Hole19 scores head-to-head matches and team golf, not just your own card. This article covers Match Play and the five team formats, and how the strokes are shared when you play net.
These formats are available on Premium and Intelligence.
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Before You Start
Add everyone to your group first. These formats score more than one golfer, so the group has to be right before the round begins. You cannot change format once you are playing.
Check each golfer's handicap and Tee. Tap a golfer's profile picture on the setup screen to see both. This is what the stroke allowances are built from, so a wrong handicap here quietly skews the whole match.
Match Play
In Match Play (Singles), you play one golfer, hole by hole. Whoever takes fewer strokes wins the hole, and the match is decided by holes won rather than by total strokes.
Hole19 keeps the match score for you as you go, so you always know whether you are up, down or all square.
Conceding a hole. If the hole is gone, tap to concede it rather than playing it out. Your opponent takes the hole, and you move on.
Team Formats
All five are on Premium and Intelligence.
| Format | How it works |
|---|---|
| Four-Ball | Each golfer plays their own ball. The better of the two scores is the team's score for the hole |
| Better Ball | Team play where the best individual score on each hole counts |
| Foursomes | Partners share one ball and hit alternate shots, including from the tee |
| Alternate Shot | Partners take turns hitting the same ball |
| Scramble | Everyone hits, the team picks the best shot, and everyone plays the next one from there |
Teams come in twos. Hole19 runs two teams per group, so 2 v 2, 1 v 2 or 1 v 3. A four golfer scramble as a single team is not supported today.
How Your Match Play Handicap Works
Play gross, and nobody gets extra strokes: the score is the strokes taken.
Play net and Hole19 works out the allowances for you. It takes the lowest Playing Handicap in the group as the benchmark, and everyone else receives the difference between their own Playing Handicap and that one. This is your Match Play Handicap, shown as M.HCP.
Those extra strokes are given out on the hardest holes first, following the stroke index on the card. So a golfer receiving four strokes gets them on the holes with stroke index 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Example:
| Player | Playing Handicap |
|---|---|
| Player A | 13 |
| Player B | 2 |
| Player C | 19 |
| Player D | 21 |
Since Player B has the lowest Playing Handicap (2), their Match Play Handicap becomes 0.
The remaining players receive:
- Player A → 13 - 2 = 11 extra strokes
- Player C → 19 - 2 = 17 extra strokes
- Player D → 21 - 2 = 19 extra strokes
Handicap Allowance
Depending on the Match Play format, Hole19 may first apply a handicap allowance percentage before calculating the Match Play Handicap.
When that happens, the numbers will not be a straight subtraction like the example above.
The app automatically handles this calculation for you.
Notes
Better Ball is also a free side game
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There is a Better Ball side game that every golfer can use, on any plan, alongside any round. It is a different thing from the Better Ball team format above. See Better Ball Side Game.
The format is fixed once you tee off
Stroke Play and Stableford can be switched mid-round. Match Play and the team formats cannot. If you picked the wrong one, the round has to be started again.
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