What I Love about Matchplay

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

In semi-final of club Scratch K/o last weekend. I find myself 4 down with 6 to play having played dreadfully - but gamely ploughing on.

4 down 6 to play

On the par 3 13th I eventually hit a half decent shot and opponent in the bunker. He get's up and down and my putt just missed. A half - I didn't lose the hole!

Still in it 4 down 5 to play.

14th - he sticks his tee shot in the dense trees and prob lost - somehow I get mine a good way down the middle. and so to the green. Where he is on the green back of green on top level - flag on front on lower - after two good shots with his provisional I guess it is still highly unlikely that he will get a 6 - just off the green in three I just need to get my ball on the green - ANYWHERE on the green lower level and two putt for a 6. Plan works I get a 6 he get's a 7

3 down 4 to play

I hole a 20 footer - falling into the side of the hole (my first decent putt of the day) on a long par 3 for a par - he misses.

2 down 4 to play

I hole an 8 footer - he misses

1 down 2 to play

I can win this!

And then - on 17,

His tee shot heads for a fairway bunker - mine drifts a little to the right

We get to our balls

His ball has bounced the bunker and is in perfect position - mine has drifted behind a mature tree.

I get a good 5 having to hit under the tree - he three putts.

A half - but the spell is broken. He got a good break - I got a bad one.

1 down 1 to play

We half the hole.

But I walk off the 18th - match over and defeated - but a whole lot happier than I would have been walking off 14th green defeated 5 and 4

I love matchplay - I really do

 

[Yant]

The battle of matchplay is exhilarating, as it can flow back and forth several times during the course of a match as your example above shows!

 

[Orikoru]

7 months into my first year as a club member and I've still never done a matchplay. Not sure if my club even holds any actually.

 

[Jates12]

Stories like this is what hurts me more about having to pull out of our club KO because of injury

 

[louise_a]

I love matchplay, whether its snatching victory from the jaws of defeat or vice versa, thinking you will have a nice 4 footer to win the hole only for your opponent to hole a long putt and suddenly its a nervy 4 footer for a half. Completely different from stroke play!

 

[patricks148]

sometime if its a tight game, don't enjoy giving 20 plus shots away though

 

[brendy]

Cant stand matchplay personally, much prefer playing against a field with a few mates you actually like and get on with than some smarmy eejit reminding you he has a bajillion shots each hole.

 

[TheJezster]

Love matchplay too. I had a bizarre match a couple of weeks back, I was 5 up after 5!! I wasn't playing particularly well, it was more him playing dreadfully. Anyway, he came back into it and after 9 I was only 2 up. After 11 I was back to 4..

The final result? I won it, on the 19th hole!!!!! I'm not sure I could have lived with myself if I had let that slip.. But what a match, matchplay at its finest I guess.

 

[thesheriff]

Agreed, matchplay is the most exciting form of golf.

I had a situation in a singles k/o match recently you couldn't have written. It was a well matched back an forth game and we were on the 16th tee all square. This tee shot is a daunting one from an elevated position hitting down onto a fairway, the right-hand side of which is lined with a thick gorse bank cutting in from from right, which spells death for any wayward drives. Nonetheless, I hit a pretty decent tee shot down the middle. My opponent fades his drive into the gorse and his provisional meets the same fate, both dead and I'm 1 up with 2 to play.. or so we thought.

We approach the fairway and there are 2 balls sitting in the middle of it. My opponents first ball had somehow leapt out of the gorse and is lying in position A 20 yards ahead of my ball?! Ridiculously lucky bounce or a rabbit has kicked it out. Either way we hadn't seen it in the fading light I thought ok that's how it goes and play a good second shot to 10ft, so still in a good place to win the hole. My opponent proceeds to chip his ball straight in the hole for an eagle leading to uproarious laughter from all 3 of us in the group at the ridiculous situation. Inconsequentially I holed my birdie putt for my best hole of the round and still lost.

Karma was restored as he 3 putted 17 & 18 and I won 1up, but funny story.

 

[duncan mackie]

But I walk off the 18th - match over and defeated - but a whole lot happier than I would have been walking off 14th green defeated 5 and 4

Takes all sorts....i would be exactly the same level of unhappy. :cheers:

 

[GreggerKBR]

7 months into my first year as a club member and I've still never done a matchplay. Not sure if my club even holds any actually.

Mate it's the business
Find someone off similar handicap and have a scratch match for a coffee... it will change your life!

 

[GreggerKBR]

In semi-final of club Scratch K/o last weekend. I find myself 4 down with 6 to play having played dreadfully - but gamely ploughing on.

