No Stress Golfers returned to SunRiver Golf Course on April 27, 2026.
OK, on to serious stuff.
We played Three Golf Formats in one round:
1. Best-Ball (also known as Four-Ball, Rule 23 in the Rules of Golf))
2. Scramble Format (not officially recognized in the Rules of Golf)
3. Match Play (Rule 3.2 in the Rules of Golf)
Pros' Best-Ball: A Team (Side) of Five "Pros" played their individual balls. The team's score for a hole was the lowest score of all the partners of that hole. For example: If one partner scores a Par on Hole 1 and the rest make Bogeys, then the team's score for Hole 1 is Par.
The Pros: Mike Nakata, Rick Brown, Cliff Long, Mark Johnston, Dave Lee as a team, carded 4 Birdies (Holes 5, 6, 11, and 12) and only 1 Bogey (Hole 13).
Three Man Scramble: The other three members of the four-some played in a scramble format. Teams were:
Team 1: Gary LeClaire, Steve Parker, Jim Styers - had 3 Birdies and 3 Bogeys.
Team 2: Bruce Bundy, Steve McCoy, Bob Phelps - had 4 Birdies (finishing strong birdieing the last three holes) and 2 Bogeys.
Team 3: Dave Holl, Tom Shaw, Art Tice - had 5 Birdies and only 1 Bogey.
Team 4: David Krewson, Phil Loomis, Jim Woodard - had 1 Birdie and 5 Bogeys.
Team 5: Jerry Bowman, Greg Fischer, Jim Thalman - had 8 Birdies and 3 Bogeys.
Match Play:
Most of the golf we play is Stroke Play In stroke play, your total number of shots over 18 holes is what matters. You are competing against everyone else in the field, and a 10 on one hole can wreck your entire round.
Match Play is completely different. It's a head-to-head battle where you compete against a single opponent on a hole-by-hole basis. The goal is simple: win more holes than your opponent. The lowest score on a given hole wins that hole. If you both make the same score, the hole is "halved," meaning it's a tie, and nobody wins it. So in Match Play:
- You can have a bad hole without derailing the match. If you make a triple bogey and your opponent makes a par, you only lose one hole. In stroke play, that would cost you three shots.
Because the objective is to win holes, not count total strokes, the scoring language is unique. Instead of saying "I'm shooting 75 and you're at 78," match play scores tell you the state of the match itself. The score is always in relation to who is leading and by how many holes.
“Up” and “Down”
This is the most basic building block. The score reflects how many more holes you have won than your opponent.
- If you have won two more holes than your opponent, you are “2 Up.”
- If your opponent has won three more holes than you, you are “3 Down.”
The score tells you the current difference in holes won. If you are 2 Up and you lose the next hole, the score becomes 1 Up.
“All Square” (A/S)
This simply means the match is tied.
"Halved"
A "halved" hole is a hole where both you and your opponent record the same score. So no one wins or loses the hole.
“Dormie”
A player is Dormie when their lead is equal to the number of holes remaining. This means your opponent cannot win the match. The best they can do is tie the match by winning the remaining holes to bring the score back to All Square. If you win or halve just one of those remaining holes, you win the match.
How to Keep Track of a Match Play Score
Keeping score is far simpler than in stroke play. You only need to track the outcome of each hole. In the box for each hole, you don't need to write in your score of 4 or 5. Instead, you can use a simple system.
Let's say you're keeping score for yourself against your opponent, "The Pro". You can use these symbols in your scorecard's row:
- "+" if you won the hole.
- "0" if you halved the hole.
- "-" if you lost the hole.
At the bottom of the card, or in any empty space, you just keep a running tally of the match status.
Understanding the Final Result
In Match Play the match can end before the last hole. It doesn't always go the full 18 holes. A match is over once a player is "Up" by more holes than there are left to play.
An Early Finish: The "X &, Y" Format
This is the most common way match play scores are reported, and it simply describes when the match ended. Let's say you are playing a match and after the 15th hole, you are 4 Up over your opponent.
With
only three holes remaining (16, 17, 18), it's impossible for your
opponent to catch up. They are down by four holes, but can only win a
maximum of three more. The match is over!
The final score would be announced as: "4 &, 3" (pronounced "Four and Three").
This reads as: The winning player was up by 4 holes with only 3 holes left to play.
Here's the final scorecard. The Pros' Best Ball Score is listed on the top row. This is the score to beat in Match Play.
Each Team's Scramble Score is listed in rows below.
Team 1 was A/S (all square) until Hole 5 when they went 1 Down. After Hole 12, they were 4 Down. They won Hole 13 so they were 3 Down. After Hole 15 "The Pros" were in Dormie since Team 1 could not win the Match (3 Down with 3 Holes to play). After losing Hole 16, the Match was over 4 and 2. Their Birdies on 17 and 18 did not matter in the Match.
Team 2 was also A/S until Hole 5 when they went 1 Down. They went 2 Down after Hole 6 but won Hole 7 to go back to 1 Down after 9 Holes. They lost Holes 11, 12, 14 to go 4 Down and Halved Hole 15 to also lose the Match 4 and 3. Their Birdies on 16, 17, and 18 did not matter in the Match.
Team 3 had a good start with 2 Birdies in the first 4 Holes and were 2 Up after 4, but lost Holes 5, 6, 9 to go 1 Down after 9 Holes. In the back 9 they lost Holes 11 and 12 to go 3 Down, but won Holes 13, 14, 15 to go A/S. This was an exciting Match! They won Hole 17 with a birdie to put them in Dormie (1 Up with 1 Hole to go they could not lose) and Halved Hole 18 to win the Match 1 Up.
Team 4 was unfortunately 5 Down after 9 Holes, and after Hole 12 lost the Match 7 and 6.
Team 5 had 4 Birdies on the front to go 2 Up after 9 Holes. They lost Holes 10 and 11 to go A/S. Another exciting Match! They won Holes 14 and 15 but lost 16 and Halved 17 so was Dormie (They could not lose the Match.) going into Hole 18 since they were 1 Up. They won Hole 18 with another Birdie to win the Match 2 Up.
Congratulations to Teams 3 and 5 for beating "The Pros" You each win a sleeve of MacGregor Tourney High Compression, Liquid Center, Rubber Thread Winding golf balls. For the Golfer that uses "Stiff or Extra Stiff Shafts". "Gives you all the distance you can pack into your shot".
