Two things confuse people about a scorecard: the little shapes drawn around some numbers, and the vocabulary golfers use for those numbers. Both are simple once mapped. Here they are.
What do the symbols on a golf scorecard mean?
The marking system encodes your score relative to par as a shape, so a card can be read at a glance. The shapes are a convention used by most scorekeepers, TV broadcasts, and scoring apps, but they are not part of the official Rules of Golf. Below, each mark is shown on a par-4 hole:
You will see this most on TV leaderboards and on the cards of players who track their game closely. Plenty of golfers just write the number.
What is a birdie, bogey, and eagle?
Each result relative to par has a name. Examples are shown against a par-4 hole (except the albatross, which needs a par 5):
| Name | Relative to par | Example | Usual mark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albatross (double eagle) | 3 under | on a par 5, a 2 | rare; circled |
| Eagle | 2 under | a 2 | double circle |
| Birdie | 1 under | a 3 | circle |
| Par | even | a 4 | no mark |
| Bogey | 1 over | a 5 | square |
| Double bogey | 2 over | a 6 | double square |
| Triple bogey | 3 over | a 7 | double square |
A hole in one is called an ace. On a par 3 it is scored as a birdie; on a (very rare) par-4 ace it is an eagle.
Golf scorecard abbreviations
Beyond the shapes, scorecards use abbreviations that are obvious once you know them but opaque otherwise. Here are the ones you will see on a printed card, a scoring app, or a scorecard layout:
- HCP / S.I. (handicap / stroke index) ranks holes 1 to 18 by difficulty. It is not your personal handicap.
- OUT is the front-nine total (holes 1 to 9).
- IN is the back-nine total (holes 10 to 18).
- TOT is your 18-hole total (OUT + IN).
- GIR (green in regulation) means reaching the green in the expected number of strokes minus two putts.
- FIR (fairway in regulation) means landing your tee shot in the fairway on a par 4 or par 5.
- CR / SR (course rating / slope rating) measure how hard the course plays. They appear near the tee information.
Scorecard terms glossary
The words that show up on the card and around the group:
- Par
- The strokes an expert is expected to need on a hole (3, 4, or 5).
- Ace
- A hole in one: the ball in the hole in a single stroke.
- Gross score
- The raw total of every stroke you took.
- Net score
- Gross score minus your course handicap.
- Handicap
- A number representing how many strokes over par you typically play, used to level the field.
- Stroke index
- The row ranking holes 1–18 by difficulty; sets where handicap strokes fall.
- Scratch golfer
- A player with a 0 handicap who shoots roughly par.
- Bogey golfer
- A player who averages about one over par per hole (roughly 90 on a par 72).
- OUT / IN / TOT
- Front-nine total, back-nine total, and full 18-hole total.
- GIR (green in regulation)
- Reaching the green in the expected number of strokes minus two putts (e.g. two shots on a par 4).
- FIR (fairway in regulation)
- Landing your tee shot in the fairway on a par 4 or par 5.
- Gimme
- A short putt conceded by playing partners so you don't have to hole it (casual play only).
- Mulligan
- An informal do-over shot, not allowed under the Rules of Golf.
- Up and down
- Holing out in two shots from around the green: a chip (or bunker shot) and a putt.
Keep reading
For where these rows physically sit on the card, see how to read a golf scorecard. For the whole scoring task start to finish, how to keep score in golf. And if you want to know whether your number is any good, what is a good golf score?
Reading the shapes vs. keeping the score
Knowing the symbols helps you read a finished card. The harder job is producing an accurate one in the first place: remembering whether that hole was a bogey or a double while you walk to the next tee. A one-tap golf stroke counter handles that part: it keeps the running total and hands you a finished card, so the only thing left to do is admire the circles.