Golf Differential/Handicap Calculator
Enter Data
Golf Handicap Differential
Calculator Instructions
Enter your scoreEnter course rating. (Par for the course.)
Enter slope. (Average slope 113.)
Round off to nearest whole number.
This calculation gives you your
handicap differential.
Repeat the calculations for five games or more,
write down your answers and use the Golf Handicap Index Calculator Below.
You need more than one round to calculate your true handicap. You need to follow the additional steps below depending on how many rounds you have:
To arrive at an Adjusted Gross Score, you use the USGA's Equitable Stroke Control (ESC). ESC is used to downwardly adjust individual hole scores for handicapping purposes in order to create handicaps that better represent a golfer's playing ability. ESC imposes a maximum number of strokes that can be entered for any given hole. This maximum is based on the golfer's Course Handicap and is obtained from the table shown below.
The Course Rating is a number, close to par for the course, and is expressed with a single decimal digit. For example: If par for a course is 72, it's Course Rating might be 71.4. Actually, for any given golf course, you can expect to see three (or even more) values for the Course Rating.
Slope rating quick (and overly simplistic) answer is that it's a single number indicating the difficulty of a golf course to a "bogey golfer". The figure is used when calculating handicaps. The Course Slope value is a two- or three-digit integer, always between 55 and 155, with 113 being the average or "standard" value.
Golf Handicap Calculator Information
Use the calculator to calculate your handicap of any round. Typically, for professionals and hardcore players, golf handicap is calculated based off the top 10 of the player's last 20 rounds. To track your rounds, either use a score and/or handicapping cards.
What is Golf Handicap?
Golf handicap is the standard metric for assessing one's skill or ability at the game of golf. Also, as the name would imply, handicap is used in tournaments and competition to weight players' scores. Handicap is recognized by all golf professionals, associations, and regular players.
A handicapis a numerical measure of a golfer's potential playing ability based on the tees played for a given course.
How is Golf Handicap Calculated?
Golf handicap calculation is somewhat complex as it changes based on your data. The simplest handicap calculation is the base calculation for a single round. First you need a few pieces of information, though:
- Rounds score
- Course rating
- Course slope
(score - rating) x 113 / slope
While that is the calculation for a single round, that is actually just the calculation for a handicap differential and you need more than one round to calculate your true handicap. You need to follow the additional steps below depending on how many rounds you have:
- 2-6 rounds - top 1 differential
- 7-8 rounds - top 2 differentials
- 9-10 rounds - top 3 differentials
- 11-12 rounds - top 4 differentials
- 13-14 rounds - top 5 differentials
- 15-16 rounds - top 6 differentials
- 17 rounds - top 7 differentials
- 18 rounds - top 8 differentials
- 19 rounds - top 9 differentials
- 20 rounds - top 10 differentials
Once you have determined which differentials you should use in your calculation, average the differentials together. Once you have the average of your differentials, multiply this number by 0.96 and that is your true handicap.
Golf Handicap Index Calculator
