What playing off the low means
Off the low is the standard way to give strokes in match play, Nassau and most group games. The player with the lowest Playing Handicap plays scratch, and every other player receives the difference between their Playing Handicap and the lowest. If four players have 8, 14, 20 and 23, they receive 0, 6, 12 and 15 strokes.
Using full handicaps would give the same total difference but put it on different holes. An 8 playing a 23 would have the 23 receive a stroke on every hole and a second one on the five hardest, while the 8 receives one on the eight hardest. The strokes cancel on shared holes and the difference of 15 lands on holes with stroke index 1 to 5 and 9 to 18. Off the low puts all 15 on the 15 hardest holes, which is how match play is normally played.
The order of the arithmetic
Take the difference between each player's Course Handicap and the lowest Course Handicap, apply the allowance to that difference, and round last, with a half rounded up. At 100% the strokes are simply the difference. This is the typical way a 90% four-ball match play allowance is applied: Course Handicap differences from the low player of 8, 17 and 29 become 7, 15 and 26 strokes.
Which holes get the strokes
Each stroke goes to the hole with the next lowest stroke index. 6 strokes means holes with stroke index 1 to 6. A player receiving 20 gets a stroke on every hole plus a second on holes with index 1 and 2. The table lists the holes for each player, and a number in brackets is a second stroke.
Four-ball and pairwise
In four-ball match play many committees use 90% of the difference from the lowest. Choose 90% in the allowance menu to see it. Another approach, pairwise, uses the difference between each pair only, which is useful when each player has several separate bets. In that case use this calculator once for each pair.
The calculator does arithmetic only and stores nothing.