The Use of Golf Scorecard
Scorecard is very necessary to your game, especially when you play your stroke play, you need to count the number of strokes you have taken on the hole just completed, and write the number down in the box corresponding to that hole on the scorecard, At the end of each nine holes, tally up the strokes for your front nine and back nine totals, respectively, then add up those two numbers for your 18-hole score. However, you can make yourself a golf scorecard which will help you know how you play the game.
Some golfers may notice that on pro golf broadcasts, and on some websites where the scorecards of tour players are recreated, those cards include some holes where the stroke total has been circled or squared. The circles represent below-par holes and the squares above-par holes. A score that is neither circled nor squared is a par. We don’t need this method because it creates a sloppy scorecard. But especially for beginners and mid- and high-handicap golfers, it’s pretty pointless. After all, if you’re in these categories, you won’t be making many birdies; you might not even be making many pars. Your scorecard will be full of nothing but numbers with squares around them. According to PGA, one circle represents a birdie on the scorecard, and a score circled twice represents an eagle or better. One square represents a bogey, while a score with two squares drawn around it represents a double-bogey or worse.
Many golfers like to keep track of their statistics while playing. The statistics most commonly kept on a scorecard are fairways hit, greens in regulation, and putts taken per hole. You can list these categories below your name on the scorecard, and for fairways and greens just check off the box on any hole where you’re successful, the fairways hit means your ball is in the fairway on your tee shot; greens in regulation, or GIR, means your ball is on the putting surface in one shot on a par-3, two shots on a par-4, or three shots on a par-5. A putt taken per hole is just a counting stat, so count up your putts on each hole. Two other stats we like to track are sand saves and strokes taken from 100 yards and in. A sand save is recorded when you get up-and-down out of a bunker. Your score on the hole doesn’t matter. Even if you get a 9 on the hole, if your last two strokes represented getting up-and-down from a bunker, check off a sand save.
Remember, when we talk about taking strokes on the golf course or scorecard, we’re always talking about course handicap, not handicap index. And for the true beginners reading this, “taking strokes” or “taking a stroke” means that your course handicap allows you to reduce your score by one or possibly more strokes on certain holes. Always start by marking the holes on which you get to take a stroke. Make a little dot somewhere within the box for the holes on which your course handicap will be used. If marking the card in the manner of the top example, also divide each of those boxes with a slash.
Write down your strokes taken on each hole as you normally would. The gross score goes on top. Then, on holes where you are taking a stroke, write your net score below the gross score. When you tally up the total, again write your gross score on top and net score below the gross. In the 18 holes, your scorecard will look much tidier and be easier to read if you forego the “slash” method of writing the gross and net in the same box, and put your net scores on a second row, since you’ll be writing down both a gross and net score on each hole.
Notice that we still mark our scorecard before the round starts with dots, representing the number of strokes we get to take on each hole. We’ve shown the front nine of the scorecard up to this point, but the card above is flipped over to the back nine.
We’ve shown the front nine of the scorecard up to this point, but the card above is flipped over to the back nine. If that handicap column appears, just write your course handicap (in our example, “11”) in the appropriate box. Mark your actual strokes taken gross score on each hole throughout play, then tally up your strokes at the end of the round. When playing match play against another golfer, you’ll mark your scorecard to show how the match stands in relative terms. Once someone wins a hole, you’ll mark the card “-1” if you lost the hole, or “+1” if you won the hole. This means you are 1-down or 1-up, respectively, in the match. Let’s say you’re 1-up and you lose the next hole. Then you’re back to “AS.” But if you’re 1-up and win the next hole, your scorecard now reads “+2”. If a long string of holes is halved, you’ll keeping writing the same thing on the scorecard for each hole. For example, you’re up by one hole at No. 5. So you’ve marked Hole 5 as +1 on the scorecard. The next five holes are halved. So holes 6 through 10 will also show +1 on your scorecard, because you remained 1-up.
Match play vs. par or bogey describes a match in which you are playing not against a fellow golfer, but against par itself, or bogey it. In our example above, the match is against par. This means that if you par the hole, you’ve halved; if you birdie, you’ve won the hole , and if you bogey you’ve lost the hole . This is a good game to play when you’re on the course by yourself. It’s common in a match play vs. par, or match play vs. bogey, match to use a system of pluses, minuses, and zeros to denote holes won, lost, or tied, respectively. You can use this system of denoting a match play scorecard at all times, if you prefer it to the AS, +1, and -1 method.
The Stableford System is a scoring method in which golfers earn points based on their scores in relation to par on each hole. The Stableford System is a good scoring method for recreational players because there are no negative points – a double-bogey or worse is worth zero, but everything else earns you points. To mark Stableford on a scorecard, it’s most common to use two rows. Using two rows makes the scorecard easier to mark and easier to read later. The top row is your stroke play score – the number of strokes you took to complete the hole. The second row is the Stableford points earned on that hole. At the end of each nine, tally up your Stableford points, and at the end of 18, add your two nines together for your final Stableford score. The point values used in Stableford are found in the Rules of Golf under Rule 32. You can also see them in our Stableford System definition, or view the explanation of Modified Stableford. For Stableford with handicaps, begin by marking the scorecard as you would for plain ol’ stroke play using handicaps.
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