"Down" in golf

If a player is behind in a hole competition, the number of holes he is behind is referred to as "down". For example, 9 holes have been played of which 4 holes have been split, player A has won 4 holes and player B has won 1 hole. In this case, player B would be 3 shots down after 9 holes. If a player is more strokes down than there are holes of golf left to play in a round, the match ends accordingly and the player has lost. So if a player is 4 down after 15 holes, he can no longer win or share the match, as there are only 3 holes left to play. The player is now said to have lost 4 down on 3.