Match play rules, made simple

The idea

In match play, you don’t count the total for the round: each hole is a small match. The player (or team) who finishes the hole in the fewest strokes wins the hole. If scores are equal, the hole is halved.

A bad hole only counts once: it’s the perfect format to be bold and to play with friends.

Reading the score

• “2 up”: you have won two more holes than your opponent.
• “All square”: both sides have won the same number of holes.
• “Dormie”: you lead by as many holes as there are left to play; you can no longer lose.
• “3 & 2”: the match ended with a 3-hole lead with 2 holes left. The match stops as soon as the lead can no longer be overturned.

Strokes given

For a fair match, players compare their playing handicaps. The lowest player plays off zero; the other receives the difference, allocated using the HCP (stroke index) column of the scorecard. Example: playing handicaps 12 and 20 → the second player receives 8 strokes, on holes HCP 1 to 8.

On a hole where a player receives a stroke, one stroke is taken off their score before comparing. Among friends, people often give only part of the difference, for example 75%.

Concessions

In match play, you can concede a putt, a hole or even the match to your opponent. A concession is final: it can be neither declined nor withdrawn.

Team formats

• Singles: one player against one player.
• Fourball: two teams of two, everyone plays their own ball, and the best score of each team counts on each hole.
• Foursomes: two teams of two, one ball per team, played in alternate shots.

Match play in BirdiePot

Set up a singles or a two-against-two match (best ball of each team), gross or net: BirdiePot allocates the strokes given (75% of the index difference), shows who wins each hole, displays the match status live (“2 UP”, “Tied”) and announces the result, for example “wins 3 & 2”.