What Are The Most Popular Golf Formats?

Few sports contain so many variables as golf. The course design and layout, the turf type, the speed of the greens, the pin positions and, of course, the weather are contributing factors making every round of golf unique.

With all those inconstant influences to consider and deal with every time we head onto the fairways, it’s understandable that most of us are fairly conservative when it comes to choosing the format we play. The vast majority of games completed are played to either the strokeplay, Stableford or straight match play formats we all know so well. Let’s consider them first.

Strokeplay

The purest and most traditional form of individual golf – Quite simply, it’s how many shots it takes you from teeing area to holing out on each hole. Those individual hole scores are added together at the end of the round to give your total score. If you’re playing gross strokeplay, as per elite golfers in regular tournaments, the player with the lowest total of strokes at the end of the day wins. If you’re playing nett strokeplay, each player deducts their Playing Handicap from their gross strokeplay total at the end of the round and the lowest total score wins.

Stableford