Friday, September 21, 2007 Garcia: Different Formats of Golf By Imee Garcia
THE Solheim Cup in Europe. The Tour Championship in the United States. Both tournaments held late last week. What a great week to stay home and watch the finals of both tournaments.
The Solheim Cup is considered to be the most prestigious team event in ladies’ golf. It is played by twelve of the top European born players from the Ladies European Tour and twelve of the top American born players from the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). This event is played every other year, and Halmstad Golfklubb in Sweden is where the tournament was held this year. It has 28 matches in total—8 foursome matches, 8 four-ball matches and 12 single matches on the last day. Congratulations to the American Team for winning this year!
In my last article, I mentioned the $10 million dollar prize money for the FEDEX Cup. The Tour Championship is the last leg of the FEDEX Cup, and it was held in Atlanta, Georgia. The tournament format was stroke play. Congratulations to Tiger Woods for winning the Tour Championship as well as the 1st FEDEX Cup! As always, he was expected to win the huge prize money. He did pretty well, and he did not disappoint his fans. He is such a joy to watch.
Stroke play? Match play? Foursome? Four-ball? Singles Match? What??? Yes, confusing, I know. I will explain to you the different formats of golf so you will understand how golf is played.
Stroke play or medal play "refers to a round of golf in which the score is kept by adding the cumulative total of strokes taken throughout the round." The golfer with the fewest strokes at the end of the round wins.
Match play "is a competition format in which the round is played with the goal of winning individual holes. For example, on No. 1, you score 4 and your opponent gets a 5 - you win the hole." Each hole is a separate competition. The player with the fewest strokes on an individual hole wins that hole; the player winning the most holes wins the match."
There are different kinds of Match Plays:
Singles "is a match in which one plays against another."
Threesome "is a match in which one plays against two, and each side plays one ball."
Foursomes "is a competition format in which teams are comprised of two players each, and the players alternate hitting the same ball (which is why Foursomes is also very commonly called "alternate shot")."
Four-Ball "is a match in which two play their better ball against the better ball of two other players."
Best-Ball "is a match in which one plays against the better ball of two or the best ball of three players."
The format that is very common here in Davao which is also called "best-ball matchplay" is a match between two teams comprising of two (or three) players in each team. Each player hits a ball. The best one from among the two shots will be used. The partner then places his ball close to his partner’s ball, and they hit the next shot from there, and so on, until they hole out. The better score wins the hole. It is such a great format! If you make a poor shot, your partner can make up for it and vice versa. And what's nice about playing best ball is--even if you play well, your handicap won't go down! (hehe!)
It was an exciting week of golf. And this is all I can say...Tiger Woods makes golf look so easy, doesn't he?
