The gamesmanship people reference in match play just makes me laugh. Maybe if there were thousands of pounds on the line I could think about playing that way. But my mindset when entering a match is that I play my best golf when I'm happy and relaxed and not thinking about the golf - so I'll just try and have a laugh and a chat with the opponents and create an enjoyable atmosphere. I don't think about the psychology of giving a putt here and not giving one there - I just give the one footers and let them putt the rest. If I was up against someone who was into gamesmanship like this, it wouldn't rattle me, I'd just laugh at them in my head or with my partner at how seriously they're taking it, and keep focussed on being relaxed and enjoying my round. That works better for me than trying to play them at their own game I think.
Gimmes is another thing I don't know why people get annoyed about. If you were going out to play in a medal you'd be expecting to hole eighteen putts, so why not think the same way in a matchplay, and anything that is given is a bonus. If you're annoyed about someone not giving you a breaking two-footer then it's obviously missable and not really a gimme!
I love the mind games of competitive match play. But, I won’t start anything serious other than the odd cheeky gimmie or not.
In the past I played a lot of league games for my old club and faced all sorts of people. Some of them took it very very seriously and would try every trick in the book. These were usually the people that folded like a cheap suit when you played their games back to them.
The worst was a guy from a course near Leeds. Such was the guys reputation one of the members there warned me about him and actually followed us round to keep an eye on him. And to be fair, the guy was a complete 🔔 end.
He stood on my ball once, walked on my line repeatedly, didn’t give putts that were an inch away, gave me a wrong ruling on what to do in an area where some new trees planted, tried to play out of turn. Pretty much every match play mind trick in the book.
Anyway, I beat him round his own track and he wasn’t happy.
The following week were were at home and I had to play the same guy.
On the first tee we shook hands and I told him. I’m not playing gimmies, local rules and out of bounds are noted on the card and we’ll speak only to confirm scores and rules.
His face was a picture and it clearly rattled him. He was dispatched in reasonably short order. It was one of the more enjoyable rounds of match play as he kept looking at me for putts and tried a couple of times to strike up conversation.
I hope he learned that not everyone will fall for his silly games and you can have a good competitive game without being a 🔔