The CzarHow does match play work in golf?
Two sides, hole by hole. Win the hole and you go 1 UP; the match is over when the lead is bigger than the holes left. These are the rules the app scores by, including Caveats, the side game a 2v2 can play on top.
Match Play
Two sides, and a group can split any way it likes: 1v1, 1v2 or 2v2. On each hole a side's score is its best ball — the lowest score among its own players, however many there are. Win the hole, go 1 UP; halve it, nothing changes. The match is over when the lead is bigger than the holes left, which the app reads as 3&2, 2 UP, All Square and so on, alongside a plain stroke total for the day.
Closeout is a rule the group chooses. With it on, a match that finishes early starts a fresh one over the holes that remain, so nobody coasts in — a group can play three matches in eighteen holes. With it off, the first match is the only one.
A group can go off any hole — a shotgun start, or a group sent out the back — and the app counts holes remaining from where that group started, so a one-hole lead on the 18th tee isn't called a win for a group that teed off on 10.
Caveats
Match play's side game, for 2v2 only. Each is a separate bet, scored per hole and totalled at the end. The group picks which ones it's playing.
| Caveat | What earns it | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| Streak | Your side's best ball is under par on three holes in a row | 1, then +1 for every further hole the streak runs |
| Sweep | Both of you make par or better and both opponents make bogey or worse | 1 |
| Both under | Both of you are under par on the same hole | Two birdies 1 · birdie and eagle 2 · two eagles 4 |
- They never cancel. Both sides can score on the same hole and nothing is taken away; only the final totals are netted.
- They stack. Both birdie while both opponents bogey is 2, and 3 if that hole also completes a streak.
- Anything under par keeps a streak alive. Birdie, birdie, eagle is a three-streak. Par or worse resets it, so six in a row is worth 4 and two separate threes are worth 2, not 5.
- They run for the round. A closeout starting a new match doesn't reset them.
- They need a real card. Every caveat is measured against par, so a round played on the standard card the app supplies when a course has none doesn't score them.
In the app
Each tee group picks Match Play on its own setup screen, splits into sides, turns closeouts and any Caveats on, and the card settles the match hole by hole on every phone in the group. The Czar is on the App Store.