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.
The shapes: circles and squares
The marking system encodes your score relative to par as a shape, so a card can be read at a glance. 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. It is a convention, not a rule — plenty of golfers just write the number.
The names for every score
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.
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 — shoots roughly par.
- Bogey golfer
- A player who averages about one over par per hole (~90 on a par 72).
- OUT / IN / TOT
- Front-nine total, back-nine total, and full 18-hole total.
- 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.
For where these rows physically sit on the card, see how to read a golf scorecard, and for the whole scoring task start to finish, how to keep score in golf.
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.