This article will explain the terms and process necessary to understand your golf handicap.  Hopefully this will be the most accurate and succinct information you’ll find on handicap.  Let’s start with terms to get familiar even though their definitions will also be explained later.

Handicap – A numerical representation of a golfers playing potential.  This is not an average but relates to the golfers ability.

Handicap Index – An official handicap established through a USGA sanctioned golf club.  It represents how many shots over par the player has the potential to shoot. 

Course Handicap – This is the number of strokes a player can “take” on a given course.

Course Rating – This is the average score that 50 percent of the scratch golfers will make on the particular course.

Slope Rating – This number represents the relative difficulty of a course for the bogey golfer.  This number ranges from 55 to 155.

Equitable Stroke Control – Method used to determine how many strokes played on a hole based on your course handicap will count towards your adjusted gross score.

Adjusted Gross Score – This score is the total number of strokes played after allowing for equitable stroke control.

Net Score – This is your adjusted gross score minus your course handicap.

Sandbagger – A player who doesn’t post all of his best scores thus is creating a greater handicap for himself than he should have.

The purpose of this whole handicap mess is so you can go play with your buddy and compete fairly at the same level even though you and your buddy have different abilities.  Essentially a better player will “give” strokes to a worse player.  This means at the end of the round you can compare your net score to see who’s walking away with the cash.  It gets tricky because courses are, of course, not the same and this must be taken into account. 

After playing at least 5 rounds at a sanctioned USGA course, you will have established your handicap.  It’s best to get at least 20 scores for your handicap but 5 is the minimum required.  While establishing this handicap you have to follow the equitable stroke control rules and not post a score greater than a 10 on any hole.  Once your handicap is established then use the following equitable stroke control chart to determine the maximum number of strokes you can use toward your handicap on each hole.

Equitable Stroke Control Chart

Okay, so you go out on your 6^th round with your newly established handicap index from your home course.  Based on the course slope and course rating, the pro shop can now figure out your course handicap.  Some pro shops have charts for this or worst case this is how you do it:
Course Handicap = Handicap Index multiplied by (Slope Rating/113).  Therefore, if your Handicap Index is 15.7, then your Course Handicap would be 15.7 x (120/113), or 17 (16.7 rounded up).

So, you go out on your 6^th round with a course handicap of 17 which means you can’t post a score higher than a 7 and if your buddy is a scratch golfer then he has to “give” you 17 strokes.  Or put another way, after the round you subtract 17 from your adjusted gross score to get your net score which you compare with the net score of the people you played with. 

So that’s it, that’s the bottom line on golf handicaps.  Keep reading if you want more than just the bottom line.  Please leave comments if you have any questions.  See the rest of the article under “Instruction” on www.golf.sc.

This entry was posted on and is filed under Golf Instruction, Golf Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.