Golf Handicap Calculator
With adjusted gross score 92, course rating 71.6, slope rating 131, par 72 and 3 more fields, golf handicap comes to 17.6 — score differential. It is reached in 8 steps, the last of which is (113 / 131) * (92 - 71.6 - 0), and each one is printed on the page with its numbers filled in. The formula is the one published by USGA, not an approximation fitted to it.
The score differential a round produces under the World Handicap System, and the course handicap your index converts to on the tees you are playing.
Formula and sources checked · How we check
Adjusted gross score 92, Course rating 71.6, Slope rating 131, Par 72
17.6
Score differential for the example below. Editing a field recomputes the calculator below; this figure holds the answer the page was loaded with.
It is written into the HTML rather than drawn by a script, so a search engine reading this page without running JavaScript still finds an answer.
- Score differential for this round
(113 / 131) * (92 - 71.6 - 0)17.597- Course handicap from your index
14.2 * 131 / 113 + (71.6 - 72)16.062- Strokes you receive
round(16.061947)16- Playing handicap after the allowance
round(16.061947 * 100 / 100)16- Net score
92 - 1676- Net score against par
76 - 724- This round against your index
17.596947 - 14.23.397- Score that would match your index exactly
14.2 * 131 / 113 + 71.6 + 088.062
Ask about this in the chatCompare: the same round on an easier course
Worked example
A 92 on a course rated 71.6 with a slope of 131 gives a differential of 17.6 — 3.4 strokes worse than a 14.2 index, so a below-average round rather than a bad one. The same index converts to a course handicap of 16 from those tees, making the net score 76, four over par.
How to work it out yourself
- 1.Adjust the gross score first. Every hole is capped at net double bogey — par, plus two, plus the strokes you receive on that hole — before the round goes anywhere near the handicap arithmetic.
- 2.The differential is what gets recorded. Your handicap index is the average of the lowest eight differentials among your last twenty rounds, so one good round moves the index by about an eighth of the gap it opens.
- 3.Course handicap and index are not the same number. The index is portable; the course handicap is what it becomes on a particular set of tees, and it is the one you write on the card.
- 4.With fewer than twenty scores the system uses a smaller set and applies an adjustment, so an index built on three rounds is provisional. Twenty is where it settles.
Differential by score, on this course
| Adjusted gross score | Score differential | This round against your index |
|---|---|---|
| 78 | 5.5 | -8.68 |
| 82 | 9.0 | -5.23 |
| 86 | 12.4 | -1.78 |
| 90 | 15.9 | 1.67 |
| 92 | 17.6 | 3.4 |
| 96 | 21.0 | 6.85 |
| 100 | 24.5 | 10.3 |
| 104 | 27.9 | 13.75 |
A slope of 131 means each stroke is worth 0.86 of a differential point — harder courses forgive more.
The formula
- Score differential for this round
(113 / 131) * (92 - 71.6 - 0) - Course handicap from your index
14.2 * 131 / 113 + (71.6 - 72) - Strokes you receive
round(16.061947) - Playing handicap after the allowance
round(16.061947 * 100 / 100) - Net score
92 - 16 - Net score against par
76 - 72 - This round against your index
17.596947 - 14.2 - Score that would match your index exactly
14.2 * 131 / 113 + 71.6 + 0
Source: USGA — Rules of Handicapping, World Handicap System — how the index is calculated
Questions people actually ask
- How is a golf handicap calculated?
- Each round becomes a score differential: (113 ÷ slope) × (adjusted gross score − course rating − PCC). Your handicap index is the average of the lowest eight differentials in your most recent twenty rounds, rounded to one decimal, with a cap on how fast it can rise.
- What is the difference between handicap index and course handicap?
- The index is a single portable number. The course handicap converts it for the tees you are on: index × slope ÷ 113 + (course rating − par). On a hard course you receive more strokes than your index; on an easy one, fewer.
- What is a good handicap?
- The median index in the US sits around 14 for men and 28 for women, so anything under about 10 is well above average and single figures is the usual definition of a good amateur. Scratch — an index of 0.0 — is roughly the top 2% of players.
- What does the PCC do?
- Playing Conditions Calculation compares the day’s scores at a course against what the field would normally shoot and shifts every differential by between −1 and +3 when conditions were unusual. It is applied automatically, and on most days it is zero.
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