cardOkay, so you want to if you are as good as the pros are in golf? Well first you need to know how to keep the score the right way and what a handicap is. Taking score in golf is very easy and it is done the same way for you as it is for the pros, the only difference is that the pros have longer greens.

To get your score for each hole just add up the number of times you swing at the ball, known as a stroke. Then when your done with the course add up the total number of storkes from each hole and thats your golf score. Now to dive a little bit deeper each hole is given a ”par”, which means how many strokes it should take to complete the hole. So if the par of a hole is 4 and you finish with a 3 then you then you are one under par. In the same principle, if the par is 4 and you finish with a 5 then you are one over par. This never changes, if par is 5 and you finish with 20 then you are 15 over par, yes it is that simple.

So you know how to keep score, but now you want to know what a handicap is. A handicap in golf is very easy to understand just like the rest of it. A handicap is a number used to make competition between players more even. The handicap number each player is given is typically the average number of strokes over par they take to finish an 18 hole round of golf.  But what is the handicap number used for? An example might be, if you play golf once a year, but you have a friend that plays once a week. Now say that same friend has an average of 2 over par for a 18 hole round of golf, and you have an average of 10 over par for 18 holes. Now he wants you to come out and play against him, that doesn’t seem very fair, does it?  Well this is why golf has a handicap.  If you play your friend, then at the end of the match he gets to take 2 strokes off of the final score and you get to take 10 off. Now both are evenly matched which makes for a better round of golf.