Golf and app words, explained

You do not need to know any of this to run a trip - the app does the arithmetic. It is here for the moments when a number on screen prompts a question, or when someone in the bar wants to know how a tie was settled.

Course handicap

The strokes you get on one particular course, from one particular set of tees, before the format is taken into account. It comes from your handicap index adjusted for how hard that course actually plays: your index multiplied by the slope rating and divided by 113, plus the difference between the course rating and par.

The app works this out for every player from the tee they are playing, which is why two players with the same index can get different strokes if one is off the white tees and the other off the red. It carries the exact figure forward rather than rounding at this stage.

Playing handicap

The strokes you actually receive in the competition you are playing. It is your course handicap (see the glossary) multiplied by the allowance for the format, rounded once at the very end. Each format carries its own allowance under the World Handicap System, so the same course handicap gives you one number in a singles competition and a different one in foursomes.

This is the number on the badge beside a player’s name on the tee sheet, and the one the scorecard uses.

Stableford

A format where you collect points on each hole instead of counting every stroke. A net par is two points, a net birdie three, a net bogey one, and anything worse scores nothing. Because a ruined hole costs you no more than a blank, you can pick the ball up and still have a round worth playing, which is why most societies use it.

Countback

How a tie is settled without anyone going back out. The tied players’ back nine is compared first, then the back six, then the back three, and finally the last hole. The first of those to separate them decides it.

The app applies this automatically and shows the working on the results page for anyone who tied, so the outcome is plain rather than something you have to defend.

Order of Merit

A season-long table that adds up how members have done across a run of fixtures, rather than on a single day. You choose how it counts, whether that is every round or the best few of the year, and the standings keep themselves up to date as each event finishes.

Compliance score

A percentage showing how well a generated tee sheet met the rules you set. A rule marked Essential is never broken, so any draw you are offered already honours those. What moves the number is the band just below - the rules you marked as mattering a lot but not absolutely. The gentlest priorities are advisory and are not scored at all, so a draw can ignore one and still read 100%.

Stroke Play

The traditional format: everyone plays their own ball for the full round and every stroke counts. Your net score is your gross score minus your Playing Handicap, and the lowest net score wins. It is the plainest form of competition and the one most other formats are compared against.

Par/Bogey

A format scored hole by hole against par rather than by adding up every stroke. Each hole is won, lost or halved depending on whether your net score beats, matches or misses par, and the result is the balance of holes won and lost across the round. Like Stableford, one ruined hole costs you no more than a loss, so it does not wreck your card the way stroke play can.

Match Play Singles

One player against another, decided hole by hole rather than by total score. Win more holes than your opponent and the match is over, sometimes before the 18th is played. The lower Playing Handicap plays off scratch, and the higher receives the full difference between the two, given at the holes where the strokes fall.

4-Ball Better Ball

A pairs format where each player plays their own ball for the whole round, and only the better of the two net scores on a hole counts for the pair. Partners can play quite different games and still post a good score together, since a poor hole from one is covered by the other.

4-Ball Better Ball (Match Play)

The match play version of 4-Ball Better Ball: two pairs play each other hole by hole, and the better net score from either partner wins the hole for their side. The lowest Playing Handicap across all four players plays off scratch, with everyone else receiving a share of the difference.

Foursomes

A pairs format where two partners share one ball, playing alternate shots through the hole and alternating who tees off. The pair’s handicaps are combined and halved into a single Playing Handicap for the team, so a good drive from one partner and a good approach from the other both matter to the same score.

Foursomes (Match Play)

The match play version of Foursomes: two pairs, each sharing one ball on alternate shots, play each other hole by hole rather than for a total score. Each side’s combined handicap is worked out the same way as stroke play Foursomes, then the two sides’ figures are compared to set the strokes each side receives.

Greensomes

A pairs format where both partners drive, then the pair choose the better of the two drives and play alternate shots from there to finish the hole. The pair’s Playing Handicap weights the lower course handicap more heavily than the higher, on a 60/40 split, reflecting that the stronger player’s drive is more likely to be the one chosen.

Greensomes (Match Play)

The match play version of Greensomes: pairs choose the better of their two drives and alternate shots from there, but the result is decided hole by hole against the other pair rather than by total score. Each side’s handicap uses the same 60/40 weighting as stroke play Greensomes, then the two sides are compared to set the match strokes.

Chapman / Pinehurst

A pairs format close to Greensomes: both partners tee off, then both play a second shot with the other player’s ball, before choosing the better of those two shots and alternating from there to finish the hole. It uses the same 60/40 weighted handicap as Greensomes.

Texas Scramble

A team format where everyone in the group tees off, the team picks the best of those shots, and everyone then plays their next shot from that spot. The process repeats all the way to the hole, so the team posts one score for the whole group. Each player’s handicap counts for a share of the team’s Playing Handicap, weighted so the strongest players contribute less than the others.

Texas Scramble (Individual Ball)

A variant of Texas Scramble where the team still plays from the best shot each time, but from that point on every player finishes the hole with their own ball rather than the team sharing one. The team’s score is the combined net total of all the individual balls, so every player’s score counts.

Bowmaker

A team format where every player plays their own ball and posts Stableford points on each hole, but only the best few scores in the team count on that hole rather than everyone’s. A society can choose how many of the team’s scores count on each hole, commonly the best two of four, which sets how forgiving the format is for a weaker score.

AM-AM

A team format where every player plays their own ball for Stableford points, and every player’s points count towards the team total on every hole, not just the best few. Because every score counts, it rewards a team where all four players contribute, rather than one where a couple of strong scores can carry the rest.

Alliance / Accumulator

A team format where the number of scores that count changes as the round goes on: the best one score counts on the first six holes, the best two on the middle six, and the best three on the last six. It builds towards needing more of the team to perform well as the round moves towards the finish.

Skins

A format where each hole is its own prize, a "skin", won outright by whoever has the single best net score on that hole. If two or more players tie for the best score, the skin carries over and is added to the next hole that produces an outright winner, so the pot can build across several holes before someone takes it.