Target Golf

Determine What You Should Score Every Time Out

We all drive to the golf course with an idea in our head of how we would like to play on that particular day. You might have a Handicap Index® of 15 and hope to break 80 for the first time, or you might have just recently found single digits and want to post a round low enough to keep you there. While we all may have different motivations for the scores we aspire to shoot on any given day, there is a way to identify what you “should” score with the help of the information available to you through the World Handicap System.

Understanding your “target score” is fairly simple, and something you can do pre-round with the help of the GHIN App that you can download for free from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. But first we should clarify that your target score is the score you’ll shoot if you “play to your handicap.” In general, golfers shoot their target score 15-20 percent of the time, so if you hit that target score, you’ve probably had a pretty good day.

Now back to the GHIN App and determining your target score. The first step is identifying the Course Handicap™ for the specific set of tees you are playing. Adding this number to par for the same set of tees will give you your target score. So, if your course handicap is 16 and par is 72, your target score for the day would be 88. By starting each round identifying your target score, you can determine if you are playing the correct set of tees and set a realistic goal for the day. Here’s to you hitting your target in your next round. 