Diamond Author
Golf is a strange sport. In any other sport you can think of, the object is to get a higher score than your opponent. Whatever it is, if you get more of them, you win. Except in golf, where the less you have, the better.
Basically, every time you hit the ball you count one, and the things you count are called strokes. The object, of course, is to get the ball from where you start playing a golf hole, into the actual hole in the ground some hundreds of yards away in the fewest number of strokes.
Before you start playing you'll pick up a scorecard in the pro shop which has a column for each of the eighteen holes, showing the hole number and its yardage. In one of the blank boxes underneath the hole number you're playing, write down the number of strokes it took you to get the ball into, yes, the actual hole in the ground. Start counting again from one when you go to the next hole.
Generally, after you've played nine holes you'll add your total score for those nine holes and write that down on your scorecard. If you continue to play nine more, you'll keep track of your score on each hole, add up your total for the second nine, and the total score for all eighteen.
Scorecards have enough lines to keep track of the scores for four players, the greatest number that is allowed to play together in one group.
The method of scoring we just described is called stroke play, or medal play. At the end of the eighteen holes, the person who has the lowest total score wins. There is another way of scoring, called match play.
In this form of scoring, the contest between two players is to see who takes the fewest number of strokes on a hole. The player who does wins the hole, and adds 1 to his score. The object of match play is to win holes, and the winner of the match is the player who is ahead by more holes than there are remaining in the eighteen hole round.
Scores during the round are always spoken of as the net difference between the number of holes each player has won. If player A has won six holes and player B and won two holes, player A is 4 up. Player B is 4 down.
Here is an example of how a match ends. After sixteen holes, player A has won five holes, player B was won two holes, and nine holes have been tied. Player A is three holes ahead with only two to go. Since player B has to win three holes to tie, but only two holes are left, the match ends there and player A is said to have won 3&2.
Keeping score using the stroke pay method is the way to determine the overall level of your golfing skill. If you are having a head-to-head competition with another player, match play is thought by many golfers to be the more interesting way to determine the winner.
About this Author
Bob Jones is a golf researcher who can show you the reason why you don't strike the ball as consistently as you would like to. It's a little thing, and anyone learn to do it right, in just minutes, right at home. Find out what it is right here.
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