Last year, to make myself feel better about a lack of progress in my handicap, I determined one’s golf season shouldn’t be judged by a set of numbers. Instead, I devised a year-end golf assessment based on a series of questions … that resulted in another set of numbers.

But this is still different. As opposed to your handicap index, which is based on your scores, the Golf Competence Achievement & Reward Test (aka the Golf CART) takes a holistic view of your golf life over the last 12 months. It wants to know about the relative state of your game, yes, but also how you fared in different contexts, and how much you derived from the experience along the way.

The Golf CART might seem like a joke because it won’t be much use when determining strokes on the first tee. But it is a worthwhile way of zooming out on the whole year and focusing beyond the three double bogeys made in your last round.

So with that out of the way, I’ll repost the scoring system and explanations, and provide examples from colleagues who I forced asked to take the test. Reminder, these are all relative to your game, so even if you carry it 185 yards on a good day, you might still consider the year a driving success.

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The system is simple. There are 10 categories in which you grade yourself on a 1-5 scale. A 5 is exceptional for you, 4 is above average, 3 is average, 2 is below average, 1 is absolute crap. Again, the benchmark here is your level, so it helps to compare this year to the one or two years prior.

Part 1: Competence

The CART™ doesn’t dispute that much of our golf satisfaction is tied to how well we execute in specific areas, but we wanted to probe deeper than the typical ball-striking and putting statistics used elsewhere. All of these questions are meant to assess whether you feel you’ve made tangible progress in areas that influence your golf experience.

1. Power and speed

While this is primarily an assessment of your driving proficiency, it extends elsewhere. Were your good drives leaving you shorter distances into greens? Could you carry ambitious hazards more or less than before? While it’s possible to have ample clubhead speed and not be a good golfer, trust me: a power deficiency tends to seep into your performance and your enjoyment over the balance of a season.

2. Full swing reliability

You could measure a swing’s efficacy any number of ways, but a telling gauge is this: How comfortable are you with a 7-iron in your hand, to hit a moderate-sized target? We’re not talking about attacking pins, but compared to the year prior, do you feel better about that shot, worse, or about the same?

3. Short game versatility

A good short game is about much more than your ability to hit a standard chip, but your adaptability in certain situations—tight lies, heavy rough, a bunker shot over a high lip. Another way to frame it: You miss a green and are not sure what sort of shot you will face as you approach your ball. How big is the pit in your stomach?

4. Putts you shouldn’t make

Not dissimilar from speed or lag putting, this mainly reflects your ability to leave yourself gimmes or even hole a few from significant distances. By the way, if you’re wondering what counts as a putt you shouldn’t make, check out our How Do You Compare? interactive. The answer is basically everything.

5. Putts you should make

A pretty simple way to think about this: You lag your first putt to three feet. Do you welcome the chance to sink the next one, or are you praying your opponent says it’s good? Fair or not, the shortest shots risk sticking with you the longest.

Part 2: Achievement

A conceit for all the golf we play at this level is that the stakes are fairly low. But even there, I believe our golf can be divided into two categories—our regular rounds, and the “big” ones.

6. The Regular Season (aka “The Joe’ Scale”)

I play a pretty standard game with the same group of guys, one of whom is my rival/neighbor/friend/tormentor Joe. Joe is nothing if not a decent benchmark for the state of my own game, hence why I’m unofficially referring to this as the “Joe Scale.” Broadly, the question is how you fared in what you considered “regular rounds.” Was your best golf better, and your worst golf less awful? Did you flirt with any benchmark rounds, or did you regress? Did you beat your version of Joe more than you lost to him?

7. The Majors

In a Low Net world, the majors are those rounds where you at least make sure you have enough tees and balls without scuff marks in your bag: club championships, member-guests, buddies trips with a pre-arranged format. These are the rounds that “matter” the most, which means they’re still insignificant, but we obsess about them anyway.

Part 3: Rewards

While you might think rewards and achievement are similar, they’re actually not. One of the Low Net principles is that golf is sometimes fun, but always rewarding in how it teaches us about ourselves, and presents new challenges. So here, the rewards are the extent that golf shaped you this year, the outlet it provided, and the connections and memories it forged.

