Match Play Explained

How Does Match Play Work?

It’s not often mentioned as you watch golf each weekend, because why would it be, but, “normal” golf is technically called Stroke Play. The reasons are pretty obvious once you look at how the scoreboard is set up with winners determined by the fewest strokes each Sunday.

That said, every couple of years in the Ryder and Presidents Cups, as well as this one week in late March, we get to see match play instead. The scoring can seem a little confusing when you look at the results if you’re not familiar, but it’s incredibly easy if you simply remember one thing:

A hole is worth one point.

You can either win the hole, lose the hole, or tie on the hole. For those results, you either get one point, your opponent gets one point, or neither is awarded a point, respectively. That’s it

In a sense, stroke play is still in play, but just at the hole level. Again, very simple stuff but, to win the hole, you just need to finish it with fewer strokes than your opponent. If you both shoot par, you’ve “halved” it, no points are awarded, and you move on to the next. Each hole is a battle for a point, with plenty of draws.

How do Match Play Results Look?

Seeing the results can be a bit confusing as well. To explain, let’s use Shane Lowry results to demonstrate.

In the first example, he and Patrick Reed halved the match, meaning they each won the same amount of holes through 18, and the match was split. In the case of the WGC-Matchplay event, they’d each get half a point.

In the second example, Sergio Garcia is said to have won “4 and 2”, meaning he was up by four with two holes remaining. Seeing how even if Lowry were to win all the remaining holes, he’d still trail, the matchup is stopped and Garcia is declared the winner. Most commonly, these results are just one more point than how many holes remain, like 3&2 or 2&1. In this case, Garcia was up by three with three holes remaining (meaning Lowry still had a chance to tie) and ended up winning the final hole played to push the lead to four and end the match.

The final one is simple, and will only ever say “1 up” or “2 up” because this match went to the 18th hole with the match results still in doubt by virtue of it either being tied or one golfer leading by a single point. In this case, after the completion of the necessary 18th hole, Kevin Chappell was one point ahead of Lowry and was said to have defeated him “1 up”.

During the match, you’ll see that same terminology used to describe a lead. Rather than listing how many holes each player has won, the cumulative lead is listed, with a golfer who was won six holes to his opponent’s three being described as “3 up”. A tied match is listed as All Square or AS while the match is still being contested.

The other major differences you’ll see are in some of the strategies and approaches to the game as losing a hole by a single stroke is literally the worst-case scenario, so laying-up, playing it safe, or just trying to salvage a hole aren’t options sometimes. If an opponent puts his second shot inches from the hole, and your tee shot is in a spot where normal play would call for a punch-out or lay-up, you might get to see some unique strategy as players can really push the limits of risk and reward.

Lastly, it still is a bit of a gentleman’s game. In match play, you can concede a putt (you can also concede a hole or even a match, but that’s far less common). Sometimes used to expedite play, this can also be used as a bit of a strategic move later in a match for some players. When a golfer concedes a putt, the ball is considered holed and their opponent’s score is recognized as whatever they were laying plus one.

How is the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Set Up?

The field is comprised of the top 64 players in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), as they sit 10 days before the event starts. If any of those golfers are unavailable or opt to not participate, they will just move down the list to the next highest-ranked golfer. This year, there is a handful of golfers not playing. We’ve seen those spots get filled, with Maverick McNealy the last to get in.

Similar to anyone who’s watched European soccer tournaments, there are two parts:

• Group play
• Knockout bracket

The only difference is this takes five days instead of five months.

The 64 golfers are split into four groups: the top 16, the next 16 after that, and so on. Sixteen four-man groups are created with one golfer from each group, as to try to even things out a bit. From there, everyone plays an 18-hole match play match against the other three from his group over the course of three days and is awarded a point for a win, and a half-point for a tie. The golfer with the most points advances, while the other three are eliminated. A tie in the group standings is settled by sudden death stroke play starting at the first hole and moving sequentially as long as is needed. It can feature more than two golfers if necessary.

After 75% of the field is eliminated, we move to a 16-person single-elimination bracket, with the first two rounds being played on Saturday and the semi-finals and final on Sunday. A third-place match is also played on Sunday. The same rules apply as in the group stage except no points are awarded, you simply advance with a win. Ties after 18 holes in this portion of the tournament are not settled with stroke play like earlier, rather the match is extended, heading back to the 12th hole.

It’s a ton of golf for those who make it this far. Realistically, someone could play 125+ holes of golf over five days, so sometimes the finals are the worst part of an awesome event, but then we also have final-round coverage from Punta Cana and it’s never too early to start on Valero Texas Open research.

Image Credit: Golf Digest