How Golf Scoring Works: Par, Birdies, Handicaps and Match Play

Each hole is given a par, the number of strokes an expert golfer is expected to need to complete it, and the figure depends mainly on length. A par 3 is short enough to reach the green with one shot, a par 4 needs two, a par 5 needs three, in each case followed by two putts. A standard course has 18 holes with a mixture of the three, adding up to a par of around 70 to 72.

Scores are then read against par. A player who takes 68 strokes on a par-72 course is four under par, written as minus 4. A player who takes 75 is three over. On the leaderboard at a professional tournament the numbers in red or with a minus sign are under par and are the ones to watch; the total is cumulative across the four rounds of the event, so a player at minus 12 after three days has beaten par by twelve strokes so far.

Each hole's score has a name. One under par is a birdie, a term that began as American slang around 1900, when bird meant something excellent. Two under is an eagle and three under is an albatross, the names growing in rarity with the birds. A hole in one is an ace and, on a par 3, also an eagle. Going the other way, one over par is a bogey, two over a double bogey, three over a triple, and beyond that most players stop counting in names.

A round can therefore be summarised as a string of these: four birdies, two bogeys and twelve pars is a round of two under. Television coverage is built around them, because a birdie on the eighteenth to win by one is a better story than 68 strokes.

Almost all professional tournaments use stroke play: add up every stroke over the round or the event, and the lowest total wins. A disastrous hole counts in full, so a single 9 can end a challenge. Ties for first are usually settled by a play-off over extra holes.

Match play is older and works hole by hole. Two players or two sides compete on each hole, the lower score wins that hole, and the match is won by whoever wins more holes. A player leading by more holes than remain has won, which produces results such as 4 and 3, meaning four holes ahead with three to play. Since a hole is either won or halved regardless of the margin, a 9 costs the same as a bogey, and the strategy changes accordingly. The Ryder Cup between Europe and the United States is match play, which is why its scores look nothing like an ordinary tournament's.

Golf's handicap system lets players of different abilities compete on level terms, something few other sports manage. A handicap is a number that estimates how many strokes over par a player typically shoots; a 15-handicap golfer usually scores around 15 over. In a handicap competition each player subtracts their handicap from their gross score to get a net score, and the net scores are compared. The 15-handicapper who shoots 87 has a net 72 and beats a scratch player who shoots 73.

Since 2020 most of the world has used the World Handicap System, which averages the best eight of a player's last twenty rounds and adjusts for how hard each course is. Courses carry two ratings for this: a course rating for a scratch golfer and a slope rating that says how much harder it plays for weaker players. Handicaps are also used within a round, with strokes allocated to the hardest holes first according to each hole's stroke index.

A scorecard lists each hole's number, length, par and stroke index, with space for the player's score. Golfers mark each other's cards in competition rather than their own, and signing an incorrect card is one of the game's few disqualifying offences. Most rules that cost strokes are penalties: one stroke for a ball lost or hit into water, taken from where it entered, and two strokes for most other infringements in stroke play. Putting it together, the words on a leaderboard mean:

• •Par: the expected strokes for the hole or course
• •Birdie, eagle, albatross: one, two, three under par on a hole
• •Bogey, double bogey: one, two over par on a hole
• •Minus 6 (or 6 under): total strokes six fewer than the course's par
• •4 and 3: a match-play win, four holes up with three left
• •Net score: gross strokes minus handicap

Many amateur competitions use neither plain stroke play nor match play but Stableford, a points system named after Dr Frank Stableford, an English club golfer, and in wide use since the 1930s. Each hole earns points according to your score relative to par once your handicap strokes are applied: none for a net double bogey or worse, one for a net bogey, two for a net par, three for a net birdie and four for a net eagle. The points are added up at the end and, unlike every other golf score, the highest total wins. Playing exactly to your handicap produces 36 points.

The appeal is that a disaster costs no more than a zero. Once you cannot score a point on a hole you simply pick up your ball and move on, which speeds up play and spares weaker golfers from recording a 10 or 11. Suppose you receive one stroke on a par 4 and take 6 shots: your net score is 5, a net bogey, worth one point. Take 4 on the same hole and your net 3 is a birdie worth three. Professional golf has occasionally used a variant called modified Stableford, with points that reward aggressive play more heavily.

Golf is usually thought of as a solo game, but several formats let two or more players share a score. In foursomes, also called alternate shot, two partners play a single ball and take turns hitting it, with one teeing off on the odd-numbered holes and the other on the even ones. A partner's wayward drive becomes your awkward second shot, which makes foursomes a test of trust as much as skill. In fourballs, each partner plays their own ball throughout and the team records the better of the two scores on each hole.

The Ryder Cup mixes these: its first two days are foursomes and fourball matches, and the final day is individual singles, all in match play. At charity days and club socials the favourite is the scramble. Every player in the team tees off, the group picks the best drive, and everyone plays their next shot from that spot, repeating the choice until the ball is holed. Because the team always plays its best shot, scramble scores are far lower than any individual would manage, and beginners can contribute without slowing the group down.

A Handicap Index is not the number of strokes you receive on the day; it has to be converted for the course in front of you. The formula multiplies the Index by the course's slope rating divided by 113, the slope of a course of average difficulty, then adds the difference between the course rating and par. Suppose your Index is 12.0 and you play a course with a slope of 130, a course rating of 72.5 and a par of 71. Twelve times 130 over 113 is 13.8, adding 1.5 gives 15.3, and that rounds to a course handicap of 15.

The Index itself is built from score differentials. After a round, subtract the course rating from your adjusted score and multiply the result by 113 divided by the slope. Shoot 88 on the same course and the differential is 88 minus 72.5, which is 15.5, times 113 over 130, giving about 13.5. The adjusted score matters because the system caps any single hole at a net double bogey, so a 10 on a par 4 is counted as something much smaller. That cap stops one disastrous hole from distorting an Index that is meant to reflect what you can play to, not your worst day.

Golf counts every stroke and the lowest total wins, but scores are read against par, the expert's expected number for each hole, which gives the birdie and bogey vocabulary. Stroke play adds everything up, match play counts holes won, and the handicap system subtracts a player's usual excess over par so that golfers of any standard can compete fairly.