How match play works in golf

Make a 9 on one hole and you lose that hole, but only that hole. On the next tee, the match is about the next hole. That is the big difference from stroke play, where a blow-up stays in your total all day.

The scoreboard is a running lead. Win a hole and you go one up; lose one and the lead shrinks. A halved hole changes nothing. “All square” means the match is level.

When the leader is up by more holes than remain, the trailing side can no longer catch up, so the match ends right there. Being up by exactly the number of holes left is called dormie: the leader can no longer lose, but the match is not won yet.

In this invented example, Side A is 2 up with 4 holes left. After two halved holes, A is still 2 up with 3 to play. A wins hole 16, goes 3 up with 2 to play, and wins the match 3 and 2.

Net match play subtracts the handicap strokes allocated on each hole. A gross 5 with one stroke is a net 4, so it halves an opponent’s gross 4 with no stroke on that hole.

Strokes are given on specific holes by their handicap ranking, not spread across the round. Check where the strokes fall before you tee off; it changes which holes are realistic to win.

Turnt’s match play is between exactly two sides: one golfer against one golfer, or two teams. In team mode each side’s lowest net score on the hole is the one that counts. The lowest net wins the hole and ties halve.

There is one result for the whole match, with no front-nine or back-nine split; that is Nassau. Once a match is closed out, the remaining holes are still scored but do not change the result. Either side can open a press: a new match from the current hole through 18 that runs alongside the original and is decided on its own.