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Handicap — how it's worked out

ScoreMate works out a World Handicap System style index from every round you save, so you can use it as your day-to-day guide. It is your own estimate — not an official handicap.

• Capped scores. Every hole is capped at par + 2 + the shots you get there, so one blow-up hole can't wreck the number.
• Score differential. Each round becomes (capped score − course rating) × 113 ÷ slope, so an easy course and a hard one sit on the same footing.
• Best 8 of 20. Your index is the average of the best 8 of your last 20 — potential, not a typical day. Fewer rounds use a smaller set, as the rules say.
• Soft & hard caps. Rises are slowed once you go 3 above your best of the last year, and stopped at 5 above it.
• Course & playing handicap. Your index becomes the shots for today's tees, with the right allowance for each format (95% strokeplay, 85% fourball, and so on).

What it does not do

• No official index. Only Golf Ireland (or your national body) can issue a real handicap. Keep posting your cards with them.
• No daily conditions adjustment (PCC). Only a central system can calculate it, so we leave it at zero — ours can sit a fraction away from your official one.
• No automatic sync. We don't pull from or push to Golf Ireland or CDH. You can type your official index and CDH number in to compare side by side.
• Rating & slope from your card. If your round doesn't have them, we guess from par — so the number is rough until you add them.