Match Play

Match play is the oldest way to play golf against someone, and the simplest to follow: you play the hole, not the round. Win it and you go one up. Lose it and you come back one. Tie it and nothing moves. The match ends the moment one player leads by more holes than are left — and it is worth the same whether you win by one hole or by seven.

The core rules

1. The lower score on a hole wins the hole. Equal scores halve it and nothing moves.
2. The state of the match is holes up, never strokes: “3 up” means three more holes won.
3. The match is over when the lead is bigger than the number of holes left. Three up with two to play is written “3 & 2”, and those last two holes are not played.
4. Dormie means your lead equals the holes remaining — you can no longer lose, only be halved.
5. A match that finishes level is halved.
6. The match is worth one stake, however big the margin.

A worked example

Anna and Björn play a 10-point match:

Holes	What happened	Match state
1, 2	Anna wins both	Anna 2 up
4, 5, 6	Björn wins all three	Björn 1 up
7–14	Halved	Björn 1 up, eight to play
15, 16	Björn wins both	Björn 3 up with 2 to play — over
—	Final	Björn wins 3 & 2 — 10 points

Ten points move, once, at hole 16. Anna’s two early wins do not pay her anything: in match play a hole buys you position, not money.

Winning while taking more shots

This is the part that surprises people. Win five holes by a single shot and lose three by six each, and you are two up — while having taken more strokes than your opponent over the round. Match play forgives the blow-up hole, which is exactly why club golfers reach for it when the two players are uneven.

Handicaps

The lowest handicap plays off scratch, and the other player receives the difference in strokes, on the hardest holes by stroke index. A 12 playing an 18 gives the 18 six strokes, on stroke-index holes 1 to 6.

AleaGolf applies 100% of the difference in both singles and four-ball. (The Rules of Golf recommend 90% in four-ball; we use one convention across match play and Nassau so “net” never means two different things in the same app.)

Common variants

Variant	What changes	In AleaGolf
Singles	One against one	Supported — this is Match Play
Four-ball match play	Two pairs, each side plays its better ball	Supported as its own game
Net match play	Handicap strokes apply	Supported as the Net setting, not a separate game
Concessions	A putt, a hole or the match can be given	Not supported — the app cannot tell a conceded hole from an unscored one
Extra holes after a halved match	Sudden death decides it	Not supported — a halved match stays halved
A stake on every hole with ties pushing	Every hole pays	Not match play. If that is the game you want, play Skins without carryover.

How AleaGolf plays it

These are the exact rules the app implements — the same logic our automated test suite checks on every release:

• Competitors: two players, or two sides of two. Nothing else can start a match.
• Scoring basis: gross or net, chosen at setup; net is strokes off the low handicap by stroke index.
• Settlement: one stake, once, at the hole where the match is decided. The margin — “3 & 2”, “2 up”, “dormie 2” — is shown everywhere and never multiplies what is paid.
• A decided match stays decided: later holes cannot reopen it.
• Any hole range: start on the 5th and you are playing a 14-hole match, and the close-out arithmetic uses 14.
• Incomplete holes: a hole where either side has no score moves nothing and counts as still to play, so a missing card delays the result instead of inventing one.
• Partial rounds: walk in early and a match already decided stands; an undecided one pays nothing.
• Score corrections: the match is recomputed from current scores, so a fixed card re-settles what depended on it.
• Points, never money: AleaGolf tracks side games in points and tokens.

During the round the Side Games tab shows the match in its own language — “Match · Anna 2 up”, then “Match · Björn won 3 & 2” once it is over — so nobody has to add up strokes to know where they stand.