What is Expected Score in golf?

You know 9-hole scores are acceptable for handicapping within Great Britain and Ireland. You also know you are required to submit a score even if you have there has been a hole not started or if you haven’t finished a hole.

The way those calculations are made – upscaling a 9-hole score into 18 and adding numbers to your score differential for a hole not played – is called ‘Expected Score’ in the World Handicap System. Here what you need to know…

It is how 9-hole scores are upscaled into 18-holes. It is also how any holes not played during a round are dealt with.

It aims to make player handicaps more accurate by providing a better prediction of what a player would score on those holes rather than using net par.

How does Expected Score work with 9-hole scoring?

It is an automated calculation – combining the 9-hole score differential that has been completed with a player’s expected score over 9 holes.

While not revealing exact specifics of the calculation, The R&A say it does not take the front or back 9 of the course that has been played. It’s based on a course slope of standard difficulty and your Handicap Index. The Expected Score calculation is personal to each player.

When the 18-hole differential is calculated, it’s then rounded to the nearest tenth. .5 are rounded upwards.

Rounds of fewer than 9 holes are not acceptable for handicap purposes.

How does Expected Score in golf work with holes that are not played?

As with 9-hole upscaling, it’s an automated calculation and uses selected criteria to create a 9- or 18-hole score.

Essentially, it works out a score differential for the holes not played using the scores the player has already recorded and the rating of those holes played.

The score differential from those holes played is combined with the expected score differential to produce either a 9- or 18-hole total.

If a player starts a hole, but doesn’t finish it, then a net double bogey is still be applied to their score.

Handicap chiefs said it is a more accurate way of calculating scores, compared with using net par, and produces more accurate handicap indexes.

Frequently Asked Questions about the World Handicap System

What is it?

Also known colloquially as WHS, the system was developed by the R&A and USGA together with existing handicapping bodies around the world.

Designed to be unified, it aims to provide a “single, consistent measure of playing ability that calculates a golfer’s handicap in the same way regardless of their location in the world”.

It is now used by more than 120 national associations. With the Rules of Golf, Rules of Handicapping and Rules of Amateur Status under a single set of regulations, WHS brought handicapping under the same umbrella.

What are the benefits?

The R&A, on their website, say the benefits of WHS are:

Consistency of calculation around the world;
Portability of handicaps from course to course and country to country;
As the world becomes a smaller place with a much greater frequency of international play, the development of a single handicap system facilitates easier administration of international events;
The potential for National Associations to focus attention on other areas.

How does it work?

Your Handicap Index is worked out from the lowest scoring differentials in your record. A full record is considered to be one that contains at least 20 scores.

The index is then calculated by averaging the best eight of those 20.

Having obtained a Handicap Index, that is converted into a Course Handicap which takes into account the difficulty of the course and the tees from which you are playing.

Working out that number requires considering a number of factors, including Course Rating, Slope Rating and Bogey Rating.

In competitions only, depending on the format, an allowance can then be applied that changes the Course Handicap.

But this Playing Handicap, which aims to provide equity, does not affect the Score Differential produced for your handicap record.

Now have your say

What do you think of Expected Score in golf? Get in touch on X?