How to Play Match Play in Golf — Scoring & Rules Explained
Learn how match play scoring works in golf — up, down, all square, dormie, and concessions. Includes a worked example.
What is match play?
Match play is golf's head-to-head format: instead of counting total strokes across the round, you compete hole by hole against one opponent. Win a hole outright and you go 1 up. Tie a hole (a half) and nothing changes. The match is won by whoever is ahead in holes, not whoever used fewer total strokes.
How match play scoring works
- Whoever takes fewer strokes on a hole wins that hole and goes 1 up (or extends their lead).
- Equal scores on a hole means it's halved — no change in the lead.
- If both players have won the same number of holes, the match is all square.
- Once a player's lead is bigger than the number of holes left to play, the match is over — no need to finish all 18. This is recorded as, for example, 4 and 3 (4 up with 3 holes remaining).
- If a player's lead exactly equals the holes remaining, they're dormie — they can't lose the match outright anymore, only halve it at worst.
- Players can concede a putt, a hole, or the entire match to their opponent at any point — common for short tap-ins, and it speeds up play.
Worked example
After 15 holes, Player A has won 5 holes and Player B has won 2, with 8 holes halved. Player A is 3 up with 3 holes to play — exactly matching their lead, so Player A is dormie 3. Player B must win all 3 remaining holes just to halve the match; winning only 2 means Player A wins 3 and 1.
Common mistakes
- Confusing match play scoring with stroke play totals — a player can lose more total strokes across the round and still win the match, since only holes won matter.
- Forgetting that a conceded stroke can't be un-conceded or replayed once given.
- Not applying handicap strokes correctly — in a handicap match, the higher-handicap player gets strokes on the hardest holes (by stroke index), which can turn a hole into a half that would otherwise be a loss.
Track match play automatically
Keeping track of who's up, down, or dormie in your head gets confusing fast — especially with handicaps in play. Golf with Mates tracks the hole-by-hole match status live and tells you exactly where the match stands after every hole.
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See who’s up, dormie or all square.
Head-to-head match play status updated hole by hole.