A match is a contest between two sides — one player against another, or two against two. It's different from a game like skins, which is scored against the whole field, and it's set up in a different place.
Where to find them
Open Matches from the main navigation and pick the round. You'll see every match on that round, and if you organize the league, the tools to build more.
Players can read the page; organizers and admins create and manage matches.
Creating a match
- Choose the round.
- Pick the players on each side. A side is one player or two.
- Choose the format and whether it's played net or gross.
- Tap Review match.
The review card shows exactly what you're about to create: each player's handicap index, their course handicap, how many strokes they receive in this match and which holes those fall on. Nothing is created until you tap Create.
That card is worth reading rather than skipping. Strokes in a match are worked out from the players in that match, so the same player can receive a different number against a different opponent — the card is where you see it before anyone tees off.
The three formats
Match Play — one against one. Each hole is won, lost or halved, and the score is the running difference: 2 up, all square, 3 down.
Four-Ball — two against two. Everyone plays their own ball and each side counts only its better score on the hole. If a partner has to drop out, the side plays on with the other player's ball; it doesn't forfeit.
Stroke Play — one against one, decided on the total rather than hole by hole. It runs to the last hole however far apart the two of you are.
You can run different formats in the same round. One pair playing match play and another playing stroke play is fine.
Net or gross, per match
Net and gross is chosen for each match, not for the round. Two players agreeing to play scratch doesn't make anyone else's match scratch.
Played net:
- One against one uses only the difference between the two course handicaps. It all goes to the higher-handicapped player, on the hardest holes; the lower player plays scratch. A 5 against an 8 means the 8 gets three strokes and the 5 gets none.
- Four-ball measures from the lowest course handicap in the match, and everyone else receives 90% of their difference from that player.
Played gross, nobody gets strokes.
Tap the ? beside a match's title to see how its format works and which basis it's on, without leaving the card.
How a match is won
A match is over when one side is further ahead than there are holes left. Three up with two to play is a win, reported the way golf reports it: 3 & 2. Won on the last hole, it's 2 up.
Holes played after that still appear on the scorecard — they just don't move the match.
A match that finishes level stays halved. There's no extra hole; that's a term of the competition the Rules allow, and it's the one we use.
If your opponent withdraws or is disqualified, you win the match. There's no margin in that case, because it wasn't won by a number of holes.
During the round
Your matches appear on the live scoring page alongside your group, showing who's up and by how much. Tap one to open the full card — the scorecard, the strokes, and who won each hole.
Your opponent doesn't have to be in your group. A match settles hole by hole as soon as both of you have posted that hole, so it doesn't wait on anyone else's card. Until your opponent posts, the match shows — rather than a score. That's "not scored yet", which is not the same as all square.
If something changes
Matches follow the round. If a player withdraws, is disqualified, loses their tee time or is taken out of the round, any match they'd already played is voided rather than deleted — the record of what happened stays, struck through, and stops being scored. An organizer can void a match directly, and can restore one voided by mistake.
Worth knowing
- One player can hold several matches at once, and each is scored and reported on its own.
- Match results don't feed the season category boards yet. They're complete on the round itself; the season side is being rebuilt.
- Matches can't be split into handicap flights — a match already names its two sides.
- Four-ball is match play at two a side. Four-ball stroke play is a real format but takes a different handicap allowance, so it isn't offered yet.