Tournaments often ask for a GHIN number because the GHIN system enables golfers, who are members of a regional association, lookup each other's handicap, or enter scores from a course computer.

Tournaments or other relevant bodies can verify an official club status on http://www.usga.org and can use the US Handicap Handicap Lookup to confirm a member's index.

If the tournament has any further questions, they are welcome to contact us directly.

A minimum of five scores and a maximum of 20 is required to get started. For each score, the USGA Course Rating and Slope Rating for the courses played are also required. Using those figures, calculate your handicap with the formula below.


Use this table to determine how many rounds are used in the calculation.

• Less than 5 rounds, a handicap cannot be computed.
• 5 - 6 rounds, your best round is used as the differential.
• 7 - 8 rounds, best 2 rounds.
• 9 - 10 rounds, best 3 rounds.
• 11 - 12 rounds, best 4 rounds.
• 13 - 14 rounds, best 5 rounds.
• 15 - 16 rounds, best 6 rounds.
• 17 rounds, best 7 rounds.
• 18 rounds, best 8 rounds.
• 19 rounds, best 9 rounds.
• 20 rounds in the last year, use the best 10 rounds.

Then, we take your average differential of your best rounds and multiply it by .96 to get your Handicap Index.