Match Play - Tournaments Featuring Match Play

Tournaments Featuring Match Play

Currently, there are few professional tournaments that use match play. They include the biennial Ryder Cup played by two teams, one representing the USA and the other representing Europe; the biennial Presidents Cup for teams representing the USA and International (non-European) players; the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship; and the older Volvo World Match Play Championship, an invitational event which is now part of the European Tour. Formerly, the PGA Championship, one of the majors, used match play, but it changed to a stroke play event in 1958.

Women's professional golf had no event directly comparable to the Accenture Championship until the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship was introduced in 2005. After it was canceled in 2007, the LPGA was without a match play event until the Sybase Match Play Championship was started in 2010. Women's golf also has the biennial Solheim Cup staged between two teams, one including USA-born players and one including players born in Europe. From 2005 to 2008, women's golf held the Lexus Cup, an event pitting an International Team against an Asian Team. The U.S. Amateur Championships for both men and women are conducted with two rounds of stroke play to cut the field to 64, and then proceed to a single-elimination match play tournament. All elimination matches are 18 holes except for the final, which is 36 holes.