How to play match play golf with your group: rules and scoring

Match play is a head-to-head game scored in holes, not strokes. On each hole the lower score wins the hole and equal scores halve it. Win more holes than the other side and you win the match, which often ends before the 18th. A bad hole costs you that one hole and nothing more.

It is one of the classic fun golf games for two players, and the base for the Nassau and best ball.

How match play works

1. Play the course hole by hole against one opponent, or one team against another.
2. On each hole, the lower score wins the hole. The same score halves it.
3. Keep the match in holes: if you have won three holes and they have won one, you are 2 up.
4. When one side is up by as many holes as are left, they are dormie and can’t lose.
5. The match ends when one side is up by more holes than are left. 3 and 2 means 3 up with 2 to play.

You can concede a putt, a hole or the match at any time. A conceded putt counts as holed in one more stroke.

Scoring example

Dana plays Priya over 18 holes for $5. Dana’s handicap is 6 and Priya’s is 12, so Priya gets the difference, 6 strokes, on the six hardest holes on the card: 2, 4, 7, 11, 13 and 16. A star marks each stroke.

Dana makes more pars and leads early, but Priya’s strokes keep pulling it back. Hole 13 shows how: both make a 4, but Priya gets a stroke there, so her net 3 wins the hole and puts her 2 up.

After 16 Priya is 2 up with two to play, dormie. Dana has to win both closing holes just to halve the match. They halve 17, and Priya wins 2 and 1. The 18th isn’t needed. Dana pays Priya $5.

Strokes: playing match play net

In a net match the better player plays off zero and the other player gets the difference. With handicaps of 6 and 12, the 12 gets 6 strokes, not 12. The strokes go on the holes with the lowest stroke index on the card, one per hole, and a second round of strokes starts again from the hardest hole if the gap is more than 18.

Picnic plays match play net by default with full strokes off the low. Net strokes switches to Full handicap, where each player keeps all their strokes, and Percent handicaps reduces them if your group plays an allowance.

Variations

• Singles. One against one. Picnic: yes.
• Teams of two. The best score on each side counts, a best ball match. Picnic: yes (Match Play with four players, or Best Ball). See how to play best ball.
• Everyone plays everyone. In a threesome or foursome, a separate match for every pair on the same scores. Picnic: yes (the Individual Matches side game).
• Three bets in one. The front nine, the back nine and the 18, each its own match. That’s a Nassau. Picnic: yes.
• Gross match play. No strokes. Picnic: yes (Handicaps: Gross).

The money

A match is usually one bet: the loser pays the winner the stake, often $5 or $10. A halved match is a push. In teams, each losing player pays their opposite number. Groups who want more action turn it into a Nassau, which splits the match into three bets and lets a player who falls behind press.

Picnic keeps the tally and shows who owes whom; your group settles up.

Tips

• Watch your opponent’s ball before you choose your shot. If they are in trouble, the safe par usually wins the hole.
• Concede short putts early in the match and make them putt late. It is an old habit, and it works.