A course referred to as a match play course has usually had these features when I have played it.
1. More blind shots
2. More outrageous, bold slopes nearby the green complexes
3. Less opportunities to have consistent depth perception
4. Few medium sized greens - they are usually very big or very small or a mix of very big and small
5. A generous mix of holes that are either very easy or very hard to hit in "regulation" (relative to a card par)
There's certainly more attributes, but those are the larger ones I seem to reflect on.
when I look at them as a group and consider my own experiences playing and caddying on courses that are called "Match Play" type, I think the term may be nebulous from go, but where it has truth it seems to come back to...
"It's not how you survive or topple the hole, its how you survive or topple your opponent's play of it"
The old "2 or 20" hole at Engineers is a wonderful example. A couple of holes like that on a course hosting a medal play event would thwart the mission of that type of tournament - to see whose skill can execute the lowest 4 round score. if Tiger and Phil hit the ball similarly on such a hole at a US Open but one received a 2 and the other a 20, would that really be an accurate measure of whose skill could produce the lowest score of the week?
I don't think so, however as a match play hole it's a perfect hole. There's nothing on the line more than one hole's misfortune. it does not capriciously destroy the value of an aggregate tournament. It may wildly easy or fitfully unfair, but it is the same level of outrageousness for both and only that moment matters, not the days leading up to it, nor as prelude for something else. It's a one time test of your skill and luck relatively matched to your opponent's qualities in both departments at that moment.
cheers
vk