The short answer
A scorecard lists, for every hole, its par, its stroke index (how hard it ranks for receiving shots) and its yardage from each set of tees. Off to one side sit the course rating and slope that drive your handicap. The blank columns are for your gross and net scores.
Here is a real example, the front nine at The Heron Country Club off the white tees. Read it row by row as we go.
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Par | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Stroke index | 9 | 11 | 1 | 15 | 3 | 13 | 7 | 5 | 17 |
| White yards | 573 | 384 | 458 | 159 | 573 | 381 | 380 | 245 | 355 |
Par and the totals
Par is the score an expert is expected to take on each hole, almost always 3, 4 or 5. Add the pars up and you get the par for the nine and for the full 18, the headline number for the course. On the card above the front nine is a mix of par 3s, 4s and 5s, the usual shape. Par is your reference point: one over par on a hole is a bogey, one under is a birdie.
Stroke index: where you get shots
This is the row most newcomers misread. Stroke index ranks the holes 1 to 18 by how hard they are for the purpose of allocating handicap strokes, not the order you play them. The hole marked 1 is where the first shot of your handicap is given, and so on. On our example, hole 3 is stroke index 1, so a golfer receiving 10 shots gets one of them there; hole 9, stroke index 17, only gives a shot to high handicaps. Match your course handicap against this row and you know exactly where your strokes land.
Yardages and tee colours
Most cards show several yardage rows, one per set of tees, usually colour-coded such as white, yellow and red. You pick one set and play the whole round from it. The set you choose determines not just the length but the course rating and slope that apply to your score, so the yardage row you use is the one that matters.
Course rating and slope
Tucked near the tee details you will find a course rating and a slope rating for each set of tees. Course rating is the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot; slope is how much harder the tees play for an average golfer. Both feed your handicap, and they each get a full explanation in our course rating vs slope guide.
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The scoring columns
The blank columns are where the round gets recorded: your gross score per hole, and often a net column (gross minus the handicap strokes you receive) and a Stableford points column. There are usually two name rows so a marker can keep your card while you keep theirs, which is how scores are verified for handicap. In Golf Handicapp you skip all of it: photograph the finished card and the AI reads the pars, stroke indexes and your scores, then works out gross, net and points for you.