Your handicap
Course handicap
Handicap Index from your scores
Up to your last 20 rounds, newest at the top. Score is your adjusted gross score, where net double bogey is the most you count on any hole. CR is the course rating. PCC is the playing conditions adjustment, usually 0.
| # | Score | CR | Slope | PCC | Diff. |
|---|
A course handicap calculator tells you how many shots you get today, on these tees. Your handicap index might be 18.4, but on a tough course with a 135 slope you’ll get more than 18, and on a short parkland course you’ll get fewer. Enter the slope and course rating from the card and this free calculator gives you the course handicap, then the playing handicap after the competition allowance.
Course handicap calculator: the formula
Since the World Handicap System came in, every course works the same way:
Course handicap = handicap index × slope rating ÷ 113 + (course rating − par)
Slope 113 is the “average” course. An 18.4 index on a slope of 125 with a 71.2 rating and par 72 comes out at 18.4 × 125 ÷ 113 − 0.8 = 19.55, rounded to 20. Move to the yellow tees with a 118 slope and a 69.9 rating, and it drops to 17.
Then the format’s allowance. Most singles competitions use 95%, so a course handicap of 20 plays off 19. Fourball better ball uses 85%. The calculator does both and rounds the way WHS does, to the nearest whole number.
Working out your handicap index
The table under the calculator does what your club’s system does with your last 20 rounds. For each one it works out a score differential:
Differential = (113 ÷ slope) × (adjusted gross score − course rating − PCC)
Your index is the average of the best 8 differentials out of 20. A 92 on a 71.2 / 125 course is a differential of 18.8. Fewer than 20 rounds? WHS uses fewer of them, and takes a little off at the very start:
| Rounds | Best used | Adjustment |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | −2.0 |
| 4 | 1 | −1.0 |
| 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 6 | average of 2 | −1.0 |
| 7–8 | 2 | 0 |
| 9–11 | 3 | 0 |
| 12–14 | 4 | 0 |
| 15–16 | 5 | 0 |
| 17–18 | 6 | 0 |
| 19 | 7 | 0 |
| 20 | 8 | 0 |
The differentials that count are highlighted. Press “Use this index above” to carry it straight into the course handicap.
What the calculator leaves out
Your official index also has caps: a soft cap that slows rises more than 3 shots above your lowest index of the past year, and a hard cap at 5. It can also drop by 1 to 3 shots after an exceptional round. Those need a year of history, so this page doesn’t apply them, and the number your club shows is the one that counts. Adjusted gross score means net double bogey is the most you count on a hole, so a 9 on a par 4 where you get one shot goes in as a 7.
Next, put the handicap to work: the Stableford calculator scores a round hole by hole.