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Handicap allowance calculator
Pick the format and type each player's Course Handicap, or their Handicap Index with the ratings for your tees. You get their Playing Handicaps from the R&A's recommended allowances, team handicaps for pairs and scrambles, and match play strokes.
The percentages are the R&A's recommended allowances. Checked against the R&A's Rules of Handicapping, Appendix C on 30 October 2026. Appendix C
Individual Stableford: 95%
| Player | Course Handicap | Playing Handicap |
|---|---|---|
| Ann | 18 | 17 |
| Dev | 9.4 | 9 |
| Jo | 26 | 25 |
| Sam | +1 | +1 |
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What an allowance is
Your Course Handicap is the strokes you get on that course from those tees. The allowance trims it to fit the format, so everyone in the field has a fair chance. England Golf puts it in one line: "Course Handicap x Handicap Allowance = Playing Handicap".
In England these allowances are not optional. England Golf calls them "a mandatory percentage allowance that must be implemented in competition play".
How it is worked out
The R&A says the allowance goes on the unrounded Course Handicap, "to avoid any undue effect of double rounding". So type decimals if you have them. The answer is rounded to the nearest whole number, and a half rounds up: the R&A's own example gives 95% of 10 as 10.
A plus handicap "moves up towards zero including rounding". In the R&A example, +4 at 85% becomes +3.
In match play, "the player with the lowest Playing Handicap plays off zero strokes". Everyone else gets the difference.
Foursomes take 50% of the pair's combined Course Handicaps. Greensomes, Pinehurst and the scrambles take a share of each player's handicap, from the lowest up, and add them. The tool rounds once, at the end.
Where to find a Course Handicap
Your club app shows it. England Golf also asks clubs to put up Course and Slope Rating tables, where you find your Handicap Index against the tees you are playing. Then type it here.
Starting from a Handicap Index
No table to hand? Tick the box, type each player's Handicap Index, and add the Slope Rating, Course Rating and par for your tees. Rule 6.1a of the Rules of Handicapping gives the sum for 18 holes:
Course Handicap = Handicap Index x (Slope Rating ÷ 113) + (Course Rating - par)
The rule keeps "the full calculated value" and rounds "only after the Playing Handicap calculation". The tool does the same.
A worked example from the R&A: Course Rating 71.0, Slope Rating 125, par 71. A Handicap Index of 8.6 gives a Course Handicap of 9.51. At the 85% four-ball allowance, that is a Playing Handicap of 8.
Sources: R&A Rules of Handicapping, Appendix C and Rule 6 (Interpretation 6.2a/1); Rules of Handicapping, Rule 6.1a, on usga.org; England Golf, World Handicap System; England Golf's WHS golfers' toolkit (March 2023). All read 30 October 2026.
Written by Craig Fearn, The Golf Gift Co. Last updated .