No, this golf scorecard does not calculate an official USGA Handicap Index; it is a private per-hole card that applies a course handicap stroke by stroke and shows running gross and net totals for completed holes only.
The distinction matters because a "handicap" appears in both contexts but means two very different things. An official Handicap Index, the number golfers use for fair competition, is calculated by a golf association from a pool of score differentials, course ratings, and slope ratings using a published formula. A course handicap, on the other hand, is a player-friendly translation of that index into strokes received on a specific course, and that translation is exactly what this scorecard applies one hole at a time. The card's description, its verified limits, and its in-tool wording all say the same thing in plain language: it is a personal gross and net convenience record, not an official Handicap Index, score differential, or score-posting service. Those tasks require data, formulas, and processes that live outside a private browser-local card. If you need an index you can submit for tournament play or a peer-network handicap, you will use your association's official service; this scorecard does not try to be one.
What an Official Handicap Index Actually Requires
An official Handicap Index under the World Handicap System (WHS) is not a simple subtraction problem. The USGA and other national associations calculate it from a player's pool of acceptable score differentials, each of which combines your gross score, the course rating, and the slope rating using a standardized formula. A golf association must receive those scores, validate them against the Rules of Golf, and store them in a centralized record. None of those ingredients exist on a single per-hole card kept in your browser.
This matters because a number on a screen that says "handicap" can mislead a reader who has not been told what feeds it. A round of 85 on a par-72 course with a Course Handicap of 13 might feel like a personal handicap, but until a golf association has adjusted it by course rating, slope, and the differential formula, it is just gross strokes minus received strokes, a convenience net, not an index. The product contract for this card is explicit: it does not calculate an official Handicap Index, a score differential, a course rating, a slope, a rules-of-golf decision, or any tournament score-posting service.
What This Scorecard Actually Computes
The Golf Scorecard computes three things per hole, and only three: the gross strokes you enter, the number of handicap strokes that hole receives from your entered course handicap, and the net strokes for that hole. As you fill in a hole, the card updates running totals that include only the holes you have completed. A blank gross-strokes field stays blank; it does not turn into a hidden zero, so a "two-hole total" really means two holes, not an invented eighteen-hole result.
Two values drive every per-hole calculation: the course handicap you enter at the top of the card, and the stroke index you copy from the course's printed scorecard for each hole. The card's implementation methodology spells out the rule: each completed hole receives the floor of (course handicap divided by eighteen), plus one when its stroke index falls within the remaining allocation. That transparent rule, repeated across the eighteen holes, is exactly the published allocation order described in The R&A's Appendix E on stroke index allocation.
How the Stroke-Index Allocation Works Hole by Hole
The course publishes a stroke index from 1 to 18 on its scorecard. Index 1 is the hardest hole on the course for a scratch golfer, and the strokes a higher-handicap player receives are handed out in that order. The USGA World Handicap System FAQ gives a concrete example: a player with a Course Handicap of 15 receives one stroke on every hole whose stroke index is 1 through 15. The R&A's Appendix E independently describes the same allocation rule and notes that the order repeats from index 1 once you go above eighteen strokes.
This scorecard implements that published rule for any course handicap you enter. The formula applied per hole is:
received strokes = floor(course handicap ÷ 18) + (1 if hole stroke index ≤ (course handicap mod 18), else 0)
Worked example with a Course Handicap of 15:
- Step 1, baseline pass: floor(15 ÷ 18) = 0. Every hole gets zero baseline strokes from the full eighteen-stroke pass.
- Step 2, remaining allocation: 15 mod 18 = 15. Any hole whose stroke index is 15 or lower receives one additional stroke.
- Step 3, result: the fifteen holes with the lowest stroke indexes (indexes 1 through 15) each receive one stroke; the three holes with the highest stroke indexes (16, 17, and 18) receive none.
For higher handicaps the same rule repeats from index 1, so a player above 18 receives a full pass of one stroke on every hole plus extra strokes on the holes with the lowest indexes. The R&A's Appendix E documents that repetition explicitly. This calculation is shown on the card hole by hole, so the running net total does not appear as an unexplained subtraction at the end of the round. You can see where each stroke came from.
How to Build a Personal Round on the Golf Scorecard
- Open the Golf Scorecard in your browser and enter the course name plus the course handicap you want to use for this round. The course handicap is the number of strokes you receive on that specific course; it is not an index.
- Copy the par and stroke-index row from the physical scorecard the course hands you and paste the values into the eighteen holes. The card's editable defaults are a blank-form starting point, not a claim about any real course, so the published values should come from your course card.
- Enter your gross strokes for each hole as you play. As soon as you fill a hole, the card shows that hole's received handicap strokes and adds it to the running gross and net totals. Blank holes stay out of the totals until you fill them.
- If you mistype a par, stroke index, or gross entry, use Undo last edit to restore the earlier card state, including prior field values. The Undo action rolls back exactly one edit at a time.
- When the round ends, review the totals and the per-hole breakdown. If you want a record outside the browser, export PNG for a 1080 by 1350 visual summary or export CSV for a file containing the date, course, completed holes, par, gross, handicap strokes, and net. Both exports run locally via Blob and canvas APIs; nothing is uploaded.
- Return later and find the same card under that day's entry in the browser-local history list. Each date keeps its own card, and the history reports how many holes you completed that day. To start fresh, clear local history to remove all stored cards.
When to Use This Card and When to Use an Official Service
The card is built for situations where a per-hole record is what you actually need: a casual round with friends, a friendly match, a practice log, or a paper-scorecard backup when you want to see each total trace back to a hole. It is also a useful scratch pad while a round is still in progress, because the running gross and net update as you fill each hole.
The card is the wrong tool when you need an official number. Posting scores for a WHS handicap, running a tournament, settling a stakes match that requires a peer-rated index, or asking for a handicap certificate from a golf club all rely on score differentials and association-level validation, none of which this card performs. If your goal is a number you can submit, use your association's service to compute the index, then enter that course handicap on this card if you also want a per-hole record.
| Use Case | Golf Scorecard | Official Service |
|---|---|---|
| Per-hole record for a casual round | Yes | No |
| Visible running gross and net on completed holes | Yes | No |
| Course handicap allocation by published stroke index | Yes | Yes |
| Official Handicap Index calculation | No | Yes |
| Score differential, course rating, slope rating | No | Yes |
| Posting scores for association record | No | Yes |
| Private local file (PNG or CSV) | Yes | Varies |
| Rules-of-golf adjudication | No | No |
Storing all of this in a single table matters because the boundary between "handicap" and "index" is the boundary between a personal record and an official one. If you only need a per-hole card with a transparent allocation rule, the Golf Scorecard stays inside that boundary by design. It does not pretend to be an index, and the in-card limits section spells that out in plain language. The course name, handicap, card entries, and saved history live only in local browser storage; a second device does not see them, and clearing browser data removes them.