How to Read Golf Score Cards
This post is intended mainly for the souls uninitiated to the addictive game of golf and for those that have just started to gain some interest in this club and ball game but not yet figured out how to read golf score cards.Unlike many other games and sports where the player having the highest score wins, in golf the player with the lowest score wins the game.
Keeping score in golf is very simple. When one hits the golf ball with a club, it is known as a stroke. Whenever a player hits a stroke, it is counted. At the end of each hole (when both the players hole the ball), note the number of strokes which he took. Also, at the end of each round (which constitutes of a few number of holes), add up the number of strokes which he took in each hole. This number is his golf score.
When one plays by the rules, there are a number of penalty strokes that are encountered. In this case, these strokes are also to be added to the total number of strokes in every hole. However, to put it simply, one can say that the golf score equals the number of times a player hits a golf ball until the target is achieved.
When watching professional golf tournaments, you might not come across the above mentioned scoring method as the measure of the competition. In these tournaments, score is kept in relation with ‘par’. For a particular hole, ‘par’ is defined as the number of strokes a perfect professional golfer should take to hole the ball. If the par for a hole is 6, and if a player takes a total of 7 strokes to finish that hole, then his total for the hole is 1-over (or +1). Also, if the par for a hole is 5 and a player finishes it in 4 strokes, then his score is written as 1-under (or -1).
So, now if you encounter a +2 or a -3 while you see the golf score, you know that it is the number of strokes that player took which is more or less than the ‘par’ respectively, for that round.
Filling up the score card is also a very simple process. You should count the number of strokes a player takes to finish a hole and then write it down under the corresponding heading mentioning that hole. After every nine holes are finished, you should tally the scores for the front nine and the back nine holes, respectively. Then for a complete analysis, add up those two scores for the 18-hole score.
Clearly, keeping score in golf is quite simple. You just need to pay a little more attention to the counting and the adding part.
Tags:How To
