From Brent Kelley,
Your Guide to Golf.
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The great thing about the course rating and slope rating systems is that they help players of differing skill levels play on an even field - even when they are playing from different sets of tees.

When two players are playing from different tees, they each determine their course handicaps based on the tees each is playing. Those course handicaps take into account slope rating only, however - not course rating. So a second adjustment - beyond the determination of course handicaps - must be made to account for any difference that exists in the course rating of the two sets of tees being played.

The player who is playing from the set of tees with the higher course rating will receive extra strokes. The number of extra strokes is determined by the difference between the tees in course rating.

Let's do an example. Player A has a course handicap of 18, and Player B has a course handicap of 19 (remember that course handicap already takes into account handicap index and slope rating). Player A is going to play from the White tees, where the course rating is 70.5. Player B is going to play from the Blue tees, where the course rating is 72.5.

Because Player B's tees have a course rating two strokes higher than the tees from which Player A is playing, those two strokes are added to the course handicap of Player B (who is playing from the more difficult set of tees).

So player B gets to 21 while Player A remains at 18, and Player A has to give Player B three strokes.

By the way, when determining the difference between course ratings and the extra strokes to give, you do round up or down (so 2.5 becomes 3 and 2.4 becomes 2).

To summarize: The player playing from the set of tees with the higher course rating will receive extra strokes based on the difference between the course ratings of the two sets of tees.

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