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A golf handicap, to put it simply, is a numerical measure of a golfer’s playing ability on a particular course. This number is used to make it more competitive between two golfers who want to compete on the same course, but one is better than the other. Below I will attempt to explain how to calculate your own handicap by hand (aside from being crazy, why on earth would you want to do this by hand?!).
I’m going to layout what the formula is for deriving your handicap for a particular course and in the next sections define what each of these numbers mean.
Course Handicap = Handicap index * Slope Rating / 113
Some Example Data
To help assist in this exercise, I’ll give some example data here which should help make some sense out of all of this.
Gross scores (these scores have been adjusted by ESC. Assume this golfer has a handicap index of 25 which means they can get a max of 8 strokes per hole): 85, 89, 82, 80, 79
Course Rating: 68.3
Course Slope: 115
Based on the above data, we will be using 5 rounds to calculate this golfer’s handicap differential.
Handicap Differential
The handicap differential is used to determine your handicap index. It takes between 5-20 rounds of golf to determine your handicap. If you play 5 rounds of golf, you can use your lowest 1 differential to determine your handicap. If you play 20 rounds, you will take the average of your lowest 20 differentials. To determine your handicap differential, see the following formula:
Handicap differential = ( ESC score – course rating) × 113 / (slope rating).
See below for determining your ESC Score. Your ESC score is your adjusted gross score for handicap determination purposes only. Once you’ve figured out your ESC Score, you can determine your handicap differential.
Using our example data from before, since the golfer played 5 rounds, we will be using the lowest differential. We first need to calculate each differential to determine which is the lowest.
Handicap differential = (85 – 68.3) x 113 / 115 = 16.4
(89 – 68.3) x 113 / 115 = 20.3
(82 – 68.3) x 113 / 115 = 13.5
(80 – 68.3) x 113 / 115 = 11.5
(79 – 68.3) x 113 / 115 = 10.5
Obviously this data is all based on the same course, so we’re really only changing the adjusted gross score. In a real world scenario, each handicap differential would likely have different course rating and slope. In our example, however, we’ll be taking 10.5 as our handicap differential.
ESC stands for Equitable Score Control. It is used so a golfer who has a really bad hole doesn’t effect his handicap dramatically. It is only used in helping calculate handicap differential. If you don’t have a handicap index, use 8 for a maximum per hole score.
It’s important to clarify that a handicap is used on a per course basis. A golfer’s handicap index is what is commonly referred to as a golfer’s handicap. When someone asks “What’s your handicap?” they’re usually referring to your handicap index.
To derive your handicap index, use the average of the best 10 differentials of your past 20 total rounds, multiplied by 0.96. If you haven’t played 20 rounds, see our table above under the handicap differential section to determine how many differentials you need to use for the amount of rounds you have played.
Based on our example handicap differential, we’ll be using 10.5 x 0.96. This gives us a handicap index of 10.1.
For the course handicap, it is calculate using the following formula:
Course Handicap = Handicap index * Slope Rating / 113
So for our example golfer on this particular course:
10.1 x 115 / 113 = 10.3
So in the end, our golfer has a 10.3 handicap on this course after playing it for 5 rounds.
The slope rating is the USGA mark that indicates the measurement of the relative difficulty for a bogey golfer compared to the course rating. Slope rating is computed from the difference between the bogey rating and the course rating. The lowest slope rating is 55 and the highest is 155. The average slope rating is 113. To compute the handicap strokes from a given set of tees on a specific course with a slope of “s” given a handicap index of “h,” the following formula is used: (s/113)*h rounded to the nearest integer.
The rating of a particular course is a number generally between 67 and 77 that is used to measure the average “good score” by a scratch golfer on that course
In summary, golf handicapping is a very complicated science used to help bad players compete with better players. There really are three main steps in calculating your own handicap:
Step 1: Calculate your latest 5-20 differentials based on their adjusted gross scores
Step 2: Based on the amount of rounds you are using, calculate the average of the lowest differentials. If using 5 rounds, just use the lowest differential.
Step 3: Multiply the average of the differentials by 0.96. The number you arrive at is your handicap index. All that’s left to do now is get the slope and course rating for your course, plug in your handicap index and you have your overall handicap.
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