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How to Make a Golf Scorecard Graphic

2026-11-03 · Score Graphics

A score graphic tells viewers how the round is going during a shot. A scorecard graphic shows them the whole round at once: every hole so far, every score, and where it's heading. It's the moment viewers lean in, check the birdies and the damage, and decide whether they're watching a good round or a car crash.

This guide covers how to lay out a golf scorecard graphic, the marks golfers expect to see, how to handle the front and back nine, when to put it on screen, and how to make one without spending hours on it.

What a scorecard graphic shows

A scorecard graphic is a cleaned-up version of a paper scorecard. Most use these rows:

• Hole numbers, 1 to 18, across the top.
• Par for each hole, under its number.
• Yardage, if you want it. It's a nice extra, but it's the first row to drop when space is tight.
• A row for each player, with their name on the left and their score on each hole.
• Totals: OUT for the front nine, IN for the back nine, and TOT for the round, plus the score to par (E, -2, +5), which is the number viewers care about most.

Keep the same fonts and colours as your score graphic, so the two feel like one set. If your shot-by-shot graphic is navy and gold, your scorecard should be too.

Birdie circles and bogey boxes

Golf has a shorthand for scores that every golf fan reads instantly, and using it makes your card easy to scan:

• Par: just the number, no mark.
• Birdie (one under): a circle around the number.
• Eagle (two under): a double circle.
• Bogey (one over): a square box around the number.
• Double bogey or worse: a double box.

Many cards also colour the marks, for example red or gold for under par and a darker colour for over par. Keep colours as a helper rather than the only signal: the circles and boxes are what people look for, and they still work for viewers who can't tell some colours apart.

Front nine and back nine

Eighteen holes is a lot of columns for a 16:9 frame. There are two common ways to fit them:

• Two rows of nine. Holes 1 to 9 on top with OUT at the end, holes 10 to 18 underneath with IN and TOT. It's the clearest layout on a phone, because every number stays a good size.
• One long row of 18. It looks like a TV leaderboard card and works with one or two players, but the numbers get small. Check it on a phone before you commit.

You can also show just the nine you're on. During the front nine, show holes 1 to 9. At the turn, show the completed front nine with the OUT total. On the back nine, show holes 10 to 18 with OUT carried across so viewers still see the full score. That keeps the card big and simple, and it fits well in a vertical 1080 × 1920 frame for Shorts, TikTok and Reels.

When to show it

• After every hole. This is what most golf YouTube channels do. The last putt drops, the card comes up with that hole filled in, and the next tee shot starts. It's a natural pause and it resets the story.
• At the turn. If a card after every hole feels too much for your pacing, show it after the 9th with the front nine total.
• At the end. Always worth it. The full card with the final score is the payoff for viewers who watched the whole round.

Two to four seconds is usually enough for a mid-round card: long enough to read the new score, short enough not to stall the video. Give the final card a bit longer.

How to make one by hand

You can build a scorecard graphic in Canva, Photoshop, or the title tool in your video editor.

1. Make a blank canvas the size of your video (1920 × 1080) with a transparent background.
2. Draw the card: a rounded panel with a grid of 9 or 18 columns, rows for hole, par and each player, and total columns at the end.
3. Fill in the hole numbers and pars. These never change, so this is your template.
4. Add the scores for the holes played so far, with circles and boxes in the right places, and work out the totals and score to par.
5. Export it as a PNG and name it after the hole, like Card_H01.png.
6. Duplicate it for the next hole, add that hole's score and mark, update the totals, and export again.

Then, in your editor, place each card on a track above your footage between the last putt of one hole and the tee shot of the next.

The catch: 18 cards per round

Because the card fills in as the round goes, you need a new one after every hole: 18 cards for one round, each with the right marks and the right totals. With four players, every card has four rows to update. One wrong score early on and every card after it is wrong, and you usually spot it after you've rendered the video.

On top of that you still need a score graphic for every shot, which is another 80 to 100 graphics. The beginner's guide to making a golf score graphic covers those.

Beginner's guideHow to Make a Golf Score Graphic→

The quick way: a scorecard after every hole, automatically

The Score Graphics Generator does both from one scorecard. Enter the round, or on Pro just photograph the paper card and the AI scan fills in the pars, yardages and scores, flagging anything it isn't sure of.

Pro then adds a full scorecard graphic after every hole, filled in through that hole, with birdies circled and bogeys boxed, in the same style as your score graphic. It handles stroke play with up to four players, and match play singles or fourball with the match status (AS, 2UP, Dormie) worked out hole by hole.

Everything exports as transparent PNGs in a folder per hole, ready to drop into Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, CapCut or any editor that takes PNG images.

Try it on your next round

You can make a free account and preview every design with your own name on it before paying anything, and Starter and Pro both come with a 14-day free trial (the scorecard graphic is part of Pro). For the whole process, from scorecard to edit, read the full guide next.

Full guideHow to Add Score Graphics to Your Golf YouTube Videos→