What is a Playing Handicap™? Your Playing Handicap is the number of strokes you give to, or receive from, an opponent for the round being played. It’s based on your Course Handicap™ but can be ...

The official home of the USGA Experience and World Golf Hall of Fame in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Find information on tickets, tours, parking and more.

Are you an average golfer? And what would it mean if you were? After all, this is golf, a sport of such random, unforeseen outcomes it tends to mock the notion that anything hews to an average – or ...

This content was first published in Golf Journal, a quarterly print publication exclusively for USGA Members. To be among the first to receive Golf Journal and to learn how you can help make golf more ...

The USGA's new Rules of Golf will go into effect on January 1, 2023. Explore additional resources on these changes here.

Major ChangesThe following are the main changes to the Rules of Golf that took effect on January 1, 2019. The items covered on this page are organized into nine categories. Within each individual item ...

New Rule: Under Rule 13.2a (2): There is no longer a penalty if a ball played from the putting green hits a flagstick left in the hole. Players are not required to putt with the flagstick in the hole; ...

The USGA Green Section explains how to properly repair ball marks.

There is no longer a penalty for merely touching the line of play on the putting green (the term “line of play” applies everywhere on the course including the putting green, and the term “line of putt ...

Major Proposed ChangesThese are the proposed changes expected to have the most impact on the game and to be of most interest to golfers and those who follow the game. The 33 items covered on this page ...

Sand Valley Resort, in Nekoosa, Wis., has been selected by the USGA to host four future amateur championships, starting with the 2026 U.S. Mid-Amateur.

World Handicap System resources dedicated to the 2024 revision.