You have your NCGA Membership and an active GHIN Number, but how do you use the powerful tools at your disposal through the USGA GHIN Mobile App?
- Knowing the Lingo: Handicap Index vs Course Handicap
- Using the USGA GHIN App Course Handicap Calculator for a Match
- How to Setup the GHIN App for Your Entire Group
- TL: DR Video (Too Long Didn't Read) No worries, we got you.
Knowing the Lingo: Handicap Index vs Course Handicap
With great power comes great …… features! We all love Spider-Man, but if Peter Parker swapped his web swinging for a golf swing and access to the GHIN Mobile App, even he would tell you about one of the app's superpowers: the Handicap Calculator.
To use the GHIN Mobile App's Handicap Calculator, which is free to all NCGA members and available to download below:
Download the GHIN mobile app
First, we should remember the difference between your Handicap Index and your Course Handicap. Your Handicap Index is the number with a decimal point in the center of your screen when you log in to the app, as shown below:
My Handicap Index is 2.9, and with this number, we can figure out my handicap for the specific course and tees I'm playing that day. This is what is known as my Course Handicap. Since each course has its own level of difficulty-- Poppy Hills Golf Course is much more challenging than Salinas Fairways Golf Course-- my Course Handicap will change depending on which one I'm playing.
There is a formula for calculating your Course Handicap.
But we don’t want to do math on the first tee; we just want to play golf. Let’s take advantage of technology and use the USGA GHIN Mobile App’s Handicap Calculator to do the work for us!
Clicking on the handicap calculator, you can pick the course you are playing (like Poppy Hills), enter if it's an 18-hole or 9-hole round, choose your handicap allowance (say 100%), select the tees you’re playing (ex. Black), and boom you’ll have your Course Handicap.
My course handicap, in the example above/left, shows that my Course Handicap (C.H.) at Poppy Hills from the Black Tees is a 6. This means I will get six strokes (pops) for the round, one pop on each of the holes with the six lowest stroke index (hole handicap) numbers. These are usually the six hardest holes on the golf course. To compare, the above/right example, if I played Salinas Fairways Golf Course from the Blue Tees, my course handicap would be a 2. This means that for a player with a 2.9 Handicap Index, the Poppy Hills Golf Course from the Black Tees is about four shots more difficult than Salinas Fairways from the Blue Tees.
Using the USGA GHIN App Course Handicap Calculator for a Match
We all have that one friend who seems to have made a secret pact with the golf gods, always managing to outplay us. But now you can use the handicap calculator, which is free for all NCGA members, to finally level the playing field and figure out how many strokes you need to give or take to have a fair match.
Step 1. Set up a game: Calculate handicap strokes for each person playing in the group on one digital scorecard.
To do this we click on:
- The blue "Handicap Calculator" button
- Select the course you are playing (it will bring up your recently played courses or you can search for the course by name)
- Click the red "Add Golfers" button (this will allow you to either select a golfer from your followed golfers list or you can search for a golfer by their last name or GHIN number)
- Click the plus sign to add the golfer to the Handicap Calculator
In this case, I will be playing with my friend Ted and as shown below, Ted’s Handicap Index is 0.5. So if we’re playing Poppy Hills from the Black Tees his Course Handicap is a 3. That means he needs to give me three shots for our 18-hole round as shown under S.O. (Shots Off) below. Once I have the Handicap Calculator ready to go I can begin playing my round by tapping the blue button at the bottom "Play with GPS/Games".
Step 2: Track your match: Always know where the match stands with hole-by-hole scoring.
Now that I've started playing my round I can use the GHIN Mobile App to keep track of my score as well as Ted's score. If we're playing a match play round I would use the app to enter our scores as we finish the holes.
As shown above, Ted and I both tied the first hole with pars, and on the second hole, he made par and I made a bogey which the app shows that Ted is 1 up. The great thing about the GHIN App is that it conveniently shows you which holes you get a stroke on. As shown in the picture above, there are two little dots in my row under holes four and five. These are the lowest handicap holes where Ted needs to give me a stroke or a pop to account for my higher handicap. Since he has to give me three strokes for the entire round I receive two strokes on the front nine and one on the back nine. To learn more about how to manually dot a scorecard please click my colleague's article on How to Calculate A Golf Handicap.
Step 3: Transfer scores: Easily transfer scores to players in your group after the round for individual review and posting
At the end of the round if I score a 78 and Ted scores a 76 then my three extra shots would bring my net score down to a 75, winning the match in stroke play. If we played in a net match play format, I would win 1 up as shown below.
I love how the GHIN App let's you know the status of the match at all times and includes your Course Handicaps in the calculation. Once we've finished our round and had our drinks at the restaurant (which the loser of the match had to buy) 😂, we can also use the GHIN App to post the score for both players. Tap "Finish" when you've completed entering all the hole by hole scores and the last screen will give you a Post Score option.
Tap the blue "Post Score" button and your score along with your partners score will automatically be posted to your respective accounts.
How to Setup the GHIN App for Your Entire Group
What if you need to calculate the handicaps for an entire foursome or even more friends? The handicap calculator lets you add over 20 players to the page and shows you the Course Handicap for each one, along with how many strokes they need to receive from the player with the lowest handicap. In case your group is playing different tees, you also have the option of selecting the tees for each person, and everyone will get their course handicap based on the specific tees they’re playing.
In the examples below, four of us are playing a round at Poppy Hills. The screenshot on the left has all of us playing from different tees with our respective course handicaps. Ted’s Course Handicap from the Black Tees is a 3, making it the lowest among us, so all the shots off (S.O.) are based off his course handicap. Bryan, playing from the Blue Tees, gets 1 stroke from Ted, Connor from the White Tees gets 2 strokes from Ted, and 1 from Bryan. Eugene from the Orange Tees gets 11 strokes from Ted, 10 from Bryan, and 9 from Connor.
-Feb-19-2025-09-41-16-6161-PM.png?width=507&height=476&name=Untitled%20design%20(1)-Feb-19-2025-09-41-16-6161-PM.png)
When you look at the picture on the left compared to the one on the right, you can see how the Course Handicaps and strokes change if all four players decide to play from the same Black Tees.
- Bryan would get 3 strokes from Ted, compared to 1 stroke from the Blue Tees.
- Connor would get 7 strokes from Ted, compared to 2 from the White Tees.
- Eugene would get 21 strokes from Ted, compared to 11 from the Orange Tees.
TL:DR (Too Long Didn't Read) Video
In this digital era, where videos are the new textbooks, a short video below shows how to use the USGA GHIN App Handicap Calculator.
Now that you’re a USGA GHIN App expert, grab your friends to show them your superpower and easily set up some fun fair games to play on the course! The Handicap Calculator is just one of the awesome features available to NCGA members for free through the USGA GHIN App. Want to know more? Check out How the USGA GHIN App Elevates the Golf Experience.
The only way to access the USGA GHIN App is to become a member through your Allied Golf Association. If you live in Northern California then the NCGA is your home. If you haven’t already signed up for a membership, what are you waiting for? Register for a membership today by contacting your local facility or join NCGA directly by Becoming A Member. And hey, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to Contact Us. We're here to help!
Download GHIN mobile app
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
Handicap 101
Get answers to all your questions about golf handicaps with Handicap 101: how to calculate, establish, and utilize your Handicap Index® for fair competition and why every golfer needs one.