An Overview of the USGA Handicap System

The purpose of the United States Golf Association (USGA) Handicap System is to make the game of golf more enjoyable by enabling players of differing abilities to compete on an equitable basis. This system uses what is known as a Handicap Index to indicate a player’s skill level. A player must have a minimum of 5 scores to obtain a Handicap Index. When a player has posted at least 20 scores the best 10 are used to compute the Index.
 

The two components used to rate the difficulty of a golf course and its different tees are the Course Rating and the Slope. The USGA Course Rating is the playing difficulty of a course for a scratch golfer. The Slope is a measurement of the difficulty of a course for non-scratch players.

The Handicap Index is portable from course to course. Each golf club should have a conversion chart posted to help convert your Handicap Index to a Course Handicap. This chart will have conversions for all the different tee boxes. To help demonstrate the importance of converting your Index to a Course Handicap, a player with a 14.4 Index playing the gold tees here at Prairie Landing would convert to a 17 Course Handicap. Your Course Handicap is likely to be different each time you play a different course or a new set of tees.

All scores for handicap purposes are subject to the application of Equitable Stroke Control (ESC). This limits the score that can be posted on each hole. It is important to remember that this only limits the score that is posted for handicap purposes, not the actual score on your scorecard. Adjustments are made according to your Course Handicap, not your Index, and use the ESC chart. (See Below)