Check the tournament conditions
Whether a match is played on handicap or on the flat, and how many chukkas it has, is set by the tournament or club. The USPA revises its rules each year; this tool follows the 2024 Outdoor Rules, so check the current rulebook for your event.
How it works
Both rulebooks use the same arithmetic. A team's handicap is the total of its four players' handicaps. Under the HPA's 2026 rules (Rule 7b), the difference between the two team handicaps is multiplied by the number of chukkas in the match and divided by 6, because handicaps are rated on a six-chukka game. The result is the number of goals the lower-rated team starts with, and any fraction of a goal counts as half a goal. The USPA's 2024 Outdoor Rules (Rule 19) say the same thing in their own words: one sixth of the difference, multiplied by the number of periods (overtime does not count), with any fraction recorded as half a goal that also serves as a tie breaker.
Under the USPA's 2024 Outdoor Rules a game has at most six regular periods (Rule 16), so the calculator offers up to six chukkas for that rulebook; the HPA's 2026 rules make four to six the standard and let the tournament committee vary it (Rule 8a).
The USPA adds one rule the HPA does not. In events whose upper handicap limit is above 6 goals, a player rated -0.5, 0.5 or 1.5 is counted as -1, 0 or 1 when the team handicap is added up (Rule 19b). Tick the box above to apply it. The USPA rulebook also points to an Optional Tournament Condition (XII) that relates to Rule 19b; its text is in the USPA's separate Tournament Conditions, which this tool does not model, so check the conditions of your event. HPA handicaps are whole goals from -2 to 10, so the HPA rule never meets a half-goal player.
Checked against the rulebook
The USPA rulebook prints a worked example under Rule 19 for a 6-goal event played over six periods. Red's players are 2, 3, 0.5 and 0.5, a total of 6. White's are 2, 2, 1.5 and -1, a total of 4.5. The rulebook says Red gives White 1½ goals. The calculator opens on that match and gives the same answer. The same example says Red gives Blue (3, 2, -1 and 1.5, a total of 5.5) half a goal and loses a tied game, which the calculator also reproduces.
The USPA also publishes an Outdoor Handicap Matrix of goals for team differences from 0 to 4 and games of 2 to 6 periods. This calculator matches every cell in that table.