It may be a Match made in heaven — or the other place, depending on how it plays out.
The Match is back on Thursday, with Warriors stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson facing off against Chiefs Super Bowl champs Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes. As they've demonstrated on the court and the gridiron, they're great teammates — they'll have to continue to prove that on Thursday.
With The Match 8 played under scramble format rules, each player will have to put his respective teammate in a position to do some damage on the course in Paradise, Nev. That also means that, much like a missed shot or a dropped pass, all these players will have to shake off mistakes and help lift his teammate up on the links, as well.
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Here's what you need to know about the format, scoring and more about the the next rendition of the golf showdown:
The Match 2023 format
As with The Match in prior iterations, this year's event features 12 holes of scramble play. In this format, each player tees off and the team selects the best ball to play from on the next shot.
From that point, the process is repeated until the hole is finished. Whoever finishes with a low score on the hole wins. Should both teams record the same score, then the hole is halved. Whoever has most of the most holes won by the end of the tournament wins.
So, expect Klay Thompson to be hitting a lot of Steph Curry golf balls come Thursday.
What is match play in golf?
Match play is a mano-a-mano format in golf play. Whereas players win most tournaments by setting the lowest score overall, match play victories are determined by winning a hole over your opponent. The player or players with the most holes won at the end of the round or tournament wins.
Scoring is not cumulative in match play, so the score resets on every hole. So, if Player A has four strokes on a hole, but Player B has three strokes, then Player B wins the hole, regardless of what their score was on prior holes.
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How does scramble scoring work?
In scramble scoring, while multiple balls are hit, there is only one ball per team per hole scored, so only one score is used. As is custom, the team with the lowest score wins the hole. The team with the most holes at the end of the tournament, wins.
How many holes will they play in The Match 2023?
The four players will play just 12 of the 18 holes at Wynn Golf Club, making for a pretty short afternoon of
In addition to the format, Holes 4, 6, 8 and 12 will be special "challenge holes" — if a player nets a hole-in-one on any of those holes, then $2 million will be donated to charity in the team's name. Hole 12 carries a $5 million charity donation for an ace.
If no hole-in-one is made, then $250,000 is donated if a team gets within five feet of the hole. If those challenges aren't met, then $100,000 will be donated in the team's name for whichever team's shot gets closest to the green off the tee.
Best ball rules in golf
Under best ball rules, only the lowest individual score is used as the score for the team on the hole.
As an example: If Curry shoots one-under on a hole, Thompson finishes one over, and Mahomes and Kelce both shoot even on a hole, then Curry's -1 will win his team the hole and the point in match play.