Scoring terms: par, birdies and bogeys.

Par

Par is the number of strokes a player is expected to need on a hole. GOLF.com's scoring guide notes that almost every hole is a par 3, 4 or 5, and that an 18-hole course usually adds up to somewhere around 69 to 72. Wikipedia describes par as the score a scratch golfer, meaning one with a handicap of zero, would be expected to make, and gives about 72 as a typical course total.

Published guidelines link par to the length of the hole, and the two versions found for this site do not agree:

The Golf News Net presents its figures as USGA guidelines. The USGA's own document could not be opened for this site, so neither set has been checked against it. Wikipedia's ranges also overlap, while The Golf News Net's do not.

Scores against par

Golf has a name for most results on a hole, measured against its par. GOLF.com gives the common ones; the condor and triple bogey come from Wikipedia, which describes the condor as an unofficial term.

A hole-in-one, or ace, is a score of one. GOLF.com and Wikipedia both point out that it doubles as another score: on a par 3 a hole-in-one is also an eagle, and on a par 4 it is also an albatross.

Strokes and penalty strokes

Your score on a hole is every stroke you made plus any penalty strokes. Rule 3.1a of the 2023 Rules of Golf, in effect from 1 January 2023, says stroke play ranks players on total strokes including penalty strokes. The how golf works page lists the three penalty levels under Rule 1.3c(2): a one-stroke penalty, the general penalty (loss of hole in match play, two strokes in stroke play) and disqualification.

A ball resting against the flagstick counts as holed if any part of it is in the hole below the surface of the green (Rule 13.2c). A ball hanging over the lip of the hole may be given a reasonable time to reach the hole and ten more seconds. If it drops after that, you are treated as having holed out with the previous stroke but add one penalty stroke (Rule 13.3a).

Gross and net

• Gross score: the strokes you actually took, penalties included. A scratch competition is decided on gross scores with no handicap (Rule 3.1c).
• Net score: the gross score after handicap strokes are taken off. A handicap competition is decided on net scores (Rule 3.1c). The handicaps page explains how many strokes you receive.
• Scratch golfer: a golfer with a handicap of zero. Wikipedia describes par as the score a scratch golfer is expected to make, and a Course Rating is likewise expressed for a scratch golfer.

Match play language

In match play you count holes rather than strokes. Under Rule 3.2a a hole is won by taking fewer strokes, or when the opponent concedes it or takes the general penalty. A hole is tied, or "halved", when both sides take the same number of strokes. A match is won when one side leads by more holes than remain. A concession, of a stroke, a hole or the whole match, is final once clearly communicated (Rule 3.2b).

Scoring caps

• Maximum Score: a form of stroke play in which the Committee caps the score on each hole at a figure such as twice par, a fixed number or net double bogey (Definitions, Rule 21.2).
• Net double bogey: the highest hole score that counts for handicap purposes under the World Handicap System, according to the R&A (2020); the R&A's announcement of the 2024 revisions does not list a change to it. The Emirates Golf Federation's published version of the Rules of Handicapping (Rule 3.1) defines it as par plus 2 plus any handicap strokes you receive on the hole: 6 on a par 4 with no strokes, 7 with one.
• Stableford points: a points score against a fixed score on each hole, covered on the formats of play page.

Where the words came from

Wikipedia repeats traditional stories about the origins of "par", "bogey" and "birdie", but those accounts could not be confirmed from a primary source for this site, so they are not retold here. The glossary has short definitions of these and many other terms.