8. Meaningful golf

The first part of this is simple: Did you play enough golf? Or did life get in the way? But it’s also about the quality of golf you played, because I’d argue your meaningful golf quotient should depend heavily on your ability to extract value from a wide assortment of occasions—from bucket list trips to six-round loops at dusk. The best golf years create the bold-faced memories, but also a sufficient number of delightful little moments in between.

9. Work-Life Realities (aka “Divorce/Unemployment Scale”)

The counterbalance to playing enough meaningful golf is something else could be suffering. Did golf lead to unrest at home? Did you blow off too much work? The CART™ contends that a great golf year should not come at too great an expense of other aspects of life. Welcome scenario: The golf you play is time well spent, which alleviates the stress from work, which allows you to be more present with your family. Another scenario: You played a lot of golf, but no one really seemed to notice. This is the toughest one to gauge, and frankly hinges on more than just you.

10. Golf outlook

The nature of your golf season is going to linger even after you stop playing (although I make an argument here why you should keep going). Put simply: What was your golf mood this year? While frustration is inevitable, did you still walk away excited about your golf future? Are you looking forward to building on a successful foundation this offseason, or at least motivated to address what held you back? Do you mostly welcome a break? At any point recently have you looked into buying a boat?

Scoring Key

41-50: A career year. Don’t change a thing.

31-40: A promising year, plenty to build on.

21-30: Worth reviewing what you’d do differently next year.

20 & below: Maybe the boat isn’t such a bad idea.

Staff Scores

I was happy to see the sampling of scores below didn’t reflect any bias toward ability level or personality type. For instance, we had low handicaps at both ends of the scale. More surprisingly, Myers, the staffer who had the “best” year, is generally a curmudgeon and wouldn’t be positive about his year if he didn’t actually believe it.

Alex Myers (42): Considering I tore my meniscus before the season started, this has to be considered my best year on the course yet—highlighted, of course, by my first-ever hole-in-one.

Sam Weinman (37): I clocked in at 35 in 2024, confirming this was indeed a better overall year. The best part? I end it convinced I can be much better in 2025.

E. Michael Johnson (39): My iron play continues to be a struggle but my short game is starting to shine, allowing me to enjoy golf as much as I ever have.

Will Irwin (36): For me this year I really worked on my ‘pressure moment’ swing. I tried to find the shot I felt most comfortable with when I needed a par to win. Something else that helped me along the way was making an increased effort to finish out the hole rather than picking it up. Over time, this gave me so much more confidence on the greens standing over those 4-5 footers.

Luke Hooten (35): Overall, I made really solid gains this year. I have a lot of optimism for next year, and truly believe that if I can put everything together and learn to make a few putts, I have a legitimate chance at making a huge leap in my game.

Shane Ryan (34): I think this is one of golf’s nefarious tricks. I had the year of my life—breaking 80 on multiple occasions—but I’m insecure and have a deep fear that I’ve forgotten everything. I have paranoid thoughts, like “Is this as good as it gets?” and “Is it impossible to stay decent if I’m not playing multiple times every week?” So, a little oddly, my outlook is shit right now, at least until the next good round.

Keely Levins (34): I didn’t play much golf this year, which can happen when you have two toddlers and a job. My golf goals right now orbit around introducing my kids to the game and making the course a place they love to be. But when I did play, I played shockingly well.

Christopher Powers (34): This time last year, I was firmly in the “why am I still doing this?” camp. Fortunately, with the help of a playing legend (Padraig Harrington) and a teaching legend (Butch Harmon) I can now say I’m in a spot where I’m scoring quite well (went from a 11 to a 6) but still have plenty of room for improvement in the power and speed department, which leaves me optimistic about 2025 as I continue to try and improve in that area.

Steve Hennessey (32): In many ways it was a banner year, ticking off a handful of top courses, getting to my lowest index … but I still wrap up 2024 knowing that I’m leaving a lot on the table.

Luke Kerr-Dineen (31.5): One of the more frustrating ball-striking seasons in recent memory, but strangely, coming out on the other end has taught me a few things about my short game, the need for power, and the importance of a swing checklist for when I get sloppy.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com