How Scoring Works on fourBallBuddy
What fourBallBuddy tracks
When you post scores, fourBallBuddy maintains three things:
- Your scoring average — the average of your 18-hole gross scores, shown to one decimal.
- Your round stats — putts, fairways, greens in regulation, and your bests, from rounds where you enter hole-by-hole detail.
- Your fBB Index — our measure of your playing ability, computed from your recent rounds using a method modeled on golf's standard handicapping approach.
These three are calculated differently, and a round can count toward one without counting toward another. This page explains exactly what counts where.
Posting a score
Rounds are posted hole-by-hole: enter your score for each hole (plus putts, fairways, and greens in regulation if you want the full stats) from Stats → Post a score. Hole-by-hole detail is what lets a round reach your fBB Index.
There is one exception. When you first join fourBallBuddy, the Get Started flow lets you add a few recent rounds with just a total score, so your average has history from day one. Rounds added that way count toward your scoring average and your rounds-played count, but they can never produce an fBB Index differential — the Index math needs your hole-by-hole scores.
Your scoring average
Your average includes every 18-hole round you post — hole-by-hole rounds and quick-post rounds alike. It is a straight average of gross scores, rounded to one decimal. Nine-hole rounds are not included.
Your fBB Index
The fBB Index estimates your playing ability the way golf's standard handicap systems do: from score differentials on your recent rounds.
What a round needs to produce a differential:
- 18 holes, with a score entered for every hole
- A course rating and slope for the tees you played — from our course database, or from ratings you entered yourself when the course or tee isn't in our data
How the differential is computed. Your hole scores are first capped for handicap purposes at net double bogey (if you don't have an established Index yet, the cap is par + 5). The capped total is your adjusted gross score. Then:
rounded to one decimal.
How the Index is computed from differentials. We take your most recent 20 rounds that have differentials and average the best of them, on this schedule:
| Rounds with differentials | Used for your Index | Adjustment |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | lowest 1 | -2.0 |
| 4 | lowest 1 | -1.0 |
| 5 | lowest 1 | none |
| 6 | lowest 2 | -1.0 |
| 7-8 | lowest 2 | none |
| 9-11 | lowest 3 | none |
| 12-14 | lowest 4 | none |
| 15-16 | lowest 5 | none |
| 17-18 | lowest 6 | none |
| 19 | lowest 7 | none |
| 20 or more | lowest 8 of your last 20 | none |
Fewer than 3 rounds with differentials = no fBB Index yet. Your Index updates automatically each time you post a qualifying score, and is shown to one decimal.
Two things to know
1. A round can count toward your average but not your Index. Rounds added by total score during setup, and rounds where no rating and slope could be resolved for the tees you played, count toward your scoring average and rounds played — but they never produce a differential, so they never move your fBB Index. Your average and your Index are computed from different sets of rounds, and they can tell different stories.
2. fourBallBuddy does not compute 9-hole differentials. Only 18-hole rounds can reach your fBB Index. This is a deliberate simplification — official handicap systems combine or scale 9-hole scores; we don't. Nine-hole rounds are great for stats and history, but they don't move your Index or your average.
Glossary
Gross score. Your total strokes for the round, exactly as played. No caps, no adjustments.
Scoring average. The average of your 18-hole gross scores, shown to one decimal. Includes rounds added by total score during setup.
Course rating. How hard a set of tees plays for an expert (scratch) golfer — roughly the score a scratch golfer would be expected to shoot. Printed on most scorecards.
Slope. How much harder a set of tees plays for an average golfer than for a scratch golfer. Runs from 55 to 155; 113 is the neutral baseline used in the math.
Course handicap. Your fBB Index translated into strokes for the specific tees you're playing: index × (slope / 113) + (rating - par), rounded to a whole number. This decides how many handicap strokes you receive, and on which holes.
Stroke index (hole handicap). The 1-18 ranking printed on the scorecard showing which holes are hardest. Your handicap strokes are applied to holes in this order — with 10 strokes, you receive one on each of the 10 hardest-ranked holes.
Net double bogey. The most any one hole can count for handicap purposes: par + 2 + any handicap strokes you receive on that hole. If you don't have an fBB Index yet, the cap is par + 5 instead. It exists so one blow-up hole can't wreck an otherwise good round's differential.
Adjusted gross score. Your 18-hole total after each hole is capped at net double bogey. This — not your raw gross — is what the differential is computed from.
Differential. A measure of how well you played, adjusted for how hard the course was: (113 / slope) × (adjusted gross - course rating), rounded to one decimal. Lower is better, and on a course of average difficulty it lands near "strokes over the course rating."
fBB Index. fourBallBuddy's measure of your playing ability: the average of your best recent differentials (see the schedule above), to one decimal. Not an official Handicap Index — see the fine print.
Net score. Your gross score minus your course handicap — what your round "played to" once your handicap is accounted for.
GIR (green in regulation). You hit the green with at least two putts' worth of strokes left for par — on the green in 1 on a par 3, in 2 on a par 4, in 3 on a par 5.
The fine print
The fBB Index is fourBallBuddy's own measure. It is not an official Handicap Index issued under the World Handicap System, and it is not connected to GHIN or any golf association. If you maintain an official handicap, expect the numbers to differ — different rounds qualify, and official systems apply adjustments (like 9-hole scaling, exceptional-score reductions, and playing conditions calculations) that fourBallBuddy deliberately keeps simple. Where we use a playing-conditions term in the math, it is currently held at zero.
Questions? support@fourballbuddy.com