Scoring In Golf Now, Improving Your Final Score

The golf handicap has been around for a long time as a way of presenting a more challenging game for players of varying skill levels. The handicap is a means of removing strokes from your own score in a fair way that should leave you even with a player who is better than you but running on a lower handicap. If you were to have a round of golf now, do you know what your handicap is?

The par of a course is number of strokes a 'scratch golfer' is expected to complete the course, a 'scratch golfer' being a player with a 0 handicap. A handicap is how many strokes over that par score you are expected to make in a round of golf.

A round played under a handicap will measure improvement over skill as the handicap itself will remove the skill difference between the players. This means if you are playing against a better overall golfer with a lower handicap you are able to win the round by playing beyond your normal skill level even if that improvement is still not up to the standards of the better golfer.

The even competition of players who vary in skill keeps a friendly and competitive attitude in the sport, by allowing a player who improves in a round to be able to beat those who may be more skilled overall. It will reward a player for improving even if they are not the best there is, as your handicap lowers you can feel that you are getting better as a golfer.

If you are interested in how to calculate your handicap you will need to know the course rating and your performance on your last few rounds. If you have that subtract the course rating from your own score and then multiply by 113. Take that value which is known as your differential, find the lowest in your past few rounds and multiply by 0.96. The result you are left with if your handicap index.

If you are aware of your own handicap index you are able to use this value to calculate your handicap on a particular course. Find the course slope and divide it by 113, once you have that number multiply it by your handicap score and you will have your handicap for that particular round.

the idea of the handicap is that if you are a player who is playing consistently to your handicap you should always end up with a score of 0. The score is the number of stokes you are outside of the course par. If you are over par just add the number of strokes over par and if you are under par just subtract the number of strokes under. Keep track of that throughout the round and you will be left with your score.

As a golfer you want to constantly be improving your handicap as it will signify an improvement in your own skills. It will also allow you to see easily if a player is better or worse than you if you play a round with them, as relying on a single result does not take into account wild variations in skills that can occur with luck. A lower handicap also indicated consistency as to lower your handicap you would need to play consistently at that level for it to be adapted into your handicap.