Parful

Parful library

Handicaps and scoring, without the fog

The arithmetic behind every net score, written out with real numbers. What an index is, how it becomes strokes on your card, where the caps are and what Parful does at each step.

21 terms in 4 groups.

21 terms, grouped below

From index to strokes on the card

6

The chain every net score runs through.

  • Course Handicap™

    A Course Handicap™ is your Handicap Index® translated to the tees you are playing today: index times the Slope Rating™ divided by 113, plus the difference between the Course Rating™ and par, rounded to a whole number. It is the number of strokes the course gives you before any format allowance.

    Parful runs this

  • Gross and net scores

    Your gross score is the strokes you actually took. Your net score is that number minus the handicap strokes you received. Gross decides who played best on the day; net decides who played best relative to their ability, which is the only way golfers of different standards can compete.

    Parful runs this

  • Handicap Index®

    A Handicap Index® is a measure of your demonstrated ability, carried between courses. Under the World Handicap System™ it is the average of the best 8 Score Differentials™ in your most recent 20 rounds, and it means nothing until it is converted to a Course Handicap™ for the tees you are playing.

    Parful runs this

  • Playing Handicap™

    A Playing Handicap™ is your Course Handicap™ after the format's allowance has been applied, rounded to a whole number. It is the last number in the chain and the one that actually puts strokes on your card. Four-ball at 85% turns a Course Handicap™ of 20 into 17 strokes.

    Parful runs this

  • Score Differential™

    A Score Differential™ measures one round against the difficulty of the tees played: 113 divided by the Slope Rating™, multiplied by your adjusted gross minus the Course Rating™. Your Handicap Index® is the average of the best 8 differentials in your last 20 rounds.

    Parful runs this, with a caveat

  • Stroke index and stroke allocation

    The stroke index ranks the eighteen holes from 1, the hardest, to 18, the easiest, and decides where your handicap strokes fall. A Playing Handicap™ of 12 gets one stroke on stroke index 1 through 12. Above 18 the allocation wraps: every hole takes one stroke before any hole takes a second.

    Parful runs this

Caps, tees and adjustments

6

The rules that change a number before it reaches the card.

  • Club maximum Course Handicap™

    A club can cap the Course Handicap™ any player receives in its competitions. The cap is applied to the Course Handicap™ before the format allowance, which is the only order in which it actually binds. Plus handicaps are never capped.

    Parful runs this

  • Mixed tees and the par adjustment

    When a field plays from different tees, the Course Handicap™ already accounts for most of the difference because it contains the Course Rating™. What it does not carry is a difference in par between the tees, so an adjustment adds the rounded par difference and nothing else.

    Parful runs this

  • Net double bogey, maximum score and pickups

    Net double bogey is the most any hole can count for handicap: par, plus two, plus the strokes you receive there. It is why you can pick up on a disaster hole without wrecking your card, and it is one of three cap rules a Parful outing can run.

    Parful runs this

  • Nine-hole rounds

    A nine-hole round takes half the strokes: a Playing Handicap™ of 12 receives one stroke on the six lowest stroke indexes of that nine, wrapping the same way an eighteen-hole allocation does. Parful scores nine holes completely, and does not yet post them for handicap.

    Parful runs this, with a caveat

  • Own tee or committee-designated tee

    In most formats every golfer plays their own tee and their handicap is computed for it. In formats where a side plays one ball there is no such thing as an individual tee, so the committee designates one for the side and every handicap in it is computed from that tee.

    Parful runs this

  • Plus handicaps

    A plus handicap belongs to a golfer who is better than scratch. It is written with a plus sign, as in +2.4, and it works in reverse: instead of receiving strokes the player gives them back, adding a stroke to their score on the easiest holes first.

    Parful runs this, with a caveat

Where a handicap comes from

4

Linked, manual, estimated, frozen or adjusted.

  • Handicap freeze

    A handicap freeze is a snapshot of every entrant's Handicap Index® taken at a moment the committee chooses, after which the frozen values are used for the whole competition regardless of how the live indexes move. It keeps the strokes between two players fixed from the first match to the final.

    Parful runs this

  • Per-outing handicap adjustment

    A per-outing handicap adjustment is an organizer's overlay on one player's Handicap Index® for one outing or event: a percentage (for example 90%) or a points offset (for example minus 2). It is applied before the Course Handicap™ is worked out, held between +10 and 54, recorded with a reason, and never changes the player's source index.

    Parful runs this

  • Team handicaps

    A team handicap is the single number a side plays off when it keeps one card. It is built from the players' Course Handicaps in one of three ways: a weighted split of the players in handicap order (scramble, greensomes, chapman), a percentage of the combined total (foursomes), or a percentage of each player separately (four-ball).

    Parful runs this

  • Where a handicap comes from

    A member's Handicap Index® on a Parful club roster is linked, meaning a handicap ID is on file and network sync can refresh it when the club turns sync on, or manual, meaning it is whatever the club last entered. Every change records its source (sync, CSV import, manual edit or wizard), a revision and an audit entry.

    Parful runs this

Guest-day handicap systems

5

Working out a handicap from the round just played, for a field with none.

  • Adjusted gross score

    An adjusted gross score is the score used for handicap purposes after every hole has been capped at net double bogey and any unplayed or unfinished holes have been given their handicap value. It is the number that goes into the Score Differential™, and it can be lower than the gross on the card but never higher.

    Rules and explanation only

  • Callaway System

    The Callaway System gives a player a handicap by throwing out their worst holes. How many are deducted depends on their gross score, read off a table, and an adjustment is applied at the end. The last two holes can never be thrown out.

    Parful runs this

  • Equitable Stroke Control

    Equitable Stroke Control was the USGA® rule, in force until 2020, that capped the score a player could post on any hole for handicap at a limit set by their Course Handicap™ band, from double bogey for the lowest handicaps up to 10 for the highest. The World Handicap System™ replaced it with net double bogey.

    Rules and explanation only

  • Peoria System

    Peoria draws six holes before the round, triples what each player scored on them, takes off the course par and applies 80%. That is the player's handicap for the day. The six holes must be fixed before anyone knows them, which is the whole integrity of the system.

    Parful runs this

  • System 36

    System 36 works out a handicap from the round just played: two points for a par or better, one for a bogey, nothing worse. Add the points and subtract them from 36, and that is the player's handicap for the day. It needs nothing decided in advance.

    Parful runs this

Trademarks

. GHIN® and USGA® are registered marks of the United States Golf Association. World Handicap System™, WHS™, Handicap Index®, Score Differential™, Low Handicap Index™, Course Handicap™, Playing Handicap™, Course Rating™, Bogey Rating™ and Slope Rating™ are trademarks and service marks owned or licensed by the United States Golf Association and The R&A. Ryder Cup® is a trademark of PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe. Pinehurst® is a trademark of Pinehurst, LLC. Parful is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of these organizations. Game names such as Stableford, Nassau, Wolf, Vegas and Skins are used descriptively.