Stroke play, also known as medal play, is a scoring system in the sport of golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

. It involves counting the total number of strokes taken on each hole during a given round, or series of rounds. The winner is the player who has taken the fewest number of strokes over the course of the round, or rounds.

Although most professional tournaments are played using the stroke play scoring system, there are, or have been, some notable exceptions, for example the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship

WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship

The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship is one of the annual World Golf Championships. It is a knockout event and is staged in January or February each year...

 and Volvo World Match Play Championship, which are both played in a match play

Match play

Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; this is as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes...

 format, and The International

The International (golf)

The International was a professional golf tournament played from 1986 to 2006 at the Castle Pines Golf Club at Castle Pines Village in Castle Rock, Colorado. It had the distinction of being one of two PGA Tour events not conducted at traditional stroke play, the only other exception is the match...

, a former PGA Tour

PGA Tour

The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...

 event that used a modified stableford

Stableford

Stableford is a scoring system used in the sport of golf. Rather than counting the total number of strokes taken, as in stroke play, it involves scoring points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole...

 system. In addition, most team events, for example the Ryder Cup

Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup is a biennial golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is jointly administered by the PGA of America and the PGA European Tour, and is contested every two years, the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe...

, are also contested using the match play format.

Scoring

Players record the number of strokes taken at each hole and total them up at the end of a given round, or rounds. The player with the lowest total is the winner. In handicap competitions, the player would subtract their handicap from the total (gross) score to generate their net score, and the player with the lowest net score is the winner.

Scores may be reported in relation to par

Par (score)

The word "par" is a term in the game of golf used to denote the pre-determined number of strokes that a scratch golfer should require to complete a hole, a round , or a tournament...

 for easy comparison with other golfers' scores. For example, a player whose score is three strokes over par after a given hole would appear as "+3" on the scoreboard.

Should there be a tie for first place, it may be desirable to determine an outright winner. Two of the more common methods are a playoff and scorecard count back.

Cut

Most tournaments enforce a cut, which in a typical 72-hole tournament is done after 36 holes. The number of players who "make the cut" depends on the tournament rules - in a typical PGA Tour event the top 70 professionals (plus ties) after 36 holes. Any player who turns in a score higher than the "cut line" will "miss the cut" and take no further part in the tournament.

Playoff

One of the most common methods for settling ties is by means of a playoff, whereby those players who have tied for the lead replay a set number of holes. If still tied after those holes then further sudden death holes may also be played until a winner emerges.

Ties in professional golf are generally settled by means of a playoff. Different tournaments have various formats for their playoffs, ranging from another full round, as employed in the U.S. Open

U.S. Open (golf)

The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...

, through to a three or four hole playoff as used in the PGA Championship

PGA Championship

The PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America as part of the PGA Tour. It is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, and is the golf season's final major, usually played in mid-August, customarily four weeks after The Open Championship...

 and The Open Championship

The Open Championship

The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...

 (British Open), to straightforward sudden death, which is used in most tournaments including The Masters and all other regular PGA Tour

PGA Tour

The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...

 and European Tour events. In the longer playoff formats, if at least two players remain tied after such a playoff, then play generally continues in sudden death format.

Count back

One method commonly used in amateur competitions, especially when a playoff is not practicable, is scorecard "count back", whereby the player with the lowest cumulative (net) score over the last 18, 9, 6, 3 or 1 hole(s) is declared the winner.