1. Can anyone please explain how the golf scoring system works? Case in point: My local newspaper's sports section reported that T. Woods won the Memorial tourney in Dublin, OH on Sunday, June. 7. Woods finished at "12-under 276."/ final score 69-74-68-65 = 276. His runner-up, J. Furyk with a. scored 67-70-71-69=277. The player who finished last, D.A. Points, scored 75-70-75-80=300. What are these subscore 2 digits numbers? Any resource material on this topic?

2. How do I mark my playcard for a 9-hole game? For example, on the par 3 1st hole or par 4 9th hole - the number score I put in - what it means or corresponds to?

I'm new to the game. Thanks.

For your first question, you are talking about professional events. These usually are made up of four days in which one 18 hole round of golf is played on each day. The course that the tournament is being played has a "par" associated with it. Par is the number of strokes it should take someone to complete a hole or all the holes collectively. So, for the Memorial, par for 18 holes was 72 strokes. That means that par for the four days was 288. Tiger only took 276 strokes over the four days so he was "12 under", meaning it took him 12 strokes less than 288. The other numbers listed are the number of strokes it took him on each specific day of the tournament. In this case he shot a 69 on Thursday, a 74 on Friday, a 68 on Saturday and a 65 on Sunday for a total of 276 strokes.

As for how to mark your scorecard. On each hole, in the open box for that hole you write the number of strokes (plus penalties) it took you to complete that hole. At the end of the round you add these up and get your total for 9 holes.

Here is the link for the USGA (United States Golf Association). At the top of the site there are links to the rules of golf and etiquette. http://www.usga.org

This may not be a complete explanation, but it should get you started.

edit: Oh, almost forgot. Welcome to the site and to golf.

I'm very enlightened to your explanation. May not even need to check the USGA website. Thanks again.