How to Read a Golf Score Card

Every golfer has to learn how to read a golf score card, irrespective of their handicap. In its simple form, a score card is simply a note of the number of shots you took to complete each hole. You generally add up the total for the front nine and the back nine separately, and the total for the two is that for your round.

So what is difficult about that? Well, there are some refinements which might not appear on every score card for every golf club, and some municipal golf courses open to the public offer only the simple score card with a box for every hole and a few lines for the different players. However, let's have a look at what you could expect to see on a reasonable detailed score card.

The first thing you will see is the name of the player and then a box for each of the holes, set out in two lots of nine, from holes 1 - 9 on one side of the card, and then 10- 18 on the other side. There is a column for the total scores of each set on nine on each side of the card, than a box for the total score and a line for your signature.
You will also find a number of tee boxes, with those for the men at the top, and the women's at the bottom. Black is normally the color allocated to the championship tees, with the next easier listed below in order. Most males will play white tees, and the player ticks the tee box from which they are playing. Ladies normally play the red tees and juniors the green. If you look at the card, the tee the player has been playing from will be ticked.

After the name of each tee box you will find the distance of each hole: this is greater for the black tee, and reduces as you run down the tee list. Some courses can have a few different tees, while others might just have a normal tee, a championship, and a women's tee. You might find an indication of the course rating and slope rating for each set of tees. You don't get this on all score cards, and if they are provided, they occur after the color of the tee, and before the hole distance boxes.

These are provided so that handicapped players can play on equal basis from one course to another. The rating is expressed in strokes and is based on the difficulty and yardage of the course. If the par is 72, then a rating of 71.9 from a certain tee would indicate it more difficult that a course with a rating of 72.9 and easier than one of 69.9. The slope rating indicates the degree of difficulty for the bogey golfer. An average slope rating is 113, and anything above this would be more difficult. It will tell average golfers if they are playing easier or harder courses than their regular course.

Then come the boxes for each hole that tell you the par for each hole. If there are two par figures, then the second will be for ladies only. The first is for men and juniors. One box contains the distance from the permanent market at each tee to the middle of the green. The actual distance will vary according to where on the tee you play from, and the pin placement on the green that can change from day to day.

There then might be a line with the 'handicap' listing for each hole. This is a relative figure, so that if a hole is awarded a figure of 11, it means that of the 17 other holes, 10 are easier and 7 harder. These are used to determine handicaps and at which holes a handicapped player can get strokes taken from their score.

You will then have a box for each hole. All score cards have this, no matter how simple they are otherwise. This is where you write your score, which is your net score with any penalties added. The box at the end should be the total of your first nine holes. There may also be a box at the end of the par boxes for each hole, where you write your score relative to par. Thus, for a par 36 front nine, if you shot a 40 write down +4, or -2 for a score of 34.

You might also see a box marked 'OUT' or 'IN': that is the direction in which the course is played, and you play the 'OUT' holes first. There will also likely be another box with the total distance of each nine holes, with an accumulated total on the back side of the card (the 'IN' side).

There should also be a box for your handicap, and if you are applying that in a particular game you enter it in the box and then subtract from your total score to provide a net score including handicap. Some courses provide you with free handicaps according to your scores on the course, while others will charge to keep a record of this for you.
Many golfers have various ways of marking their scores relative to par. You might see the scores on TV shown in some way, such as in various colors, as to whether they are above or below par. A bogie could be in red, and a double bogie in black for example, but there is no convention for this. Many golfers will have their own way of marking these scores on their score sheet, but many will not bother.

These are the salient points of your score card, and should cover the most of what you are liable to find. It is not difficult to read a golf score card once you know what to look for, and not all score cards show all of these features. You might find some completed cards with strange figures showing, and these are likely to be found where players are using non-standard scoring systems such as Stableford where points are awarded for scores relative to par.

However, this does not change the basic look of a score card unless it has been customer designed for a particular scoring format. Such cards are rare, and if you understand how to read a standard score that should be all that you need.


How to Read a Golf Score Card