Example of Match Play Scoring for Weekly League Play:

Let's say that 4 players are in a flight together, and we are playing the front nine at Tam O'Shanter this week:
        Alice has a 16 handicap for 9 holes, and her gross score is 51,
        Bob has a 13 handicap for 9 holes and shoots 47,
        Cheryl has a 17 handicap and turns in a 53,
        and Dave has a 15 handicap and scores 49.

Here is how each player's net scores for each hole would be calculated, using Tam O'Shanter's hole handicap ratings to take strokes off each hole:


Alice has a 16 handicap, so she gets two strokes on the 7 hardest handicap holes, and one stroke on the 2 easiest holes (2 × 7 = 14, plus 1 × 2 = 2, so 14 + 2 = 16 handicap strokes)

Gross Score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TOT
  6 4 7 6 6 6 6 4 6 51
  Women's Hole Handicaps: 13 15 1 3 11 7 5 17 9  
Net Score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TOT
  Handicap:  16 4 3 5 4 4 4 4 3 4 35

Bob's handicap is 13, so he gets two strokes on the 4 hardest holes and one stroke on the 5 easiest holes (2 × 4 + 1 × 5 = 8 + 5 = 13)

Gross Score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TOT
  5 5 6 7 6 6 6 3 3 47
  Men's Hole Handicaps: 13 15 1 3 11 7 5 17 9  
Net Score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TOT
  Handicap:  13 4 4 4 5 5 4 4 2 2 34

Cheryl has a 17 handicap, so she gets two strokes on 8 of the nine of the holes for the round, and one stroke on the easiest hole.

Gross Score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TOT
  5 5 7 6 6 8 6 4 6 53
  Women's Hole Handicaps: 13 15 1 3 11 7 5 17 9  
Net Score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TOT
  Handicap:  17 3 3 5 4 4 6 4 3 4 36

With his 15 handicap, Dave takes two strokes off his gross score for the 6 hardest holes and one stroke off his score on the 3 easiest holes in determining his net scores for each hole (12 + 3 = 15).

Gross Score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TOT
  6 5 7 7 6 4 6 3 5 49
  Men's Hole Handicaps: 13 15 1 3 11 7 5 17 9  
Net Score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TOT
  Handicap:  15 5 4 5 5 4 2 4 2 3 34

 
Now for each opponent in the flight, we match the player's net score on each hole against the opponent's net score, and the golfer that wins the most holes wins the match and earns 1 point.  If the match comes out even, each golfer wins ½ point for that match.

For our example flight, the points won by each player are as follows:
        Alice wins 1½ points,
        Bob wins 2 points,
        Cheryl wins 1½ points,
        and Dave wins 1 point.

Here is a hole-by-hole breakdown of each match played by each player:




Alice wins 1½ points

Alice’s Net Score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TOT
  Handicap:  16 4 3 5 4 4 4 4 3 4 35


Opponents:   (Green means Alice won the hole; Red means Alice lost the hole)

Net Scores: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 +/–
  vs. Bob 4 4 4 5 5 4 4 2 2 even = ½ pt
  vs. Cheryl 3 3 5 4 4 6 4 3 4 even = ½ pt
  vs. Dave 5 4 5 5 4 2 4 2 3 even = ½ pt



Bob wins 2 points

Bob’s Net Score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TOT
  Handicap:  13 4 4 4 5 5 4 4 2 2 34


Opponents:   (Green means Bob won the hole; Red means Bob lost the hole)

Net Scores: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 +/–
  vs. Alice 4 3 5 4 4 4 4 3 4 even = ½ pt
  vs. Cheryl 3 3 5 4 4 6 4 3 4 even = ½ pt
  vs. Dave 5 4 5 5 4 2 4 2 3 1 up = 1 pt



Cheryl wins 1½ points

Cheryl’s Net Score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TOT
  Handicap:  17 3 3 5 4 4 6 4 3 4 36


Opponents:   (Green means Cheryl won the hole; Red means Cheryl lost the hole)

Net Scores: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 +/–
  vs. Alice 4 3 5 4 4 4 4 3 4 even = ½ pt
  vs. Bob 4 4 4 5 5 4 4 2 2 even = ½ pt
  vs. Dave 5 4 5 5 4 2 4 2 3 even = ½ pt



Dave wins 1 point

Dave’s Net Score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 TOT
  Handicap:  15 5 4 5 5 4 2 4 2 3 34


Opponents:   (Green means Dave won the hole; Red means Dave lost the hole)

Net Scores: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 +/–
  vs. Alice 4 3 5 4 4 4 4 3 4 even = ½ pt
  vs. Bob 4 4 4 5 5 4 4 2 2 1 down = 0 pts
  vs. Cheryl 3 3 5 4 4 6 4 3 4 even = ½ pt


If a player doesn't turn in a score for a particular week, the player loses all matches against players in her/his flight that did play that week.  If two players in a flight don't play, neither one beats the other in their match – there is no point given for that match that week.

The points earned each week are added up at the end of each half of the season to determine the final standings in each flight.



Click on this link to see an example summary page from a week in the league several years ago.  If you click on the "details..." link below a player's name, you can see how the matches worked out hole by hole for that player.