Handicaps and scoring
Parful runs thisGross and net scores
Also called Net score, Gross score, Net scoring.
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.
- Gross
- The strokes you took, before any handicap
- Net, per hole
- Gross on the hole minus the strokes you receive there
- Net, for the round
- The sum of the net holes, or gross minus Playing Handicap™
- Ranked by
- Gross, net or both, decided per competition
- Stableford
- Always computed from net, never from gross
- Skins
- Defaults to gross on Parful, and can be run net
The two numbers
Gross is the honest count: every stroke, every penalty, nothing removed. It is the number that goes in the box on the card and the number that decides a scratch competition.
Net subtracts the handicap strokes you receive. Done hole by hole, it is your gross on that hole minus the strokes the stroke index gives you there. Done for the round, the two arrive at the same place: the sum of your net holes equals your gross total minus your Playing Handicap™, because the allocation hands out exactly that many strokes. That equality is useful. It means a card entered as a total only still produces a correct net total even though nobody typed hole scores.
Why net exists
Golf is unusual in letting a 24 handicapper and a 4 handicapper play the same competition and both have a real chance. Net scoring is the mechanism. Without it a club competition is a private contest between the best half dozen players and everyone else is filling in a card.
The trade is that net rewards the player closest to their potential on the day rather than the best golfer, which is why most clubs run a gross prize alongside a net one. The two answer different questions and it is normal for two different people to win them.
Which formats use which
Stableford is computed from net without exception: the points table compares your net score on a hole against its par. Par and bogey competitions and every quota format do the same. Stroke play can be ranked either way, and a club championship commonly ranks both, awarding a gross champion and a net winner from one field.
Match play uses neither total. It compares the two players hole by hole, with strokes given on the difference, so a match is won three and two rather than by a score. Skins is decided hole by hole as well, and Parful defaults it to gross so the game rewards the shot rather than the handicap, with net available when a group prefers it.
How Parful runs it
Every Parful card carries both numbers. The scorer enters gross, because that is what a golfer counts, and net is derived from the strokes already placed on the card. Leaderboards rank on whichever axis the competition was set up for, and where a competition ranks gross the net leader is still shown so a club can hand out both prizes without running the field twice.
On a completed outing the day prizes are derived the same way: low gross, low net and best Stableford come off the same cards, and by default a player can win more than one of them.
Worked example
A worked example: two players, one nine
Ana plays off a Playing Handicap™ of 4, so she receives a stroke on the four lowest stroke indexes. Ben plays off 18 and receives one on every hole.
| Hole | Par | Stroke index | Ana gross | Ana net | Ben gross | Ben net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 |
| 2 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 7 |
| 3 | 3 | 17 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| 5 | 4 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 |
| 6 | 3 | 15 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 7 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6 |
| 8 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| 9 | 4 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
- Ana receives strokes only on holes 2, 4, 7 and 8, the four with the lowest stroke index on this nine.
- Ben's net 2 on the sixth is a net birdie on a par 3, worth 3 points in Stableford. Gross it was only a par.
Common variants
- Net of par, or to par
- Leaderboards often show net relative to par (a net 68 on a par 72 shows as −4) rather than as a total. It is the same number presented differently.
- Gross competitions
- A scratch or championship division sets handicaps aside entirely. Parful supports a gross ranking on any stroke play competition.
- Adjusted gross
- For handicap purposes a gross score is capped hole by hole before it is posted. That capped figure is the adjusted gross, and it is a separate page.