What happens if a match play match is tied after 18 holes?

In a knockout the players go to extra holes, starting at the first, and the first hole won decides it. In a team cup the match is halved and each side gets half a point.

Do handicap strokes apply on extra holes?

Yes, on the same holes as in the round. The nineteenth is the first hole again, with the first hole's stroke index.

How is a match won on the 19th recorded?

As 1 up, with one extra hole played. Clubs write it "won at the 19th". Parful stores the margin and the extra hole count together.

Can a match go on forever in sudden death?

In principle it continues until a hole is won. In practice a committee sets a cut-off and decides the match by another method if daylight runs out; Parful records whichever method was used.

Does Parful resolve a halved knockout match automatically?

No. The admin records how the halve was settled, and sudden death is the usual method. A scramble match that is all square blocks close-out until a tiebreak is recorded.

Competition structures

Parful runs this

Extra holes and sudden death

Also called 19th hole, Sudden death match play, Playoff holes, Extra holes in match play.

When a knockout match is all square after the last hole, the players go straight to extra holes, starting again at the first, and the first hole won decides the match. Handicap strokes are given on the same holes as in the round. A match won on the nineteenth is recorded as 1 up with one extra hole played.

Trigger: All square after the last regulation hole in a knockout
Starts at: The 19th, which is the first hole again
Ends when: A hole is won; a halved hole means another
Strokes: On the same stroke index holes as the round
Result: 1 up, with the extra holes noted
Not for cups: A halved cup match is half a point each

How sudden death works

A knockout needs a winner from every match, so a match that is level after eighteen holes continues. The players return to the first tee and play the course again in order, the nineteenth being the first hole, the twentieth the second, and so on. The first hole that is won ends the match. A halved extra hole changes nothing and the players move to the next. Under the Rules of Golf the committee may start extra holes anywhere, but the convention, and the Parful default, is to start at the first.

Handicap strokes in extra holes are given exactly as they were in the round. A player who received a stroke on stroke index 1 in regulation receives it again when that hole comes round in extra holes. Playing the nineteenth is playing the first hole, with the first hole's stroke index.

How the result is written

A match won on the nineteenth is a match won by one hole with none remaining, so the notation is 1 up. Clubs usually add the detail, "at the 19th" or "1 up (19 holes)", because a win at the twenty-first tells a different story from a win at the eighteenth. Parful stores the margin as 1 up and the number of extra holes played alongside it.

Sudden death is one of several ways a halved knockout match can be settled. The others are countback on the card, a scorecard playoff, a committee decision or another method the club records. On Parful a halved knockout match is never resolved automatically: the admin records which method decided it and who won, and sudden death is the usual answer.

All square in a scramble match

A scramble match play competition on Parful treats a level match after eighteen as unresolved rather than complete. The result carries a status of all square and a flag that a tiebreak is required, with sudden death as the configured method. Close-out of the competition is blocked while any match sits in that state, until a playoff result or an admin decision is recorded. That is a locked product decision: a tie is never quietly turned into a winner.

How Parful handles it

On Events, extra holes are scored the same way as the round: the scorer keeps entering holes, the engine keeps deriving the state, and the match completes on the first hole won past the eighteenth. The extra-hole count in the stored result is the holes played beyond eighteen. On Clubs knockouts the players play the extra holes on the course and the admin records the outcome with sudden death as the decision method; the bracket shows the winner and the method.

Two honest caveats. The extra-hole count is always measured from eighteen, so a nine-hole match that goes to a tenth hole is scored correctly over its nine but shows no extra holes in the record. And the Events engine allocates strokes from the course's stroke index list, which covers the regulation holes; a net match on Events that goes past the eighteenth should have its extra-hole strokes checked on the card before the result is accepted.

Worked example

A worked example: level after 18, won on the 21st

Ana plays off a Course Handicap™ of 10 and Ben off 7 in a net singles knockout, so Ana receives 3 strokes on stroke index 1, 2 and 3. Those fall on holes 3, 11 and 6. The match is all square after eighteen.

Hole	Played as	Stroke index	Ana gross	Ben gross	Ana net	Ben net	Hole	Match
18	18	14	4	4	4	4	Halved	AS after 18: extra holes
19	1	7	4	4	4	4	Halved	AS after 19
20	2	13	5	5	5	5	Halved	AS after 20
21	3	1	5	5	4	5	Ana	Ana wins 1 up at the 21st

Ana's stroke on stroke index 1 came round again on the twenty-first, which is the third hole. Her gross 5 became a net 4 against Ben's 5 and the match ended on the first hole won.

Stored on Parful: margin 1 up, holes played 21, extra holes 3.
Had Ben won the twenty-first, the result would read Ben 1 up at the 21st. Nobody can win extra holes by more than one hole.

Common variants