Today I learned something new: The bye hole.

[nevets88]

Never heard of it until now. Apparently it's a 19th hole you can use to settle bets, usually a par 3.

Is that right? Can anyone tell us more?

[moparman426]

Maybe the "buy" hole, which is the the 19th hole, aka club house bar, where winning/loosing (drink) rounds are bought, lol.

[The Tin Man]

BYE HOLE In match play, any holes not played because the outcome was decided early. For example, say that Player A is three holes up at the conclusion of play on the 16th hole. The outcome is now decided and the 17th and 18th holes become "bye holes" because there are simply not enough holes remaining for Player B to catch up. The best that Player B could do is to win the 17th and 18th which would still leave Player B the loser of this match. Therefore, the 17th and 18th holes are not played. Player A is declared the victor at the 16th hole.

I googled it and got this.

[divot dave]

can't go wrong with google

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by divot dave

can't go wrong with google

Well in this case you can.

What you described in your OP is the same as having a chip off, A putt off or tossing a coin.

It's an informal thing and has nothing to do with the rules of matchplay.

It's just a way of having a result rather than being all square when you want a result that isn't all sqaure.

What was described in the Tin Man's response is the concept of  "dormie".

[iacas]

One course around here has a really short little hole, like 75 yards, used to settle bets. They even use it during tournaments when two teams are tied.

[dsc123]

Originally Posted by iacas

One course around here has a really short little hole, like 75 yards, used to settle bets. They even use it during tournaments when two teams are tied.

I played a course a week or two ago that had one of these.  You hit off a mat to a hole about 90 yards away.  I had never seen that before.