The scoring format that counts a golfer's total number of strokes over a round or tournament is stroke play.
In stroke play, golfers record every stroke taken on each hole, then add those scores across the round or across multiple rounds. The player with the lowest total wins, making the format a direct test of cumulative scoring. Most professional golf tournaments use this system.
A standard tournament round contains 18 holes, while many elite events are contested over 72 holes across four rounds. Scores are often displayed relative to par, such as 4-under par, but the underlying result is still the total number of strokes.
Stroke play is different from match play, where players compete hole by hole and the result is based on holes won rather than total strokes. Four-ball and scramble describe team formats; they can sometimes be played using stroke-play scoring, so they are not the best answer to this question.