Your player index or League Index measures your playing ability, your handicap converts it into the strokes you receive on the tees you're playing in a round, and your net score is your gross score minus those strokes — all calculated for you automatically.
What's the difference between an index and a handicap?
Your index is the portable number that measures your ability — it comes in one of two flavors depending on the league. Your handicap adjusts that index for the difficulty of the specific tees you play in a round (using the tee's slope and rating), and it's the actual number of strokes you receive that day. Two players with the same index can have different handicaps if they play different tees. The conversion is the standard one — index × (slope ÷ 113) + (course rating − par), from the World Handicap System's course handicap rule. This platform's numbers are not an official USGA Handicap Index®.
What are the two kinds of index?
- Player index — the number on your profile. You set it yourself (at onboarding, or any time after on your profile), and it travels with you to every league you're in.
- League Index — in a league that has turned on computed handicaps, the platform calculates this number for you from the rounds you've actually posted in that league, instead of relying on what you've typed into your profile. It's specific to that one league; your player index and any other league's League Index are untouched.
Open your league's member page to see which one is currently in effect for you, and whether it's your player index, a League Index, or a manager-set override.
How do I know which mode my league uses?
Check the RSVP flow: if you're asked to confirm a handicap number when you RSVP in, your league is on player index (the default). If you're not asked, your league is on League Index — the platform is computing it for you from your scores, so there's nothing to confirm.
How does a League Index get computed?
If your league has turned this on, open your League Index page (linked from your league's member page) to see exactly how your number was built: which of your rounds counted, why any others were excluded (for example, an unrated tee or an incomplete scorecard), which rounds are currently driving your value, and any adjustments applied. A League Index needs at least a handful of counted rounds before it takes over — until then you're scored on your player index, or a default your league's organizer may have set.
The calculation follows the shape of the World Handicap System's index rules — your best 8 of the last 20 rounds, with limits on how fast the number can climb. It's computed only from rounds posted in that one league, which is why it's still not an official USGA Handicap Index®.
An organizer can also set a manager override on your League Index if they believe it's wrong for a specific reason (with a note explaining why); while set, the override is what's used, and the computed value keeps updating underneath so the organizer can see the two compared.
How do I look up my handicap for a course I'm about to play?
Open the user menu and choose Handicap Lookup. Pick a course and a league, and you'll get the strokes you receive off every tee on that course, side by side with each tee's length, rating, slope and par. You don't have to be playing an event there — it works for any course in the app.
The league you pick matters: if that league computes its own League Index, the lookup uses it instead of your profile index. The league list marks which of your leagues do, and the result says which index it ended up using. There's also a field for looking up a different index than your own, which is the quick way to work out a guest's strokes before they've joined.
One thing to expect: the lookup uses your index as it stands right now. If an event has already been locked, it plays off the index frozen at lock time, so the two can differ. The event's number is the one that counts on the day.
When is my index locked for an event?
When the organizer locks the field before play, your index at that moment — player index or League Index, whichever your league uses — is frozen into your handicap for the event; changes after that don't affect it. If your league uses player index, you confirm it when you RSVP in, so make sure it's right then. An organizer (or your group's scorekeeper, before you've posted a score) can also adjust your handicap for that specific event directly, and that adjustment sticks even if you re-RSVP.
How is my net score calculated?
Net score is gross score minus handicap strokes, computed per hole. Your strokes land on the hardest holes first, using each hole's stroke index: a handicap of 9 gives you one stroke on the 9 hardest holes and none on the rest; a handicap of 20 gives you one stroke on every hole plus a second stroke on the 2 hardest. The app does all of this from the score you enter — you never enter net numbers yourself.
If your handicap is a plus number, you're better than scratch, so the strokes run the other way: instead of receiving strokes, you give them back. A plus-3 handicap adds one stroke to your gross score on each of the 3 easiest holes — the highest stroke indexes — the mirror image of how a regular handicap takes strokes off the hardest ones. That means your net score can come out higher than your gross score, and that's expected, not an error.
What if I don't have an index?
You'll be scored without strokes — your net score equals your gross score. If your league uses player index and you don't know yours, enter your best estimate on your profile (roughly: often break 80 → 0–9, regularly break 90 → 10–17, usually break 100 → 18–27, still working on 100 → 28–36). Your organizer can adjust it later if it turns out to be off. If your league uses League Index, you'll move onto a computed number automatically once you have enough counted rounds.