How to Calculate Golf Scores
By Steve Silverman
Keeping score in golf should be relatively simple. However, a scorekeeper not only has to keep track of his own score, but must record the scores of his playing partners. This can get dicey if there are disagreements.
Instructions
Difficulty: Moderate
Write down the score every player gets on every hole. Add these scores up and apprise the players of where they stand at the 9-hole mark and at every critical point in the match. This is called medal play and it is the way most pro tournaments are connected.
Check with each player at the end of every hole to make sure you have the right score. It's your job to try and keep track, but you may not see every shot taken. If you and another player have a disagreement, go for the hole on shot-by-shot basis. If you are wrong, admit it and move on. If you are right, go with it and move to the next hole.
Keep a match-play scorecard by going hole-by-hole with your playing partner. If you score a 4 on the first hole and he shoots a 7, you are plus-1 going into the second hole. If you shoot a 6 on the second hole and he shoots a 5, you are now even. It doesn't matter that you won your hole by three strokes and he won by one. The match continues until one player is ahead by more holes than there are left to play. If a player is plus-4 going into the 14th hole and and he wins that hole, the match is over because he is plus-5 with just four holes to play.
Write down the number of putt in the top corner of each scoring box. Say a player has shot a 5 on the first hole and two-putted the hole. Write down a large 5 in the middle of the scoring box and a small 2 in the upper right corner. This way a player can keep track of the putts he has taken in a particular match or tournament.
Write down the player's handicap next to his name. Any player who turns in 10 scores or more to the United States Golf Association (USGA) gets a handicap index number. At the end of the round, you subtract the handicap index from the gross score. A player who shot 88 with a handicap of 12 has a net score of 76. A player who shot 82 with a handicap of 7 has a net score of 75.
Tips & Warnings
Go over each player's score on a hole-by-hole basis to avoid disputes.
About The Author
Steve Silverman is an award-winning writer, covering sports since 1980. Silverman authored The Minnesota Vikings: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Who's Better, Who's Best in Football -- The Top 60 Players of All-Time, among others, and placed in the Pro Football Writers of America awards three times. Silverman holds a Master of Science in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism.
