SUUNTO Golf - Manual (Page 20)

20
GOLF GUIDE
MATCH PLAY
Match play is second most popular form of competition in golf and there are
many different ways to play match play. The main principle of match play is win
more individual holes than your opponent.
The player with the fewest strokes on an individual hole wins that hole; the play-
er winning the most holes wins the match. The stroke total for 18 holes simply
doesn’t matter in match play.
Match play is a format of play where each hole is won, lost or halved. In match
play the unit of scoring is the hole and on each hole you can gain one point. The
golfer with the lowest score on a given hole receives one point. If both golfers
have same score, the hole is halved.
Stroke play is more a player versus the course approach, when match play is di-
rectly player against player. There is only one opponent you must win, and that’s
the opponent you’re facing in the match you’re playing.
Nowadays in men’s professional golf there are only few match play tournaments
for individual pros. The biannual Ryder Cup, where teams from USA and Europe
compete against each other, is the most famous match play competition in golf.