Match play is a scoring system for golf (as opposed to stroke play). Stroke play is a scoring system for Golf (compare to Match play) In the world of men's professional golf, there are a small number of notable match play tournaments including the biennial Ryder Cup for teams representing the USA and Europe; the biennial Presidents Cup for teams representing the USA and International (non-European) players; the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship; and the older HSBC World Match Play Championship, an invitational event which is now part of the European Tour. The Ryder Cup is a Golf trophy donated by Samuel Ryder, which is awarded Biennially in an event called the "Ryder Cup Matches" between teams from The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Presidents Cup is a series of men's Golf matches between a United States team and an International Team representing the rest of the world less Europe The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship is one of the annual World Golf Championships for male professional golfers The Volvo World Match Play Championship is the current name of an annual Match play men's professional Golf tournament The PGA European Tour is an organisation which operates the three leading men's professional Golf tours in Europe the elite European Tour, the European
Women's professional golf had no event directly comparable to the Accenture Championship until the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship was introduced in 2005. The HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship was an LPGA Tour Golf tournament that was played from 2005 through 2007 It also has an event directly analogous to the Ryder Cup, the Solheim Cup. The Solheim Cup is a biennial Golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. In addition, women's golf now has an event broadly analogous to the Presidents Cup in the Lexus Cup. The Lexus Cup is an annual Golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by a team representing Asia and an international team representing the rest of [1] The U.S. Amateur Championships for both men and women are conducted with two rounds of stroke play to cut the field to 64, and then proceed to a single-elimination match play tournament. All elimination matches are 18 holes except for the final, which is 36 holes. The PGA Championship, one of the majors, changed from a match play event to a stroke play event in 1958. The PGA Championship (sometimes referred to as the US PGA Championship outside of North America is an annual Golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America The men's major golf championships, often referred to simply as "the majors" are the four most prestigious annual tournaments in professional Golf.
Unlike stroke play, in which the unit of scoring is the stroke, in match play the unit of scoring is the hole. On each hole, the most that can be gained is one point. Golfers play as normal. The golfer with the lowest score on a given hole receives one point. If the golfers tie, then the hole is halved.
Match play scores of a game in progress are kept with a running tally. At the start of a match, the score is "all square" or tied. The score is then recorded in terms of one player's lead over another player. For example, if Player A has won 3 holes, Player B has won 1 hole and they have halved 2 (or any number of) holes, Player A is said to be leading, "2-up" (3 holes won minus 1 hole lost).
A team that is leading by N holes with N holes remaining is said to be "dormie-N", or simply "dormie", meaning that they need one more halved hole to win the match (or alternately, that the other team must win all the remaining holes outright in order to halve the match). Dormie (also spelled "dormy" is a term used in Match play golf denoting that the score is such that one player (or team is the same number of holes ahead as there Dormie (also spelled "dormy" is a term used in Match play golf denoting that the score is such that one player (or team is the same number of holes ahead as there
The final score of a match play event is listed in one of three ways:
Golfers can employ a slightly different strategy during a match play event, since the scoring is different. The situation in the match and the outcome of each shot already played on a hole will both be taken into account. On the whole match play encourages more aggressive play, especially at the professional level, where a par is not usually good enough to win a hole. Since a very poor result for a hole is no worse than a slightly-below-average result when playing against an opponent with an average score, it often makes sense to accept the higher risk connected with aggressive tactics. However, in some circumstances players will be especially cautious in match play. For instance, one may choose to play more conservatively if the opponent has hit a poor tee shot or is otherwise under pressure to compensate a poor start on a particular hole, reasoning that there is a good chance to win the hole with an average result.