From Brent Kelley,
Your Guide to Golf.
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Scoring in golf is sometimes a mystery to those unfamiliar with the sport because in golf - unlike most other sports and games - it's the person with the lowest score who wins.

But golf scoring is as simple as can be. Every time you take a whack at that little white ball, that's a stroke. Every time you make a stroke, count it. At the end of each hole, add up your strokes for that hole and write it down. At the end of the round, add up the strokes for each hole and, there you have it, your golf score.

There are some other circumstances - for instance, every beginner (every golfer of every level) will have to take penalty strokes here and there. At least, if you're playing strictly by the rules.

But most simply put, a golf score is the number of times you whacked that little ball around the course.

Score in relation to par is also very easy to understand and compute. Each hole is given a number representing "par" - the number of strokes it should take a golfer to finish that hole. If the par is 4 and you make a 5, then your score in relation to par is 1-over. If the par is 4 and you make a 3, then your score in relation to par is 1-under.

If par for the course is 72 and you finished with a 92, then your score is 20-over.

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