How to Calculate a Golf Handicap

Play five rounds of 18-hole golf or take the scores from your last five rounds of 18-hole golf. The five rounds are what are commonly used to calculate a handicap. If you were to take the scores from more or fewer than five rounds, there would be a different formula and it would not be as accurate.

Consult the scorecard or call the course clubhouse to find the rating and slope for each course you played during the five rounds. This might seem a little odd, but not every course is as easy as the next. You might shoot 5-under par at an easier course, but at Pebble Beach, you might shoot 15-over par. The difficulty of the course has to be taken into account to measure different golfers against each other.

Take the scores you shot at each course and subtract the golf course's rating from that number. Make sure to use the correct course rating for each score or your handicap will be skewed--and not necessarily in your favor.

Get the product of each of the five numbers you calculated in Step 3 multiplied by 113. The 113 is the universal number used for official U.S. Golf Association handicaps, although it might seem a little arbitrary.

Find what is commonly referred to as the golf differential by dividing each of the five numbers you have after steps 3 and 4 by the slope rating of the courses.

Take the lowest of the five numbers you calculated in Step 5 and multiply by "0.96." Once you have this number, disregard any decimals after the second number and this is your golf handicap.