Introducing the Carry Index: A Live Handicap From Every Round
Every skins game has that conversation on the first tee. Somebody's index is two years old. Somebody's is from a different app. Somebody's is a number they just… said. And the money plays off all three.
Starting today, Carry keeps its own. Your Carry Index is a handicap index computed automatically from the rounds you actually play in Carry — not a number you type in. No GHIN, no separate app, no arguing. Play your rounds and it's just there.
How it works
Play 3 Skins Group rounds and your Carry Index unlocks on your profile, with a green C badge wherever it's in play. From then on it updates every time a round wraps — the round ends, the money settles, your index moves. Nothing to post, nothing to maintain.
Real math, not vibes
Under the hood it's the USGA World Handicap System method, applied to your Carry rounds:
- Every completed round becomes a score differential, using the course rating and slope of the tee you actually played.
- Each hole is capped at net double bogey — so one blow-up hole can't wreck your index.
- Your index is the average of your best 8 differentials from your last 20 rounds (with fewer rounds, the standard WHS table uses a smaller sample — which is why it unlocks at 3).
Same math as your official index, different rounds. Your official index counts every score you post anywhere; your Carry Index is built only from the rounds you play with your Carry crew. If that's where most of your golf happens, the two will track closely. If they drift apart — well, that's rather the point. It reflects how you actually score in your money games.
Play your skins off it
Here's where it gets interesting. The group creator can switch Player Index from Regular to Carry in the group's Game Settings. From then on, stroke allocation uses each member's Carry Index — you'll see the green C next to indexes on the tee sheet, the leaderboard, and the results.
That means the sandbagger conversation is over. Nobody plays off a stale number or a generous self-assessment. Everybody plays off what they've actually shot, in this game, against these guys — and the index keeps itself honest, because every round you play updates it.
Members who haven't unlocked a Carry Index yet simply play off their regular index until they do. Three rounds later, they're in.
Nothing to do
That's the whole feature. There's no setup, no syncing, no maintenance. Play your rounds and your index is waiting on your profile. If your group wants to play off it, that's one switch in Game Settings.
The full breakdown — the math, the net double bogey cap, how it compares to your official index — is in the FAQ.