Stroke play is the more commonly played game in a round of golf. Stroke play is when each player totals each stroke he uses to finish a hole, and the golfer with the lowest score wins.
This format allows for tournament play featuring multiple players at one time, even if they are not playing in the same group. An example of this is when a group of 20 golfers are split up into five groups of four players. They start playing a round of golf, playing 18 holes in total. After all groups have finished playing, the 20 players get together and see which player out of the 20 shot the lowest score, or took the fewest amount of strokes.
The player that took the fewest amount of strokes to finish all 18 holes wins the tournament. Handicaps can be added to each player's scores. An example of this is when a scratch golfer, a golfer who has no handicap or gets zero strokes, plays against a player with a handicap of 10, 10 strokes are taken off the total score of the player with a handicap. After the game is played and the scratch player shoots a 74, but the player with a 10 handicap shoots an 83, then the player with the handicap reduces his score by 10, which would mean that his adjusted score would be a 73 and he has won the game by shooting a lower score than the scratch golfer.
There are a few things to be remembered about stroke play. Firstly, each golfer must finish each hole, which is called "holing out." A player can be disqualified for a round or tournament if he proceeds to the next tee box despite not holing out.
An opponent cannot concede putts or strokes, and no holes can be conceded by golfers. Every golfer must hole out to finish the holes and the round of golf. If for some reason a player is either disqualified during the tournament, pulls out of a round of golf or gets hurt, then the other golfers must still finish the stipulated number of holes to decide a winner. A player does not automatically win a round just because another golfer did not finish the stipulated holes.
Golfers can breach rules and be penalized extra strokes during a round of stroke play. A breach of any rule would usually result to a one or two stroke penalty. What this means is that they can continue playing in a stroke play tournament despite breaching a rule, but they must add the penalty strokes to their final score.
A player can get disqualified for a tournament if he wrongfully placed a lower score to his scorecard; if, however, he makes the mistake of writing a higher score to his card, then he must be content in keeping that score. It is very important that every player writes down his score for each hole; then he must total those scores up at the end of a round of golf.
As previously mentioned, almost every game played in golf is the stroke-play type. Each player is responsible for hitting his own ball and keeping his own score. This type of scoring has the golfers playing more against the par of the course than other players in the group or tournament. A golfer may play differently than he would in a match play type of golf round because the stroke play type is based on the number of total hits a golfer takes to finish a hole and the round.
Strategy is very important when playing stroke play. You must think carefully before playing any hole. For example, if you hit the ball into an area of the golf course that makes the shot more difficult, then you can choose to take the penalty stroke and drop the ball where you can easily hit it. Or you can also save the penalty stroke and play the ball as it lies.
Course management is extremely vital in a round of stroke-play golf. Playing to your strengths is key so that you can keep your score low. Keeping the ball in the fairway is very important in stroke play. So have fun and see whether you can lower your score from your last round of golf.
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