Guide

How to keep score at a youth golf match when you don’t play golf

Somebody handed you a card and a pencil, and now you’re walking with four kids, maybe including your own. Here’s the whole job.

What you’re counting

One number per player per hole: how many times they swung at the ball. That’s it. You don’t judge how well they hit it, and you don’t need to know what par is to count.

A swing counts when they’re trying to hit the ball, even if they miss it completely. A practice swing, where they aren’t trying to hit it, doesn’t count. The kids know the difference, and most of them will tell you.

Penalty strokes

Sometimes a player adds a stroke or two without swinging: the ball went in the water, or out of bounds, or somewhere they can’t play it from. The player or the coach will usually tell you. Add those to that hole’s number like any other swing.

Picking up

Many leagues set a limit on each hole, often double par, so a bad hole doesn’t take all afternoon. When a player reaches the limit they pick the ball up, and the limit is their score for that hole. The coach will tell you what the limit is before you start, if there is one.

At the end

Read each player their scores hole by hole and let them agree. In the rules, the player is responsible for their own hole scores, so a quick check together at the end is the normal thing, not a sign you got it wrong.

Staying out of the way

Count and cheer. Don’t suggest a club or tell them how to swing, even if they ask. Under the rules a player can only ask their own caddie for advice, so helping could cost them a penalty.

Stand off to the side, out of their line, stay quiet while they hit, and keep the group moving between shots.

GolfJot is a scorecard on a phone for exactly this: tap a player each time they swing, and it does the counting. golfjot.com