What Is Medal Play In Golf?

What is medal play in golf?

Medal play is also known as strokeplay, and is the simplest of the scoring formats in golf. In medal play you simply tot up the total number of shots a player has made during the tournament and the player with the lowest score wins. Well, I say ‘player’, but the medal format can also be used for fourballs or foursomes.

As such, it is different from the two other common types of competition: match play and Stableford. In match play players aim to win a hole, by making the lower score on it, and the player who wins the most holes wins the game. In Stableford hole scores are converted into points totals.

This makes medal play the most unforgiving format, and often why a golf club's medal competitions will attract a better average standard of golfer than Stableford ones. In Stableford or match play if you rack up a huge score on a hole, you simply score 0pts on that hole or lose the hole, respectively, so the damage is contained to that one hole. But in medal play, one bad hole can have wider repercussions for your final score.

Also medal play requires you to hole out on every hole. In Stableford you can pick up once you can longer win a point; in match play you can simply concede the hole. Both of these facets are handy if you have lost a ball. A case of: 'forget it and move on'. In medal play, you cannot do this.

The player’s medal score may be gross or net, depending upon whether the competition is using handicaps or not. If the competition is using handicaps, then the player’s score is adjusted by the player’s handicap to get the medal score.

All of the men’s golf’s Majors – The Open Championship, US Open, US PGA Championship and The Masters – are competed for in medal play, as are the women’s Majors.

The US PGA Championship used to be a match play competition, but it changed to medal play in 1958. The leading team competitions, such as the Ryder Cup, Walker Cup, Solheim Cup, Presidents Cup and so on are played as match play.

The most prestigious golf competitions, at club or professional level, tend to be played as strokeplay competitions. Often the winner was given a medal, and the winner was called the Medallist. Thus strokeplay competitions also came to be known as medal competitions.