoring Explained: "3 and 2", Dormie, All Square and Concessions

Extra holes, or a tie

If a match is level after the last hole, Rule 3.2a(4) extends it one hole at a time until somebody wins a hole, playing the holes in their usual order unless the Committee sets a different one. The extended match counts as a continuation of the same round.

The Terms of the Competition can change this. The Committee Procedures list the options: the match may simply end in a tie, the extra holes may start at a particular hole, or there may be a play-off over a fixed number of holes such as nine or eighteen. What a Committee should not do is settle a tied match with a stroke-play play-off. A player who wins on the first extra hole has won "at the 19th".

Rules that exist because it is head to head

Match play has its own Rules because, as Rule 3.2 puts it, the two players compete solely against each other, can see each other's play and can protect their own interests.

• Concessions. You may concede your opponent's next stroke, a hole or the whole match (Rule 3.2b). It must be clearly communicated, by word or an unmistakable gesture, and once made it cannot be declined or withdrawn. Players may not agree to concede holes to each other to shorten a match; doing so knowingly disqualifies both. The conceded tap-in, the "gimme", belongs only to match play.
• Strokes taken. If your opponent asks how many strokes you have taken on a hole, you must give the right number. Giving the wrong number, and not correcting it in time, costs you the hole (Rule 3.2d(1)).
• Penalties. You must tell your opponent about a penalty as soon as reasonably possible, unless they already knew, for example because they watched you take penalty relief (Rule 3.2d(2)).
• The match score. Both players are expected to know it. If they agree a wrong score and nobody corrects it before the next hole starts, the wrong score becomes the real one (Rule 3.2d(3)).
• The general penalty is loss of hole. Breaches that cost two strokes in stroke play, such as playing a wrong ball, cost the hole in match play. Carrying more than 14 clubs is a special case: the match score is adjusted by deducting a hole for each hole where the breach happened, to a maximum of two.
• Order of play matters. The winner of a hole has the honour on the next tee, and a halved hole leaves the honour where it was. If you play out of turn, your opponent may cancel the stroke and make you play again, unless they invited you to go first (Rule 6.4a).

No scorecard is required in match play, although players may use one to keep track. And the two players may not agree to ignore a Rule or penalty they know applies; that disqualifies both of them.

Handicap strokes in a match

Handicap match play adjusts holes rather than totals.

1. Allowance. The recommended handicap allowance in the World Handicap System is 100% for singles match play, 90% for four-ball match play and 50% for foursomes.
2. Who receives. The player with the lower Playing Handicap plays off zero, and the other receives the difference.
3. Where. Strokes fall on the holes in stroke index order, starting with stroke index 1, and the lower net score wins each hole (Rule 3.2c). A player receiving more than 18 strokes goes round the allocation again, so stroke index 1 also counts as 19.

Take two players with Playing Handicaps of 7 and 15. The first plays off zero and the second receives 8 strokes, one on each of the holes with stroke index 1 to 8. On the stroke index 4 hole, if both make 5, the second player's net 4 wins the hole. If you know only your Handicap Index, the course handicap calculator turns it into a Course Handicap for the tees you are playing and a Playing Handicap for the format.

Stroke index allocation is designed with matches in mind. The recommended method spreads the lowest numbers across both nines so that a player receiving strokes can use most of them before a match is decided. Before you start, tell each other your handicaps: declaring one that is too high disqualifies you if it changes the strokes given or received, while declaring one that is too low simply means you play off the lower figure.

What match play does to decisions

Because a disastrous hole costs only one hole, match play makes aggression cheaper than stroke play does, which how golf scoring works explains from the stroke-play side. But the right play depends on the hole's state, not on a general preference. When your opponent is in a penalty area, a safe par probably wins the hole; when they are close to the flag, a safe par probably loses it. Golf tournament formats compares match play with Stableford and the pairs formats, golf handicaps for beginners covers the Handicap Index behind the strokes, and golf course management basics covers the risk pricing itself.

That pricing — what is this shot worth, given where I stand? — is the decision at the heart of a golf career game built on shot decisions. There is no swing meter, aggressive and conservative lines are both viable, and the right one depends on your golfer and the state of the tournament. Its tours, events and golfers are fictional. More golf explainers are on the golf hub, and the wider catalogue is under sports career and GM games.