As long as I've been around golf I've never formally had a handicap.


It was always my general idea that a handicap was that person's relationship to par on average. So for example a 10 handicap would average 10 over par on any given round.

Now I know that's not exact, but is it close? Slope and course rating also go into it, but I've seen courses without both ratings. A thorough explanation would suffice.

www.usga.org for a thorough explanation

A handicap is NOT your average score in relation to par. A handicap is supposed to measure your potential, and not your average score. Your handicap is calculated using your best scores, and not your overall average score.You are correct that the difficulty of the course (course rating/slope) do impact your calculation. The number of strokes your handicap is below your average varies pretty widely. It basically depends on how consistent you are. The more inconsistent you are, the greater the variation. So, a guy that is an 8 handicap and a guy that averages 80 are NOT at the same skill level. (The guy who averages 80 is probably a 5 or so handicap.)

This explanation is just broad strokes, as the previous poster suggested, the USGA has the details.