Guide

What does a walking scorer do in junior golf?

A walking scorer walks the course with one group of players and keeps their scores. You don’t play, you don’t coach and you don’t make rulings. You count. If you were just told you’re doing it this weekend, here’s the day.

Leagues have different names for the same job: walk-along scorekeeper, volunteer scorer, or just scorekeeper. Some hand it to a team marshal, who also keeps the group moving. The counting is the same under every name.

Before the round

1. Find out which group you’re walking with and which hole it starts on. It isn’t always hole 1.
2. Ask the coach if there’s a max score on a hole, and what it is. See the double-par pickup rule for the usual ones.
3. Ask how the scores get turned in: a paper card, or a phone.
4. Learn the players’ names. Bring a pencil, water, and shoes you can walk in for a couple of hours.

On each hole

1. Stand off to the side where you can see every player, and stay quiet while they hit.
2. Count each swing a player makes trying to hit the ball, misses included. Practice swings don’t count. See does a whiff count as a stroke?
3. If your league uses tally marks, make one mark per swing as it happens. It saves holding four numbers in your head.
4. Add a penalty stroke when the player or the coach tells you there is one. You don’t decide that.
5. If a player reaches the stroke limit, they pick up, and the limit is their score.
6. Before the group leaves the green, say each player’s number out loud and let them agree. Then write it down.

What you leave alone

• Advice. Don’t suggest a club or a swing, even if they ask. Under the rules, advice from anyone but a caddie (or the coach, where the league allows it) can cost the player a penalty.
• Rulings. If the players aren’t sure about a rule, they work it out or ask the coach. You write down what they settle on.
• Old scores. If your count and a player’s don’t match, say so on that green. Don’t change a number three holes later.

At the end

Read each player their scores hole by hole and let them agree. Then hand the card to whoever is collecting them, usually the coach. That’s the job.

If you’ve never kept score and don’t play, read how to keep score at a youth golf match when you don’t play golf. It covers what counts in more detail.

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