The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Golf Handicap and How to Calculate Yours in 2022
The golf handicap has been leveling the playing field since — well, woods were made out of wood, and irons were made out of iron. It’s a way to create a match between golfers of differing skill levels, essentially turning a total rout into something far more competitive. So if you’re wondering, “what is a handicap in golf,” we have the answer. Here’s everything you need to know about a golf handicap, how to calculate yours, and ultimately make yourself a bit more respectable on the golf course.
What Is a Handicap in Golf?
A handicap in golf is a measure of how good you are on the links. Stretching between 0 and 36, the lower your golf handicap, the better you are at the sport over an 18-hole round. A 0 handicap is known as a scratch golfer and only 2% of golfers ever achieve this level.
On the flip side, a 36-handicap golfer is as rough as it gets in the game of golf. It’s basically a starting point for beginners that should be overcome with a bit of practice on the putting green or time on the driving range.
In the middle sits a bogey golfer, which as the name implies, averages about a bogey on each hole (score of 90) and has a handicap of around 20. This score is respectable, and it’s one that a beginner should strive to achieve if they want to participate in amateur tournaments in either stroke play or match play or have a reasonable shot at making some cash on golf betting games with friends.
For example, if you have a golf handicap of 24, you’re essentially spotted 24 strokes on a course. So if you shoot a 94 on a par-70 course, the 24 strokes you get would mean that you hit par! Another example would be that you have a handicap of 30. If you’re on a par-72 course and you shoot a 100, you would actually shoot two strokes less than your handicap, which would equate to a 2 under par. That’s not bad shooting, considering.
The Official Handicap in Golf Defined
The United States Golf Teachers Federation (USGTF) defines a golf handicap as “a measure of his current ability over an entire round of golf, signified by a number. The lower the number, the better the golfer is.”
Moreover, the United States Golf Association (USGA) classifies a golf handicap system as one that “promotes equitable competition for all genders and ages by allowing players to compete fairly on any rated course.”
Essentially, it’s both a measure of skill and a way to create a more interesting game, whether you’re an established veteran or a newbie on the golf course.
A Brief, Hopefully Not Boring History of the Golf Handicap
Getting your ass handed to you on the course seems like an obvious reason why someone would create a golf handicap. But seeing as golf is the quintessential gentleman’s game, the handicap was again, merely a simple way to keep things fair.
The original handicap was first mentioned in the late 17th century, but the idea didn’t gain traction until the late 19th century as the sport grew in popularity in Britain. The first handicap was typically the average of a golfer’s top three scores during the year subtracted from par.
However, this idea didn’t really take into account course ratings (difficulty of each course) and the number of strokes per course. This made it increasingly difficult for handicappers to hit their assigned score and a marked downturn on the fairness spectrum.
To make this system even more complicated, almost every golf governing body in each country had its own different handicap index or rules.
The USGA Handicap
In 1911, the USGA introduced its modern iteration of the handicap system. While it was initially based on the British three-score average, the USGA quickly found that this wasn’t exactly fair.
This led to the par rating system based on the scores of scratch golfers, as well as course handicap ratings and the slope rating, which measures the difficulty of a course based on the average of a bogey golfer rather than a scratch golfer.
The World Handicap System vs. the USGA Handicap System
Although the USGA handicap method gained traction throughout North America, five other golfing associations had their own handicapping systems, which led to confusion and problems, especially in international competitions or even with amateur golfers trying to play overseas on vacation.
That’s why the major golf associations finally decided to create the World Handicap System, which created a single handicapping system for every golf course in the world.
Introduced in 2020, the World Handicap System replaced the USGA Handicap System in the U.S. and all other foreign handicap systems.
Without getting too much into the complicated methodology among the six major golf associations, the World Handicap System mimics the USGA Handicap System in terms of slope ratings and course ratings with sprinklings of the five other associations thrown into the mix.
Essentially, it approximates how well you might play on a specific course based on the top eight scores you’ve achieved over the last 20 rounds. Today, 119 countries use this, should you should be good to go unless you want to see what golfing Yemen has to offer.
