In a normal handicap match, your strokes fall on the holes the scorecard says. In a bisque match, you choose. Save them for the holes you’re about to lose, and a handicap stops being a number and becomes a hand to play.
Work out the strokes as you would for any match. Then, instead of taking them on the stroke-index holes, the player receiving them chooses where to use them, one hole at a time. The big rule to agree first: do you have to call a bisque before teeing off on the hole, or can you take it after the hole is played?
The name comes from croquet, where a bisque is an extra turn a weaker player can take whenever they like. In golf it means the same idea: a handicap stroke that isn’t tied to a hole. A bisque match is ordinary match play, except the receiver decides where every stroke goes.
There’s no rulebook for it: bisques are an agreement between the players, outside the Rules of Golf, and the versions differ most on when a bisque must be claimed. Settle that before the first tee.
Worked example. Alex is a 6, Blair a 14, so Blair has 8 bisques, claimed after each hole.
That’s the power of the generous version: no stroke is wasted on a hole that was already won or already lost. The strict version makes Blair guess.
The bisque stroke. A single extra stroke offered to get someone into a match, on top of their normal strokes. In that version the hole it’s used on is fixed before the match starts.
Bisque par. Play the match against par instead of an opponent, using your handicap strokes on any holes you like, even after a hole is finished. See Par & Bogey for the match against the course.
Pairs. In a four-ball bisque, each player has their own bisques to spend on their own ball.
Settle the details. One bisque or two on a hole, before or after, the difference or full handicaps: there’s no standard, so say it on the first tee.
Bisque isn’t one of the formats Duck Hook Golf scores yet. The free app scores 32 others — skins, Nassau, Wolf, Vegas, Stableford, Snake and the rest — and does the arithmetic and the settle-up for you.
Get the free app Browse all 52 gamesA bisque is a handicap stroke the receiver can use on any hole they choose, instead of on the holes set by the stroke index. A bisque match is match play where every stroke is a bisque.
It depends on the version you agree. In the strict version, before teeing off on the hole; in the generous version, after the hole is played, before anyone tees off on the next. There’s no official rule, so agree it before the match.
Normally the same number of strokes you’d receive in an ordinary handicap match: the difference between the two course handicaps. Some groups play off full handicaps instead.
A single extra stroke given on top of the normal handicap strokes, usually to persuade someone into a match. In that version the hole it’s used on is chosen before the match begins.
Not yet. Duck Hook Golf’s match play gives strokes by stroke index, hardest holes first; choosing your own holes isn’t an option.
Same energy, different game. Everything below has a full rules guide of its own.
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