Handicaps
Three numbers wear the name "handicap," and they're not interchangeable. Here's the chain from the number you carry around to the strokes you actually get on Saturday.
1 · Handicap Index (HI)
The portable one. Your Handicap Index is the World Handicap System's measure of your potential ability — roughly, the average of the best 8 of your last 20 score differentials. It travels with you to any course, but it's not the number of strokes you get anywhere. It's the input.
2 · Course Handicap (CH)
The same golfer needs more strokes on a brutal course than an easy one, so your index gets converted for the tees you're actually playing:
CH = HI × (Slope ÷ 113) + (Course Rating − Par) HI 12.0 · Slope 130 · Rating 71.5 · Par 72 CH = 12.0 × (130/113) + (71.5 − 72) = 13.3 → 13
Slope measures how much harder the course plays for a bogey golfer than a scratch golfer (113 is the baseline); the rating-minus-par term adjusts for courses that simply play harder or easier than par. Try your own numbers in our free calculator.
3 · Playing Handicap — the format allowance
Team formats don't use your full course handicap, because formats where only your good holes count (like best ball) over-reward volatility. Each format applies an allowance:
| Format | Allowance |
|---|---|
| Stroke play (individual & team modes) | 100% of CH |
| Singles match play | 100% of the difference — low player scratch |
| Best ball (four-ball) — match | 90% of the difference off the low player |
| Best ball (four-ball) — stroke | 85% of own CH |
| Foursomes | 50% of partners' combined CH (match: team difference) |
| Scramble — 2 players | 35% low + 15% high |
| Scramble — 3 players | 30% + 20% + 10% (low → high) |
| Scramble — 4 players | 25% + 20% + 15% + 10% (low → high) |
| BL Cutthroat (net) | 100% of CH, or the difference off the low player |
Round once, at the end
Here's the detail that quietly changes results: allowances are applied to the exact, unrounded course handicap, and the result is rounded once. Round too early and you get a different — wrong — number:
Exact CH 12.4, four-ball stroke play (85%): Right: 12.4 × 0.85 = 10.54 → 11 strokes Wrong: 12.4 → 12 first, then 12 × 0.85 = 10.2 → 10 strokes
(And .5 rounds up: a 22.5 playing handicap becomes 23.)
Where the strokes land
A playing handicap of 7 doesn't mean seven strokes off your total — it means one stroke on each of the seven hardest-rated holes, per the scorecard's stroke index row. More than 18? The extras wrap around: a 20 gets two strokes on stroke index 1–2 and one everywhere else. That per-hole placement is what makes net skins, match play, and per-hole team scoring work.
Bogey Logger snapshots each player's exact course handicap when the round starts, applies the right allowance for your format, rounds once, and shows the stroke dots on the live scorecard. You never do this math on a napkin.
Try the calculator
Free course handicap calculator — single player or match play strokes, right in your browser.
Open the calculator