How To Calculate Your Handicap in Golf
Now you’re finally thinking, “OK, OK, so what is a handicap in golf and how do I calculate my own?” Those are valid points, but the needlessly complicated history and methodology at least needed a quick discussion. So without further ado, here’s how to calculate your handicap in golf for different courses — but bear in mind — it’s a bit more involved than you may have anticipated.
- Grab a calculator
- Add together your top eight rounds over your last 20 times on the course. If you haven’t played that much, you need at least your last five scores on 18-hole courses. For the sake of ease, let’s stick with the top eight rounds over the last 20 rounds.
- Again, for simplicity, let’s assume that your top eight scores added up to 720 or 90 per round and they were all on a par-72 course. Then, you need to turn your scores into how many strokes over par you were. In this example, you would average 18 strokes over par. This is known as your handicap index.
- Let’s try another example, all on a par-72 course. Let’s say your top eight rounds were 81, 80, 89, 88, 88, 84, 92, and 95. Add these together to get 697, then divide by eight — the number of rounds — to get 87.1. Subtract 72 — par for the course — and you would have a handicap of 15.1 — or 15.
- However, there’s more than meets the eye in the World Handicap System (WHS). It has a maximum score per hole. So if you shot a 10 on a par-4 but the WHS states that only 6 is the max on that hole, you would need to adjust your score by giving yourself 4 strokes. You would do this for any hole that you shot more than the maximum amount of strokes. The maximum number of strokes is known as net double bogey. The difference between net double bogey and your actual score is known as your adjusted gross score.
- Now that you have the numbers you need, you can calculate your official World Handicap System handicap. This is known as your course handicap.
- To get this number, take your handicap index and multiply it by the slope rating for the course divided by 113 — the average slope rating for all courses. Then, add the course rating — the rating assigned to each course for a scratch golfer and subtract par to get your handicap.
What Is a Handicap in Golf Without Hurting Your Brain? A Quick Example
Confusing enough? Here’s the formula written out to keep your wits about you:
- Your Handicap = [Your Handicap Index * (Slope rating/113)] + (Course rating - par)
- For example, let’s assume these things:
- Your Handicap Index = 15
- Slope rating = 115
- Course rating = 74
- Par = 72
- So for this example, it would be [15 * (115/113)] + (74-72). This would equal 17.27, which would equal a handicap of 17 for the course, as you remove the decimal and round down.
Keep in mind that the course slope rating and course rating — the average score by a scratch golfer — are usually located on the scorecard. If you can’t it, ask someone at the clubhouse.
What’s a Good or Bad Golf Handicap?
Where you stand on the spectrum of the golf handicap system is somewhat in the eye of the beholder. It doesn’t take into account your time on the course or experience. It’s all just what you shoot. So to that effect, there’s not truly a good or bad golf handicap as long as you’re playing to your full potential. However, a handicap of 20 or below is usually considered a good handicap, a 9 or below is usually considered a great handicap, and a 30 or more is a bad handicap.
Generally speaking, you can use these guidelines to determine if a player’s handicap is good or bad:
- Low handicap: Handicap of 9 or less, resulting in most rounds in the 70s
- Mid handicap: Handicap between 10 and 20, resulting in most rounds in the 80s or low 90s
- High Handicap: Handicap above 20, resulting in most rounds in the 90s or even 100s
How To Improve Your Golf Handicap
What is a golf handicap? It’s a number that should provide the motivation to get your butt out on the course. So if you want to shave some strokes off your handicap calculation of 30 and lower your handicap strokes once and for all, practice and playing regularly is probably the only way to do it.
Add an office putting green to the home office, hit the driving range, play hooky to get on the course, or do whatever you need to do. You just might find your 18-hole score and your bad holes drop significantly, firmly cementing you into a respectable handicap.
The choice is yours. But if you want to impress on the golf course, the lowest handicap comes with a prestige that few other achievements do. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and play.
