# Flights and handicaps without the spreadsheet.

> Golf league flights by handicap rank or equal groups, tees by flight, handicap allowances, 9- and 18-hole handicaps, and a league estimate for leagues without club handicaps.

Canonical: https://golfleaguesoftware.com/features/golf-league-flights-and-handicaps

Keep the handicaps your club or golf association gives your golfers, and let the software sort flights, tees and net scores from them each week.

*By the Golf League Software team. Updated 2026-11-12.*

## Flights

- **By handicap rank:** a set number of golfers per flight, for example 30 in A, the next 30 in B, with the last flight taking the rest.
- **Equal flights:** split the field into equal groups by handicap.
- **By hand:** pin any golfer to a flight, or use the flights your club already assigns.
- **One field:** no flights at all.

Each flight can play its own tee (A and B off the blues, C and D off the whites), with a fallback tee for anyone without a flight and per-golfer tee overrides.

## Handicaps

- **Club handicaps first.** Enter each golfer’s handicap from your club or association, and update it whenever you like: every change is kept in the golfer’s handicap history.
- **9 or 18 holes.** Tell it whether your handicaps are 18-hole numbers (half the strokes on a nine) or nine-hole numbers.
- **Allowance.** Use full handicaps or a percentage, such as 90%.
- **A league estimate.** From each golfer’s recent league rounds the app shows an estimate alongside their handicap. Leagues without club handicaps can apply it; a club handicap is only replaced when the admin chooses that.

The league estimate is not an official handicap. It isn’t a Handicap Index, and it isn’t calculated under the World Handicap System; it’s a league’s working number, and we always call it that. Read more in [golf league handicaps](https://golfleaguesoftware.com/guides/golf-league-handicaps).

## Questions

### Do flights change during the season?

Flights by rank follow the handicaps on each night, so a golfer can move flights when their handicap moves. A golfer pinned to a flight by hand stays there. Each round keeps the flight it was played in.

### Can we use our club’s official handicaps?

Yes, and that is the default. The league estimate is only applied where an admin chooses it.

## Related

- [Golf league flights](https://golfleaguesoftware.com/guides/golf-league-flights)
- [Golf league handicaps](https://golfleaguesoftware.com/guides/golf-league-handicaps)
- [Golf league standings and points](https://golfleaguesoftware.com/features/golf-league-standings)
- [Compare golf league software](https://golfleaguesoftware.com/compare)