What Handicap ?

I'm reasonably new to golf (started playing about 16 months ago) and want to know roughly what my handicap should be.

My general scores are between high 80s and low 90s.

Yesterday however I played two rounds and shot 84 on both rounds (one on a par 71 and the other on a par 70). In the first round I hit 10 pars (no birdies) and in the second round I hit 8 pars and again no birdies.

I'm not a member of a club so don't have an official handicap.

What would my handicap roughly be and how do you work it out ?

Thanks

Depends...do you play under R&A or USGA conditions?
Where do you play?

Hi GreeBowman,

As I play in the UK (lancashire & yorkshire), I assume that will be under R&A conditions/rules.

Also, these scores have been achieved off the 'yellow' tees; these tend to be a few yards in front of the 'white' competition tees.

If you were being allocated a handicap for the first time you it would be calculated on your best score from at least three cards submitted. The Standard Scratch Score (SSS) would be subtracted from your gross score and that would give your handicap.
The SSS is shown for each set of tees on the scorecard for the course you played. It is usually (but by no means always) about 1 stroke less than par.
So if your par 71 course had a SSS of 70 and you scored a gross 84, you would be allocated a handicap of 14.

The full details of handicapping in the UK can be found at www.congu.com in 'Unified Handicapping System' at the top of the screen.

Good rule of thumb, substract the course rated par from your average score, your hady cap would be roughly 80 percent of that, this will get you in the ball park. So if you use 71 course rate, and you say you shoot mid 80's that a 14 shot difference or so, 80 percent of that is roughly 11, so you would be around an 11 handicap. Not exact by any stretch of the imagination, but will get you near enough for government work..lol

Thanks guys - really useful info.

GoNavy is talking about the USGA system. As you are in the UK the CONGU system applies as I described.