A Parent's Guide to Understanding Golf Scoring Basics

You don't need to have played golf to follow your child's scorecard - here are the basics every golf parent should know.

Golf scoring can look baffling to a parent who's never played, especially when a junior comes home talking about their "score to par" or a "stableford points" total. The basics are actually fairly simple once explained plainly.

Strokes: The Basic Unit

Every time your child hits the ball, that's one stroke. The number of strokes it takes to get the ball into the hole on a given hole is that hole's score - fewer strokes is better, and the total for all 18 (or 9) holes is the round's overall score.

Par: The Benchmark for Each Hole

Each hole has a "par" - the number of strokes a skilled adult golfer is expected to take to complete it, usually 3, 4 or 5. Scoring one stroke over par is a "bogey," one under is a "birdie," and level with par is simply "par." Our dedicated article on what par means goes into this in more depth.

See our article "What Does Par Mean?" for a fuller explanation with examples.

Stroke Play vs Stableford

Stroke play simply totals every stroke across the round - lowest total wins. Stableford is a points-based format (common in club and junior golf) where players earn points based on their score relative to par on each hole, which can be more forgiving of one bad hole since it caps the points lost rather than adding every extra stroke to a running total.

Handicap: Adjusting for Skill Level

A golf handicap is a number reflecting a player's typical scoring ability, used to let golfers of different skill levels compete fairly by adjusting scores. Our dedicated glossary and handicap articles explain this in full.

See Golf Handicap Explained Simply for Junior Golfers for more detail.

What's a good score for a junior golfer just starting out?

There's no universal "good" score - it depends entirely on age, experience and the course. A coach can give a much more meaningful benchmark for your specific child than a generic number, since junior scoring expectations vary enormously by age and stage.