How to Calculate Your Golf Handicap

Your golf handicap is meant to measure how well you'd stand up to a "scratch" golfer on any given course and allows golfers of different abilities to compete fairly. Stand up to even the best of your opponents and learn to track your golf handicap by visiting the resources below. Follow these simple steps to improve your game!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Golf Shirts
• Golf Course Memberships
• Golf Balls
• Golf Gloves
• Golf Bags
• Golf Clubs
• Golf Shoes
• Golf Tees
• Golf Practice Equipment
• Golf Club Cleaners
• Golf Hats

1. Take the scores from the last five rounds (18 holes each) that you played.

2. Look up the rating and slope for the course that you played for each of these scores. This information is usually printed on the scorecard, although you can also get the rating and slope by calling the course.

3. Subtract the course rating from the score you earned on that course.

4. Multiply that number by 113.

5. Divide that number by the slope of the course. This number is the differential.

6. Take the lowest of your five differentials and multiply it by 0.96, and you have your handicap.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have more than five scores, you will need to use a slightly different calculation. If you have seven scores, average your two lowest differentials and then multiply by 0.96. If you have eight scores, you take your two lowest differentials and multiply by 0.96. If you have nine scores, average the three lowest differentials and multiply the result by 0.96 to get your handicap.
• The above formula holds until you get to 20 scores. Once you have 20 or more scores, use the most recent 20 scores and average the 10 lowest differentials, multiplying the result by 0.96 to calculate your handicap.
• As you may have figured out from the above, recalculating your handicap every time you play can be time-consuming and annoying. There are several Web sites and software packages that will do the leg work for you.
• This handicap calculation is only an estimate. Official United States Golf Association (USGA) handicaps can only be given out by authorized USGA clubs - no online services offer official USGA handicaps.

Resources

• Golf Handicap
• Track your golf handicap on GolfLink.com.

Who Can Help Sponsored

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[edrhow]

on 6/25/2009 Great article. Here are some more interesting numbers.
http://www.squidoo.com/improve_your_golf_game

[goseese]

on 4/2/2009 www.10thgreen.com allows you to calculate your handicap and see how you rank with other golfers from around the US. Plus there is a Golf Rx form that lets you find videos on how to fix your golf ailments!

[Shama]

on 1/13/2008 The handicap tracker on www.GolfLink.com is a really useful tool for calculating your handicap online. Really easy to use too.

[cat123]

on 9/17/2007 OK I've figured out my handicap baqsed on your 6 steps. based on the info which turned out to be 17.3, how do I adjust my handicap when I get my next score? Like maybe tomorrow &/or Thursday. How do I factor in the 17.3 with the next score I get?

[duffer79]

on 10/18/2006 Another great new site that does the handicap calculations for you and provides other rich charting and analysis is www.oobgolf.com