What does 3 & 2 mean in golf?

The winner was three holes up with two holes left to play, so the match ended on the sixteenth. The number after the ampersand is the holes that were never played.

Being up by exactly the number of holes remaining. The leader cannot lose the match but has not yet won it; a halved hole from there wins it.

What happens if the match is all square after 18?

The match is halved, written AS. Parful records the halve; a casual match has no extra holes.

Is casual match play gross or net?

Either. Net applies each player's handicap strokes hole by hole before comparing scores. Parful uses net unless the creator picks gross.

Does a casual match count for anything at the club?

No. It creates no competition, bracket or standings entry. It is scored by the same engine the club uses for knockouts, but the result lives on the game only.

What if we keep playing after the match is over?

You can, but those holes do not change the result. Parful closes the match at the close-out hole and reports the margin from there.

Golf games

Parful runs this

Match play (casual)

Also called Casual match play, Friendly match, Singles match.

Casual match play is a head-to-head golf match between two players scored by holes rather than strokes: the lower score wins each hole, equal scores halve it, and the match ends when one player leads by more holes than remain. In Parful it runs as a private challenge on the group scorecard, with no bracket or standings.

Players: Exactly 2, on the same card
Scoring basis: Holes won and lost, gross or net (net by default)
Each hole: Lower score wins it; equal scores halve it
Match over: When the lead is bigger than the holes left, for example 3 & 2
All square: A match level after 18 is halved (AS)
Creates: Nothing beyond the game: no competition, bracket or standings

How match play works

Match play counts holes, not strokes. On each hole the player with the lower score wins the hole and goes one up; if the scores are equal the hole is halved and nothing changes. A 3 on a hole beats a 4 by exactly as much as a 3 beats a 9. The state of the match is always a single number: how many holes one player is up, or all square.

The match ends as soon as one player is up by more holes than there are left to play. Three up with two holes to play is a win by 3 & 2; the last two holes are not played for the match. A match that reaches the eighteenth with one player ahead is won 1 UP or 2 UP, and a match level after eighteen is halved, written AS. Dormie means being up by exactly the number of holes left: the leader cannot lose but has not yet won.

In net match play the handicap strokes are applied hole by hole. A player receiving a stroke on a hole takes one off the gross score on that hole before the comparison is made, so a gross 5 against a gross 4 with a stroke is a halved hole.

Reading the result

The margin is written as holes up and holes remaining. It tells you where the match ended, not the score of the round.

3 & 2: won by three holes with two left to play. The match ended on the sixteenth.
1 UP: won by one hole on the eighteenth. Both players played every hole.
AS: all square after eighteen. The match is halved.
During the match, 2 UP and 2 DN describe the same state from each player's side.

Try it

Can we play Match play (casual) in our format?

Derived from the same compatibility rules the scorecard uses, so it cannot drift from the product.

Own ball, individual
Available
Four-ball, best ball, counted scores
Available
Shamble, bramble, cha cha cha
Available
Scramble, foursomes, greensomes, chapman
Needs a score per player; this format keeps one per side

Where the game is won

A blow-up hole costs one hole in match play, never more, so the aggressive line is cheaper than in stroke play. The state of the match decides the right shot: a player one up on the last tee wants a half, a player one down needs a win.

How Parful scores it

A member starts a match from the group scorecard by naming the two players. Gross or net is chosen at creation; net uses each player's handicap strokes from their Course Handicap™ on each hole, taken from the scores already on the card. There is nothing else to set and nothing to record during the round.

The match is scored by the same match play engine that runs club knockouts and cups. Parful feeds it the two players' hole scores and it decides each hole, tracks the running state, spots the close-out and produces the margin in the standard notation. The game itself creates nothing else: no competition, no bracket, no standings entry, no winner of record. It is a friendly match on the card.

The card shows the live state, for example 2 UP after eleven holes, and the final result, W 3 & 2 for the winner and L 3 & 2 for the loser. Holes after the close-out are ignored even if both players keep playing. A stake can be attached per hole of the final margin: a 3 & 2 win pays three units, a 1 UP win pays one and a halved match pays nothing. Parful shows who owes whom and never moves money. Casual match play works on any format where each player records their own hole score; it is not available on a scramble, foursomes, greensomes or chapman.

Worked example

A worked example: Ana beats Ben 3 & 2

Ana and Ben play a net match. Net scores are shown with the result of each hole and the state of the match after it, from Ana's side.

Hole	Ana	Ben	Hole	Match
1	4	5	Ana wins	1 UP
2	4	4	Halved	1 UP
3	5	4	Ben wins	AS
4	3	4	Ana wins	1 UP
5	4	4	Halved	1 UP
6	4	5	Ana wins	2 UP
7	5	5	Halved	2 UP
8	4	5	Ana wins	3 UP
9	5	4	Ben wins	2 UP
10	4	4	Halved	2 UP
11	4	5	Ana wins	3 UP
12	4	4	Halved	3 UP
13	5	4	Ben wins	2 UP
14	4	5	Ana wins	3 UP, 4 to play
15	5	4	Ben wins	2 UP, 3 to play
16	3	4	Ana wins	3 UP, 2 to play: Ana wins 3 & 2

Ana is three up with two holes to play after the sixteenth, so the match is over. Holes 17 and 18 do not count. At one unit a hole, Ben owes Ana 3.

After hole 14 Ana is three up with four to play, which is not yet a win. After hole 15 she is two up with three to play. Her win on 16 makes it three up with two to play, and the match closes.
Ana won 7 holes, Ben 4, and 5 were halved over the sixteen holes played. In stroke play the net scores were 67 against 70 over the same holes, but the match is scored by holes and would have been just as won had Ana taken a 9 on the third.

Common variants

Play to the eighteenth: Some friendly matches keep counting after the close-out to see the final holes-up margin. Parful ends the match at the close-out, as the rules of golf do, and ignores later holes.
Match play Nassau: Three matches in one, on the front nine, back nine and full round. Parful scores a single match over the round; Presses covers a two-player match with extra bets.
Four-ball match: Two pairs, better ball against better ball. Parful runs four-ball match play as a club competition format rather than as a private game.
Money per hole: A stake per hole of the final margin is the usual way to settle. Parful can carry the stake on the game, shows who owes whom and never moves money.