What Is Match Play in Golf?
Match play is one of the two most common ways of keeping score when two golfers compete against each other. It is very popular for official United States Golf Association (USGA) amateur competitions such as the U.S. Amateur.Rule TwoThe USGA’s official Rules of Golf provide a complete set of rules and regulations for match play under Rule Two.Played by HolesRather than just totaling all the strokes taken during a round, match play is scored by individual holes. The player who takes the fewest number of strokes on a given hole wins that hole.ScoringA player’s score tells how many holes he is ahead or behind. A player who has won one more hole than his opponent is “one up”; a player who is two holes behind is “two down.”Length of MatchThe player who wins the most holes during the round is declared the winner. Although a round is normally 18 holes, a match is over when one golfer leads by more holes than remain to be played.Final ScoreThe winning score records the number of holes the winne
