A score differential is (113 ÷ Slope Rating) × (adjusted gross score − Course Rating − PCC). Shooting 85 from tees rated 72.4 with a slope of 131 gives (113 ÷ 131) × 12.6 = 10.9. Your Handicap Index is the average of the lowest 8 of your last 20 differentials.
Every round you post under the World Handicap System is turned into a score differential, and those differentials are the raw material of your Handicap Index. Golfers checking what their association app posted, club committees auditing a record, and players comparing rounds on different courses all need the same sum. Enter the adjusted gross score, the Course Rating and Slope Rating of the tees you played, and the playing conditions calculation if one was applied. The result shows the differential to one decimal, the strokes over the rating, the slope factor and the working line by line. One limit: the tool expects a score already adjusted for net double bogey; it cannot apply hole-by-hole caps because it does not know your Course Handicap or the stroke index of each hole.
Use the 18-hole total after each hole is capped at net double bogey.
Type the Course Rating and Slope Rating for the tees and gender you played, from the scorecard or rating database.
Use the − and + buttons if your association published a playing conditions adjustment from −1 to +3 for that day.
The differential, the strokes over rating and the slope factor update as you type, with the working underneath.
Result Score differential: 10.9
Strokes over Course Rating (after PCC): 12.6
Slope factor (113 ÷ Slope): 0.8626
Score less PCC: 85
Twelve point six strokes over the rating on a harder-than-average course shrinks to a 10.9 differential.
Result Score differential: 17.9
Strokes over Course Rating (after PCC): 19
Slope factor (113 ÷ Slope): 0.9417
Score less PCC: 89
The committee judged scoring hard that day, so one stroke comes off before the slope factor applies.
Differential = (113 ÷ Slope) × (AGS − CR − PCC)
AGSCRSlopePCCThe Course Rating says what a scratch player should shoot, so AGS minus CR is how far you finished above that benchmark. The Slope Rating measures how much harder the course plays for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer; dividing 113 by the slope rescales your strokes to a course of standard difficulty, so rounds from different tees become comparable. PCC is subtracted first when weather or set-up made scoring unusually hard or easy. The result is rounded to one decimal, as Rule 5.1 specifies.
113 is the Slope Rating of a course of standard relative difficulty. Multiplying by 113 ÷ Slope converts your strokes over the rating into what they would be on that standard course, so a round on a slope-140 layout and one on a slope-105 layout can sit in the same handicap record.
Yes. If your adjusted gross score is below the Course Rating, the differential is negative. A 70 on tees rated 72.0 with slope 113 gives −2.0, which is how plus-handicap players end up with an index such as +2.0.
Under the World Handicap System the index is the average of the lowest 8 differentials among your most recent 20 scores, with fewer counted when you have under 20 rounds. Caps limit how fast the index can rise above your low index of the past year.
PCC is a daily adjustment the handicap software works out from all scores posted at a course that day. If scores were much higher than expected because of wind or a hard set-up, PCC may be +1 to +3; if unusually low, −1. Most days it is 0.
They are printed on most scorecards beside each set of tees, and listed in the USGA and national association course rating databases. Each tee has separate ratings for men and women, so pick the line that matches the tees and gender you played.
It is the maximum hole score for handicap purposes: par plus two plus any handicap strokes you receive on that hole. Capping each hole this way gives the adjusted gross score the formula needs, so one disastrous hole does not distort your record.
Using this tool in an assignment, article or report? Copy a citation, or a link for your website.
Tools Directory Editorial Team. (2026, October 10). Golf Score Differential. Tools Directory. Retrieved October 26, 2026, from https://tools.milunir.com/sports/golf-bowling-and-racquet-sports/golf-score-differential/
Tools Directory Editorial Team. “Golf Score Differential.” Tools Directory, 10 Oct. 2026, https://tools.milunir.com/sports/golf-bowling-and-racquet-sports/golf-score-differential/. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.
Tools Directory Editorial Team. “Golf Score Differential.” Tools Directory. Last modified October 10, 2026. Accessed October 26, 2026. https://tools.milunir.com/sports/golf-bowling-and-racquet-sports/golf-score-differential/.
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