After each completed hole on a private browser scorecard, the result appears as four running totals across only the holes you have actually finished: total par, gross strokes, received handicap strokes, and net strokes. A blank gross-strokes field stays blank rather than silently registering as zero, so a card for an unfinished round always reports the truth about how many holes you actually completed. To check the result at any point, look at the row of running totals above or beside the per-hole grid, confirm the number of holes completed matches the count you expect, and inspect each completed hole's individual net strokes for a hole-by-hole breakdown. The card builds that view locally in your browser from the course par and stroke-index row you copied in, so the totals you see always trace back to specific holes and never appear as an unexplained subtraction at the end. The scorecard is built around the Golf Scorecard tool, which keeps every entry, default, and saved history inside your browser and never uploads a card to a remote service.
What the scorecard shows as a result
The card lays out all eighteen holes from left to right, and each hole carries four fields: par, stroke index, gross strokes, and a field for handicap strokes received on that hole. Once a hole's gross-strokes field has a number, the card treats that hole as completed and includes it in the running totals. Until you fill that field in, the hole stays blank in the totals and is not counted toward par, gross, received, or net.
The result you check is the running row. That row sums four numbers across only completed holes: total par, gross strokes, handicap strokes received, and net strokes. The completed-hole count is shown next to the totals, so an "eight holes completed" label literally reflects eight entries rather than eight assumed zeros against an eighteen-hole card. Each per-hole received field also reflects the stroke-index allocation your course handicap produces, which makes it easy to scan the row and spot any hole where the expected stroke is missing.
| Running total | What it sums | Source on the card |
|---|---|---|
| Total par | Par values of completed holes | Course scorecard par row you copied |
| Gross strokes | Gross strokes of completed holes | Per-hole gross-strokes field |
| Received handicap strokes | Strokes allocated to completed holes | Stroke-index row plus your course handicap |
| Net strokes | Gross minus received on completed holes | Computed locally per hole |
How to check your result after each hole
The exact sequence below works in any browser session, and each step lines up with a visible part of the card so you can stop, verify, and continue without losing your place.
- Open the scorecard and confirm the course name and course handicap are set, then scroll to the per-hole grid.
- For each hole you have finished, type the gross strokes you actually took into that hole's gross-strokes field.
- Read the running row at the top or bottom of the grid and confirm the completed-hole count matches the number of gross-strokes entries you just typed.
- Inspect each completed hole's received-handicap field to verify the stroke-index allocation looks correct for your entered course handicap.
- Check the net total as the difference between gross strokes and received handicap strokes across the holes completed so far.
- If a value looks wrong, click Undo last edit to restore the previous card state, then re-enter the corrected number.
- Once the round is complete, leave the card open in the browser, or export a private PNG or CSV record.
How the running net total is calculated
The card follows the published stroke-index order described by The R&A's Appendix E on stroke-index allocation: one full pass per eighteen course-handicap strokes, then give remaining strokes from index 1 upward. Concretely, for a hole with stroke index SI, received strokes equal floor(course handicap / 18) plus one if SI is at most course handicap mod 18, otherwise zero. The USGA's World Handicap System FAQ gives the same rule in a worked example: a player with Course Handicap 15 receives one stroke on every hole whose stroke index is between one and fifteen.
Worked example for a single hole: course handicap 15, hole stroke index 3, gross strokes 5. Floor(15 / 18) is 0, and 3 is at most 15, so received = 1. Net for that hole = 5 − 1 = 4. That single hole then contributes 5 to gross, 1 to received, and 4 to net in the running totals. If you want to see the same calculation across all eighteen holes rather than one hole at a time, see how handicap strokes are allocated on a golf scorecard.
Undo, history, and exports for verifying results
The scorecard keeps a private local history under the counter:golf-scorecard key in your browser. Each entry is date-keyed, so if you start a card, return later to finish the back nine, and start a second round in the same week, both cards survive in the history list. That list reports how many holes were completed on each saved date, which lets you cross-check whether a card labeled "Friday" really contains nine holes or only four.
Two export buttons sit on the card. CSV export contains the date, course name, completed-hole count, par, gross strokes, handicap strokes, and net strokes, which makes it easy to verify the running totals against an external spreadsheet. PNG export produces a 1080 by 1350 visual summary with a total and recent days. Both use native browser Blob and canvas APIs, so the file lands directly on your device without uploading to any service.
If you mistype a value mid-round, click Undo last edit. It restores the precise earlier card state, including a prior par, stroke-index, or gross-strokes entry, which makes it easy to roll back one mistake without retyping the whole card. Clearing local history removes all saved cards when you deliberately need a clean browser state.
What this card deliberately does not check
The card has a deliberately limited promise. It is not an official Handicap Index calculator, score differential calculator, rules-of-golf adjudicator, course rating or slope calculator, or tournament score-posting service. Course handicap is a user-entered number, and net is the visible convenience calculation of gross strokes minus received strokes on completed holes.
The card never produces a Handicap Index, score differential, or course rating from your round. Those values require information and processes this private client-only tool does not attempt, such as rating differentials, scratch scores, and posting through an authorized body. If you need any of those, the card's CSV export gives you a clean per-hole record to copy into an official system, but the calculation itself happens elsewhere. For a focused answer on whether the tool covers a specific official task, see does this golf scorecard calculate an official handicap.