Match play vs stroke play

May 2024 ยท 1 minute read

I've never been a great lover of playing Matchplay, watching it - yes but playing it..not for me.
Can't really put my finger on why though..
It could be that, in 99%of cases since I started playing, I've been giving shots all the time and, effectively, playing off scratch.
That, maybe gets into my head...
Giving those shots on, mostly, the harder holes on the course as , I think, the majority of courses apply SI to difficulty ...take SI 7 on my course.
430 odd yards..downhill, uphill, downhill and uphill again.
Its a fairly straightforward bogey hole if you keep it in play
Its a massively difficult hole to par (it is our most difficult hole)
I need a shot on it, as does my opponent
But if I'm giving him 7 shots he gets one and I don't and I've never thought that fair.
The killer , though, was early on in my golfing life, about 1996/97.
Giving a shot a hole to a genuine 28er he had the honour on a par 3 of 150 yards.
He stiffed it to 6 inches - there for none.
I needed a hole in one for a half...went off Matchplay there and then.

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