What Is A Bogey Competition?

A bogey competition is a scoring format where you play against the course’s par on every hole, rather than against the other players directly. Your final result is measured in how many holes you won, lost, or halved against bogey, not your total stroke count.

How A Bogey Competition Is Scored

In a bogey competition, each hole is compared to a fixed target score, usually par, though older formats sometimes used the actual “bogey” score, one over par. Win the hole by scoring better than the target and you’re recorded as “up.” Score worse and you’re “down.” Match it exactly and the hole is halved.

At the end of the round, your result is expressed as a net figure, such as “3 up” or “2 down,” reflecting the balance across all eighteen holes rather than one combined score.

Why It’s Called A Bogey Competition

The format takes its name from the historical use of “bogey” as the expected good score for a hole, before par became the standard reference point golf uses today. Even though most modern bogey competitions actually measure against par, the older name has stuck.

How A Bogey Competition Differs From Stroke Play

Stroke play adds up every shot across the whole round into one cumulative total. A bogey competition instead treats each hole as its own separate contest against the target score, meaning one disastrous hole only costs you that single hole’s result, not a heavy stroke penalty carried through your whole card.

This makes bogey competitions considerably more forgiving of an occasional blow-up hole than a standard stroke play round.

How It Compares To Stableford

Bogey competitions and Stableford scoring are close relatives, since both compare your score hole by hole against a fixed target rather than totalling strokes. The key difference is in how results are recorded: Stableford awards points based on how many strokes you’re under or over the target, while a bogey competition simply records a hole as won, lost, or halved.

Why Clubs Still Use This Format

Bogey competitions remain popular for casual and social club golf because they keep a round moving and enjoyable even after a bad hole. A single blow-up doesn’t spiral into a ruined scorecard the way it can in strict stroke play, which suits golfers looking for a relaxed, low-pressure round.

Bogey Competition FAQs

Is a bogey competition the same as Stableford? They’re similar but not identical. Bogey competitions record each hole as won, lost, or halved, while Stableford awards a points value based on the margin.

What does “bogey” mean in this context? Historically it referred to the expected good score for a hole, before par became golf’s standard reference point, though today’s bogey competitions usually use par as the target.

Does one bad hole ruin your result in a bogey competition? No. A bad hole only costs you that single hole’s result, unlike stroke play where every extra shot adds directly to your total score.

Are bogey competitions common in professional golf? Not really. They’re mostly used in casual, social, and some amateur club golf rather than professional tournaments, which almost always use stroke play or match play.