A golf handicap is the measurement of your golfing ability and allows you to play against other golfers on a fair basis. It’s therefore an excellent measurement of how your game is improving and in an ideal world your handicap should always be reducing or staying the same – we did say ‘ideal’.
It is based on the number of strokes you take above a ‘scratch golf’, someone who plays off a zero handicap. Each time you play a round, your nett score is worked out on the total number of shots you took minus your golf handicap.
The handicap calculation does not penalise you for very bad days either and by using the buffer zones, your handicap will be adjusted after each round.
Within a round of golf, there a different ways to play, from stroke play to match play, greensomes, foursomes, but whether you play as an individual or part of a team, your playing golf handicap is used.