Handicaps and scoring
Rules and explanation onlyAdjusted gross score
Also called Adjusted gross, AGS golf, Score posted for handicap.
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.
- Definition
- Gross score after each hole is capped at net double bogey and unplayed holes are filled in
- Feeds
- Score Differential™ = (113 ÷ Slope Rating™) × (adjusted gross − Course Rating™ − PCC)
- Direction
- Adjusted gross is less than or equal to the gross, never more
- Club rounds on Parful
- Recorded with the raw gross as the adjusted gross, PCC 0
- Imported network rounds
- Carry the network's adjusted gross and differential as delivered
- On Parful
- Not computed. Recorded as described
What the adjusted gross score is
The gross score is what the player shot. The adjusted gross score is what the handicap system is willing to believe. Under the World Handicap System™ a hole can count for no more than net double bogey, par plus 2 plus the strokes received on that hole, when a round is posted for handicap. A hole started but not finished is given the score the player was most likely to make, and an unplayed hole is given net par. Once every hole has been through those rules, the total is the adjusted gross score.
The competition never sees it. In stroke play the player's 96 is a 96. The adjusted gross is a handicap number only, and it exists so that one ruined hole does not drag a Handicap Index® upward for months.
How it feeds the differential
The Score Differential™ for a round is (113 ÷ Slope Rating™) × (adjusted gross score − Course Rating™ − Playing Conditions Calculation). The adjusted gross is the only part of that formula the player controls, so a cap on one hole changes the differential directly. Three strokes trimmed on a slope of 128 lower the differential by 3 × 113 ÷ 128, about 2.6. The index averages the best differentials of the last twenty, so the caps shape it just as the good rounds do.
What Parful records, honestly
Parful does not compute an adjusted gross score. When a club outing is finalized, Parful records a differential for each participant with a handicap, and the figure it stores as the adjusted gross is the raw gross from the card, with the Playing Conditions Calculation set to 0. If the outing ran the net double bogey cap mode, the card gross was already held at the cap hole by hole as scores went in, so the two numbers agree by construction. If the outing ran hole out, the raw gross is posted as it stands, capped nowhere, and the recorded differential is higher than a true adjusted figure would give.
Rounds imported from the handicap network arrive with the network's adjusted gross and the network's differential already computed, and Parful stores both as delivered, falling back to the gross only when the adjusted figure is missing. On a player's round history an imported round therefore carries a true adjusted gross and a club round carries its gross twice.
How a player can read the difference
A player's handicap page lists each round with its date, course, gross and differential. To check whether a round was capped, recompute the differential from the gross: (113 ÷ slope) × (gross − rating). On a club round recorded by Parful the arithmetic reproduces the listed differential exactly, because gross and adjusted gross are the same number. On an imported network round the recomputed figure comes out higher than the listed differential whenever a hole was capped, and the gap, multiplied by slope ÷ 113, is the number of strokes the network trimmed.
What Parful does
Parful does not run adjusted gross scoring. It does not cap posted scores after the fact, does not fill in unplayed holes for handicap and does not write scores back to any handicap network. It records every finalized club round with its gross, the tee's slope and rating and a differential computed from that gross, keeps imported network rounds with their true adjusted figures, and shows the player the list so they can see where each number came from. The net double bogey cap mode on an outing is the one place a club round's gross is held at the cap, and there it is held on the card itself, not adjusted afterwards.
Worked example
A worked example: two rounds of 91 on the same tee
Blue tees: Slope Rating™ 128, Course Rating™ 71.2. Maria shot 91 at a club outing that ran hole out, and 91 a week later in a round she posted to her handicap network, where two holes were capped for a total of 3 strokes.
| Round | Gross | Adjusted gross | Differential arithmetic | Differential |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club outing (Parful, hole out) | 91 | 91 (raw gross recorded) | (113 ÷ 128) × (91 − 71.2 − 0) = 0.883 × 19.8 | 17.5 |
| Network round (imported) | 91 | 88 (capped by the network) | (113 ÷ 128) × (88 − 71.2 − 0) = 0.883 × 16.8 | 14.8 |
| Difference | 0 | 3 strokes | 3 × 113 ÷ 128 = 2.65 | 2.7 after rounding |
- Recomputing the network round from its gross gives 17.5, not the listed 14.8. That gap is how a player can tell the round was capped.
- Had the club outing run the net double bogey cap mode, Maria's two 8s would have been held at their caps on the card and the club differential would have matched.
Common variants
- Nine-hole adjusted gross
- Under the World Handicap System™ a nine-hole round is adjusted the same way and then scaled to an 18-hole differential. Parful scores nine-hole rounds but does not post them for handicap, so no nine-hole adjusted gross is recorded.
- Pre-2020 adjusted gross
- Before 2020 the adjusted gross score was the gross with Equitable Stroke Control applied, a flat per-hole cap by handicap band rather than net double bogey. Same idea, different cap.
- Most likely score
- A hole started but not finished, such as a conceded putt in match play, is posted as the strokes taken plus the strokes usually needed from there, capped at net double bogey. Parful does not fill in most likely scores.