What is a good handicap?

For a recreational golfer, a Handicap Index between about 10 and 20 is a solid, ordinary game. You make some pars, you make a lot of bogeys, and a bad hole does not have to ruin the card. Lower is not a moral score. It is just fewer strokes.

The index is closer to your better rounds than to the score you tell your friends. With a full record it is the average of your best 8 differentials out of the last 20, not the average of every round. Most golfers therefore shoot a few strokes higher than the index on a typical day. A 15 index is not a promise of 87. On a course rated near par 72 with a slope near 113, the better rounds cluster around the high 80s, and an ordinary day can sit in the 90s.

A rough map

• Scratch to about 5. You are playing a different game from most of the Saturday field. Pars are normal and birdies show up.
• About 6 to 12. A single-figure or low-teen index. You threaten the 80s when the driver behaves.
• About 13 to 20. The middle of recreational golf. Bogey is a fine result. Doubles happen, and they are what the net-double-bogey cap is for when you post.
• About 21 to 30. Still a complete round of golf. The index is doing its job if you can play a net match with a lower player and both of you have a chance.
• Above 30, up to 54. The maximum index is 54.0. A high number is allowed. It is not a reason to skip posting.

What “good” is not

It is not the low number from one holiday round, and it is not the score you carded when you picked up on three holes. An official index uses adjusted scores from a real scoring record. The calculator on this site will estimate one from the rounds you type. It will not issue one.

Open the golf handicap calculator. For strokes on a specific course, use the course handicap calculator.