4 down 6 to play

But I walk off the 18th - match over and defeated - but a whole lot happier than I would have been walking off 14th green defeated 5 and 4

I love matchplay - I really do

FULL Respect to you mate, good grit there and gracious in defeat!!!
Exactly what we all want to do...

when I'm up against it I find myself singing a Maximo Park song chorus... "I like to see how things work out, if we apply some pressure"

 

[Yant]

Going to blow my own trumpet a bit here. Was a member at a club for over 5 years. During those 5 years, i was undefeated in singles matchplay, both in club competition (there were several matchplay comps during the year) and also in the scratch team playing against other clubs, until the final scratch team match i played before moving on to somewhere else.

Not a bad record at all.

 

[Orikoru]

Mate it's the business
Find someone off similar handicap and have a scratch match for a coffee... it will change your life!

Yeah, good call. I think next time there's only two of us on a friendly game I'll invite him to make it a match play, just to get a taster of it.

 

[louise_a]

Love matchplay too. I had a bizarre match a couple of weeks back, I was 5 up after 5!! I wasn't playing particularly well, it was more him playing dreadfully. Anyway, he came back into it and after 9 I was only 2 up. After 11 I was back to 4..

The final result? I won it, on the 19th hole!!!!! I'm not sure I could have lived with myself if I had let that slip.. But what a match, matchplay at its finest I guess.

I was 5 up after nine in an interclub match last month and lost on the last, she holed a few good putts, including a 30 footer from off the green, I missed a couple under pressure, I played pretty well but she had an amazing back nine so I didn't actually feel that bad about it.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Takes all sorts....i would be exactly the same level of unhappy. :cheers:

Oh I was well p'd off having lost - and having played so badly to get myself into a position of 4 down with 5 to play. But at that point I did a 'Rory's Caddy' on myself. I said (to myself)

'Look - you d head - you are a really good matchplayer - what the f do you think you are doing.!!! Now stop being so bidet miserable about your game - pull yourself together and get after the guy'

...and that I did, is why I felt better walking off the 18th beaten 1 down rather than 5 and 4.

 

[Jates12]

I was 5 up after nine in an interclub match last month and lost on the last, she holed a few good putts, including a 30 footer from off the green, I missed a couple under pressure, I played pretty well but she had an amazing back nine so I didn't actually feel that bad about it.

]

I played the best round of my life in last years KO, played off scratch as we were both off 12. We both shot 6 over gross for the 18 and then beat me down 19. I vowed never to play again because i couldnt play better and still lost.

Im still trying to play that well.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

]

I played the best round of my life in last years KO, played off scratch as we were both off 12. We both shot 6 over gross for the 18 and then beat me down 19. I vowed never to play again because i couldnt play better and still lost.

Im still trying to play that well.

Though in matchplay what I actually score on a hole is irrelevant - if I score the same as my opponent - great - hole halved, one better - even better - hole won,

In my match.

On the 14th (a par 5) I was 50yds from the green in 2. My opponent was top back of the green in 5. Am I bothered about getting a birdie 4? No. Am I bothered about getting a par 5? No. The best my opponent could do was a 7 unless he holed a miraculous putt.

What did I do? I wanted to play the lowest risk shot I could (didn't want to thin it or do any other nasty) and at the same time I did not want to end up on the top tier of the green as that would be in 3+ putt land. These were my sole considerations in respect of the shot I was to play.

So I played a low bump and run towards green. I left it short. So he's top back in 6, and I'm short of green in 3.

Now what do I do? Simple - I had a steep three foot 'step up' to the green - my ball was it the bottom of it. A 6 was still all I needed. So get the ball up the slope and onto the lower level of the green. No heroics, nothing clever at all. I'm maybe 20ft from the hole but I'm not bothered about how close to the hole I actually get - just get it up the slope and onto the lower putting surface.

And I did. Though I was maybe 8ft short of the hole it was an easy straight and flat putt - so I did not care.

His putt comes down and misses.

So I'm down in two to win the hole. Which I did.

No thoughts whatsoever about my score on the hole in the context of what I might shoot over the whole round. Irrelevant.

 

[stokie_93]

I played my quarter final on Thursday. Found myself 4 down through 8 and playing horrendously

The way I was playing I knew I'd be done by 15 at the latest however I had 2 out of my 3 shots on our 9th and 10th. Managed to par them 2 so back to 2 down.

From there on his game totally went and I started to play a lot more solidly. Won 11 & 12 after he hit poor tee shots and put one OB on 12.

I birdied the 13th to find myself 1 up after winning 5 on the bounce! He holed a good putt on 14 to halve it but then went in the water on 15 and I went 2 up.

Wasted my shot hole on 16 and lost the hole but absolutely ripped a drive on 17 after he topped one and saw it out comfortably with a par.

Never played so poorly yet won a game, he dropped 1 shot on the front 9 but was horrendous round the back!

Crazy game.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Great effort to give yourself a chance playing the last but personally, I'd have still be annoyed at being so far behind and ultimately losing a match. It does indicate how matchplay can fluctuate. I've always lacked the killer instinct to finish a match off and have often been 2-3 up and thrown it away. Say's more about me than the opposition!