Individual match play in golf: the singles game, one on one

Format type: Match play under Rule 3.2 of the Rules of Golf, with no team Rule. For how holes are won, how results such as 3 and 2 are written and the rules that differ from stroke play, read what match play is; this page covers what changes when it is just the two of you.

Free tool: Match play handicap calculator (strokes given in singles and where they fall) →

Singles vs four-ball vs foursomes

The scoring is identical in all three: holes up, halves, a match won when the lead passes the holes remaining. What changes is everything around the ball. In singles there is no partner to pick up when you are in trouble, nobody to ask which club, and nobody to make a concession on your behalf.

The last row is the one that bites on the first tee. The World Handicap System recommends 100% of Course Handicap in singles but only 90% in four-ball, because a four-ball side has two chances at each hole. Give a four-ball allowance in a singles match and the higher handicap is short-changed.

Order of play between two players

Order of play matters more in match play than in stroke play, because in match play your opponent can make you replay a stroke you played out of turn. Rule 6.4a sets the order:

• The first tee. The honour goes by the order of the draw if the Committee set one. If there is no draw, the players agree or use a random method such as a coin toss.
• Every later tee. The player who won the previous hole has the honour. After a halved hole the player who had the honour keeps it. If a ruling that could affect the honour is still pending, agree or toss for it.
• After the tee shots. The ball farther from the hole is played first. If the balls are the same distance away, or nobody can tell, agree or use a random method.
• Playing out of turn. There is no penalty, but the opponent may cancel the stroke. The cancellation must be made promptly, before either player makes another stroke, and once made it cannot be withdrawn. The player then replays the stroke from the same spot when it is their turn. If the opponent says nothing, the stroke counts and the ball is played as it lies.
• Agreeing to play out of turn. To save time, a player may invite the opponent to play out of turn, or agree to the opponent's request to. Once that happens the right to cancel that stroke is given up. This is how "ready golf" is legal in a match: by agreement, not by default.

In practice the cancel right is used when a player has knocked in a putt out of turn and shown the opponent the line, or hit a shot out of turn that applied pressure the opponent was entitled to apply first. The opponent calls it before anyone plays again; otherwise it stands. Agree on the first tee whether you will play ready golf so the question never comes up.

Concessions in singles

Rule 3.2b lets a player concede the opponent's next stroke, the hole or the match, by words or by a gesture that clearly shows the intent; once made, a concession is final and cannot be declined or withdrawn. The match play guide covers the mechanics. Two things are specific to singles:

• Only the player may concede. A caddie may carry the bag, read the putt and advise the player to concede, but may not concede a stroke or a hole; the player must decide and say so (Rule 10.3b). In four-ball either partner may concede for the side; in singles it is you alone.
• A conceded hole ends the hole for both players. Under Rule 6.5 a hole is complete when a player holes out, when the next stroke is conceded, or when the result is decided. If you concede the hole, your opponent does not have to finish it, and the two of you walk to the next tee with the honour settled.

Arriving late, stopping play and advice

• Be on the tee at your time. Rule 5.3a requires a player to start at, and not before, the starting time the Committee sets. A player who arrives ready to play no more than five minutes late receives the general penalty on the first hole, which in match play means the first hole is lost and the match starts 1 down. More than five minutes late is disqualification, unless the Committee decides exceptional circumstances prevented a start on time. The same five-minute rule applies to starting early.
• You may agree to stop. Rule 5.7a lets the two players in a match agree to stop play for any reason, as long as it does not delay the competition. If one player then wants to carry on, the agreement has ended and the other must resume. Stroke-play competitors have no such freedom, so this is a match-play-only courtesy, useful when a storm cell is passing or a group ahead is on the clock.
• No advice from anyone but your caddie. Rule 10.2a forbids giving advice to anyone in the competition who is playing on the course, and asking advice from anyone other than your own caddie. In four-ball and foursomes partners may advise each other; in singles there is no partner, so club choice and how to play a shot are between you and your caddie, if you have one. Touching the opponent's clubs to see what they hit counts as asking. The penalty is loss of hole.
• One caddie. Rule 10.3a allows one caddie at a time. You may change caddies during the round, but not temporarily just to get advice from the new one.
• Everything else in match play applies. The general penalty is loss of hole (Rule 1.3c), you must tell your opponent the right number of strokes and disclose penalties (Rule 3.2d), both players must know the match score, and rules disputes are decided between you or by a ruling requested before the next hole starts (Rule 20.1b). Those are covered on the match play guide.

Strokes in a singles match

Rule 3.2c says handicap strokes are given by hole, the lower net score wins the hole, and both players must know the holes on which strokes are given or received before the match. The number of strokes comes from the Rules of Handicapping, Appendix C:

• Singles match play: 100% of Course Handicap. Each player's Playing Handicap is their full Course Handicap. The player with the lower Playing Handicap plays off zero and the other receives the difference, taken on the holes with the lowest stroke index. Appendix C's own example: where one player has a Playing Handicap of 8 more than the other, "player A plays off zero (0) strokes and player B receives 8 strokes in the match".
• Worked example, 8 v 20. Both at 100% keep 8 and 20. Alex, the 8, plays off scratch. Morgan receives 20 − 8 = 12 strokes, one on each hole with stroke index 1 to 12, and none on stroke index 13 to 18. On a stroke hole Morgan's gross 5 is a net 4; on the other six holes gross is net.
• Plus handicaps. The rule is the same: a +2 playing a 6 gives 8 strokes, because the difference between −2 and 6 is 8.
• Singles stroke play is 95%. If your club runs the singles knockout's qualifying round as stroke play, Appendix C recommends 95% of Course Handicap there (100% may be used for fields under 30). That is a different competition and a different allowance; in the matches themselves it is 100%.
• Extra holes. If the match is extended under Rule 3.2a, the strokes fall on the extra holes exactly as they did in the round: if the 1st is stroke index 7, the player receiving 12 strokes gets one at the 19th.

