Tools

Golf Handicap Calculator

Enter your recent scores and get an estimated Handicap Index straight away. Want it exact? Add each course's rating and slope and it follows the World Handicap System to the letter.

Add a few recent rounds and type your total score for each. Three or more gives you an estimate.

    Your estimated Handicap Index

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    Enter at least three scores to estimate your Handicap Index.

    Understand one round → Score Differential Convert it for a course → Course Handicap

    How your Handicap Index is calculated

    Under the World Handicap System, every round turns into a Score Differential — how good the round was relative to the difficulty of the tees you played:

    Score Differential = (Adjusted Gross Score − Course Rating) × 113 ÷ Slope Rating

    Your Handicap Index is the average of your best Score Differentials. With a full record of 20 rounds, it uses the lowest 8. With fewer than 20, the system uses fewer differentials and, for very short records, nudges the number up slightly so a couple of good rounds can't flatter you:

    • 3 scores → lowest 1, minus 2.0
    • 4 scores → lowest 1, minus 1.0
    • 5 scores → lowest 1
    • 6 scores → average of the lowest 2, minus 1.0
    • 7–8 → lowest 2  ·  9–11 → lowest 3  ·  12–14 → lowest 4
    • 15–16 → lowest 5  ·  17–18 → lowest 6  ·  19 → lowest 7  ·  20 → lowest 8

    How to read the result

    In the simple view, every round assumes a standard Course Rating of 72.0 and a Slope Rating of 113, so a score of 90 counts as a differential of 18. That's a fair estimate, but real courses differ — open “Add course rating & slope” and enter the numbers from each scorecard (or the course's tee information) and the result becomes a true WHS calculation.

    This is an estimate to help you understand your game. Your official Handicap Index is the one your golf association maintains; it also applies safeguards — a playing-conditions calculation, caps on sharp rises, and exceptional-score reductions — that need your full history. For the differential itself, the World Handicap System uses your Adjusted Gross Score, where any hole worse than a net double bogey is capped; for most rounds your actual score and your adjusted score are the same.

    Curious about the building block behind all of this? Try the Score Differential calculator, then turn your index into strokes for a given tee with the Course Handicap calculator.