The gross score is the total number of shots that a golfer has actually taken plus, if applicable, any penalty shots incurred. Thus this is the score before any adjustments have been made for handicap or, in a Stableford competition, before each hole score has been converted into Stableford points.
Most club competitions are played as handicap competitions so as to give members, at least in theory, an equal chance of winning and to encourage as many of the membership to take part as possible. The monthly medal, for example, will be played using handicaps and so the gross score will be adjusted by the players handicap allowance and the result then becomes player's nett score. Thus if a player goes round in 85 shots and has a course handicap of 12, then the net score is 85-12=73. The player with the lowest nett score wins the monthly medal. If there is a tie for first place, then it will normally go to a tiebreaker based upon countback.
However some club competitions, including typically the club championship, will be determined solely on the gross score. These often get called scratch competitions as, with no handicap allowances employed, everyone plays, in effect, as if they were a scratch golfer, or off scratch. Some competitions or golf days will also have prizes for the lowest gross score and the lowest nett score.
In a Stableford competition the score on each hole gets translated into points and the aggregate of these points is the player’s final Stableford score. Every player has their score on each hole recorded by the marker, but the marker's duty is only to record a player’s gross score. The marker does not need to worry about the nett score or the Stableford score. Although most markers will also calculate these, they do not have to concern themselves with calculating these if they do not wish to.
What is ‘adjusted gross score’ in golf?
Adjusted gross score is something used only to calculate handicaps. It limits how high a score can be recorded on a hole for handicap purposes. For a player with an established Handicap Index, this limit is a net double bogey, so any score above this will be recorded as a net double bogey. Thus a nightmare hole where a player racks up a huge number of shots will not artificially skew the calculation as, in the words of the R&A, “a score for handicap purposes should not be overly influenced by one or two bad hole scores that are not reflective of a player’s demonstrated ability.”