The match play handicap calculator does the 100% singles sum and, if you type in the course's stroke index, lists the holes the strokes fall on. Declaring a handicap higher than you are entitled to, if it affects the strokes, is disqualification under Rule 3.2c, so check both numbers on the first tee.

A worked singles card with strokes

Alex (Course Handicap 8) plays Morgan (Course Handicap 20) off the same tees. At 100%, Morgan receives 12 strokes on stroke index 1 to 12. The card shows par and stroke index, both gross scores, where Morgan's stroke falls, Morgan's net score, who won the hole and the running position. Alex's score is gross and net throughout.

Alex is 2 up after four holes and 1 up at the turn, having played the front nine in 38 to Morgan's 45. The back nine is where the strokes bite: Morgan gets a stroke on the 10th, 14th, 15th and 16th, matches Alex gross on all four, and wins all four net. After the 16th Morgan is 2 up with 2 to play, dormie 2. The 17th is stroke index 18, so no stroke; both make 3, the hole is halved and Morgan wins 2 and 1. The 18th is not played.

Over the 17 holes Alex shot 73 and Morgan 83. Alex won four holes (2, 4, 9, 13), Morgan won six (5, 7, 10, 14, 15, 16) and seven were halved. Ten strokes better on the card and 2 and 1 down in the match is exactly what a 100% allowance is meant to produce: the 20 who plays to handicap beats the 8 who plays to handicap on the holes where the strokes fall. Every one of Morgan's six wins came on a stroke hole; every one of Alex's four came on a hole without one. That is why Rule 3.2c makes both players know the stroke holes before the match, and why the card should show them.

Three players: three-ball match play

Singles needs two players, so what does a three-ball do? The Rules of Golf provide three-ball match play under Rule 21.4: each of the three players plays an individual match against the other two at the same time, using one ball that counts in both of their matches. The match play Rules apply to all three matches, with two adjustments for the cases where one player's two opponents are affected differently:

• Playing out of turn (Rule 21.4b). If a player plays out of turn in one match, the opponent who should have played first may cancel the stroke under Rule 6.4a. If the stroke was out of turn in both matches, each opponent decides separately. If only one opponent cancels, the player keeps playing the original ball in the other match and completes the hole with a separate ball in each match.
• A ball or ball-marker lifted or moved by one opponent (Rule 21.4c). If an opponent gets a penalty stroke for lifting or moving the player's ball or marker, that penalty applies only in the match against that player, not in the opponent's other match.

Three-ball match play produces three results and three separate settlements, which is why most casual threes choose skins or the three-player version of Wolf instead. If you do play it, keep three positions on the card and agree the stake per match.

Singles as a betting game

• A straight match. One stake on the 18-hole match, 100% allowance, winner takes it. Agree whether a match that is all square after 18 is a halved bet or goes to the 19th.
• A Nassau. The usual singles money game: three stakes, on the front nine, the back nine and the overall 18, each scored as its own match, with presses when a bet gets 2 down. The Nassau guide explains the presses and the Nassau calculator settles it.
• A Nassau with strokes. Use the same 100% singles allowance across all three bets, and count how many strokes fall on each nine. On the card above the 12 strokes split evenly, six on the front (1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9) and six on the back (10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18), but a course with a lopsided stroke index gives one nine more help than the other, so the front and back bets are not always equal and a press carries the stroke profile of the holes left in its nine.
• Club knockouts. The singles knockout is match play's home. Most run at 100% allowance off the full difference, require a winner (extra holes from the 1st) and give a walkover if a player does not appear within the Committee's starting window.

Two players who want hole-by-hole money with carryovers can play skins, but as that guide notes, two-player skins carry over on every half and the pots build quickly; a Nassau is the better-behaved two-player bet.

First-tee checklist for a singles match

• Both Course Handicaps declared and the strokes agreed: 100%, the difference, on stroke index 1 to n. Write the stroke holes on the card.
• Who has the honour on the 1st: draw, agreement or a coin.
• Ready golf or strict order of play.
• A tie after 18: halved bet, or extra holes from the 1st.
• The stake, and whether it is one match or a Nassau with presses.
• Who is keeping the card. Under Rule 3.2d a wrong match score that is not corrected before the next hole starts becomes the actual score, so say the position aloud on every tee.

Rules sources: Rule 3.2 (match play: result of hole and match, concessions, handicaps, responsibilities), Rule 6.4a and 6.5 (order of play in match play, cancelling a stroke played out of turn, completing a hole), Rule 5.3a and 5.7a (starting the round, stopping play by agreement), Rule 10.2a and 10.3 (advice, caddies), Rule 21.4 (three-ball match play), all from the R&A's Rules of Golf, and the Rules of Handicapping, Appendix C (handicap allowances; the lowest Playing Handicap plays off zero). The USGA match play topic covers the same Rules.

Related guides

Start with what match play is for how a match is won and how results are written, read the scoring guide for the score language and the scorecard guide for what to track, and the dormie page for the moment a match tightens. For the team formats compare four-ball, better ball and foursomes; for the money games see Nassau, skins, Wolf, Vegas and the golf betting games hub. The complete golf match-play format library covers every format on this site, and the questions page gives straight answers on strokes, presses, ties and settling up.

Common questions