Why doesn’t this lower score count for my handicap?

One of the cool things about the World Handicap System is we can see all of our scores right in front of us – and we can see exactly which are counting towards our index.

Software, whether on desktop or through a digital app, helpfully picks out the best eight out of our last 20 rounds and highlights them in a green circle. Others do something similar.

But being able to pour over our performances has also revealed what many golfers think to be an anomaly. Namely that there is a score on our chart that is lower than one of the eight that’s currently counting.

How can that be?

It’s all about a WHS score differential

Are you looking at your score or your score differential? Because the two things are different and it’s the latter that’s important.

Let’s stop at that point and explain what a score differential is. Every time you play and put in an acceptable score, it is converted into a score differential.

The USGA says it “measures the performance of a round in relation to the relative difficulty of the course that was played, measured by Course Rating and Slope Rating”.

So, to go all Carol Vorderman on you for a second, it’s worked out by multiplying the difference between your adjusted gross score and the course rating by 113 and dividing by the slope rating off the tees you played.

It’s that score differential that goes forward into your most 20 recent scores, of which the best eight are taken and averaged to find your handicap.

You might have a lower adjusted gross score within your eight, but it’s really the score differential which is used to calculate the best eight and our handicap index.

If you see an 84 and and 83 on your scorecard, and the 84 is counting but the 83 isn’t, it could be for a number of reasons.

Were the rounds played on different golf course – with different course and slope ratings? Did the Playing Conditions Calculation come into effect?

So, as you’ve probably gathered by now, it’s not the adjusted gross score you should be looking at. It’s the score differential.

You can view that within your handicap record, or on your WHS app. Click on your scores and take a look at Score Diff.

Now you can take your two conflicting scores and, if it turns out the lower gross score has a higher score differential, that’s why it’s not counting.

Now have your say

Does that help? What do you think about this WHS Score Differential debate? Let me know on X.

• NOW READ: How many scores count towards my handicap? What happens if I don’t have them?

• NOW READ: What does your World Handicap System index really mean?