Golf handicap calculator

Enter your scores with the course rating and slope for each round and this works out your Handicap Index under the World Handicap System. No account, nothing saved, and the arithmetic is printed below so you can check it rather than trust it.

How a handicap is calculated

Two steps. Every round becomes a Score Differential, then your lowest few differentials are averaged.

score differential = (adjusted gross score − course rating) × 113 ÷ slope rating

The 113 is the slope of a course of standard difficulty, so the multiplication rescales every round onto the same footing. Take the first round below: 92 on a course rated 71.2 with a slope of 128 works out at 18.4. Shoot the same 92 on an easier course and the differential goes up, because the round was worth less.

A worked example

Five rounds, differentials worked out for each, then averaged under the rule for five scores:

How many rounds count

The number of differentials that go into the average depends on how many you have posted. Three rounds is the minimum, and the early adjustments exist because a small sample flatters you.

At twenty rounds it settles: the lowest eight, no adjustment. That is the number most golfers mean when they say their handicap. The maximum index the system issues is 54.

Index against course handicap

Your Handicap Index travels with you. The strokes you actually receive do not: those come from the tee you are playing.

course handicap = index × (slope ÷ 113) + (course rating − par)

An index of 14.5 on a course rated 71.2 against a par of 72 with a slope of 128 gives a course handicap of 16. On a harder set of tees it rises, which is the entire point: the strokes follow the difficulty. Convert your own index for any tee.

Scratch, plus, and what each means

A scratch golfer has a Handicap Index of 0.0. It does not mean shooting par: it means playing to the course rating, which on this course is 71.2, so a scratch golfer is expected to average slightly under par here and their course handicap comes out at -1. A plus handicap is better still, written with a plus sign, and those golfers give strokes back to the course rather than receiving them: an index of +2 gives a course handicap of -3 here.

At the other end the system issues indexes up to 54, which exists so a beginner can hold a real handicap from their first three cards rather than waiting until they are good enough for one.

Every handicap, priced

One page per handicap from 1 to 36: what it shoots, where the strokes go on Broadie’s published split, the course handicap on four typical tees, the club distances the model gives it, and what it takes to move five strokes.

• 1 handicap
• 2 handicap
• 3 handicap
• 4 handicap
• 5 handicap
• 6 handicap
• 7 handicap
• 8 handicap
• 9 handicap
• 10 handicap
• 11 handicap
• 12 handicap
• 13 handicap
• 14 handicap
• 15 handicap
• 16 handicap
• 17 handicap
• 18 handicap
• 19 handicap
• 20 handicap
• 21 handicap
• 22 handicap
• 23 handicap
• 24 handicap
• 25 handicap
• 26 handicap
• 27 handicap
• 28 handicap
• 29 handicap
• 30 handicap
• 31 handicap
• 32 handicap
• 33 handicap
• 34 handicap
• 35 handicap
• 36 handicap

Allowances by format

Competitions apply a percentage of your course handicap so the format stays fair. These are the standard allowances:

What the number cannot tell you

A handicap is one number for your whole game, so it says nothing about which part of it is costing you. Two golfers with the same index can be four strokes apart off the tee and four the other way on the greens. That is what strokes gained separates, and the benchmark tables show what each handicap gives up and where.

This calculator is not an official handicap. For an index that counts in competition you need scores posted with an authorised club or association.

If you are working the other way round and want to know what a given score says about your handicap, that table runs the same arithmetic backwards.