What Is a Score Differential in Golf?
Score Differential: A score that measures how well you played relative to the difficulty of the course.
Score Differential — full definition
A score differential measures how well you played relative to the difficulty of the course. Calculated as: (113 / Slope Rating) × (Adjusted Gross Score – Course Rating – PCC adjustment). Your Handicap Index is the average of your best 8 differentials out of the last 20 rounds.
Score Differential Calculator — Enter one round’s adjusted gross score, course rating and slope, and it runs the USGA formula for you.
Score Differential — frequently asked
How many score differentials go into a Handicap Index?
- Your Handicap Index is the average of your best 8 differentials out of the last 20 rounds
- Lower differential = better round relative to the course difficulty
- Normalizes scores across courses of different difficulty
More on Score Differential
Stymie has a calculator that does this single computation, because it is the one people get wrong by hand.
- Score differential calculatorEnter score, rating and slope, get the differential.
- Handicap calculatorWhat those differentials roll up into.
Other course rating terms
Course Rating
A USGA-assigned number representing the expected score for a scratch golfer under normal conditions.
Slope Rating
A number from 55 to 155 that measures how much harder a course plays for bogey golfers versus scratch golfers.
Bogey Rating
The expected score for a bogey golfer — roughly a 20-handicap (men) or 24-handicap (women).
Handicap Index
A portable measure of your playing ability that travels with you from course to course.
Course Handicap
The number of strokes you receive on a specific course from a specific set of tees.
Playing Handicap
Your Course Handicap adjusted for the specific format of play.
Equitable Stroke Control
A rule that caps the maximum score on any hole for handicap purposes, preventing blow-up holes from wrecking your index.