​They call it alt-golf for a reason. It isn’t the game Ben Hogan knew. It’s a contemporary alternative, tailored to an era of simulators, launch monitors, gamified driving ranges, and other high-tech platforms. It’s also exceptionally popular. Consider these figures from the National Golf Foundation: of the 48.1 million Americans who play golf, about 38 million engage in some form of alt-golf, and roughly 19 million have never even stepped onto a real course. Just like traditional golf, alt-golf thrives on competition. There are tournaments, leagues, long-drive contests, and closest-to-the-pin challenges. Players of all skill levels participate, from beginners at Topgolf to Tour pros in TGL.
Yet, unlike traditional golf, alt-golf had one of the game’s defining innovations missing: a universal way to compare ability across players with different skill levels. That gap has been closed, at least in part, with the latest development. On Thursday, Evenplay—a platform powered by artificial intelligence for gaming—introduced the Evenplay Index, a skill-rating system crafted specifically for golfers who play on high-tech platforms. Instead of basing ratings on scores posted at conventional courses, the index evaluates players based on the shots they actually hit. By leveraging data from launch monitors and simulators, the company’s AI analyzes each swing, generates a skill rating on a 1-to-100 scale, and then converts that rating into a handicap tailored to a player’s chosen platform.
Signing up for an Evenplay Index is free. You receive one automatically whenever you create an account on any of the company’s affiliated high-tech platforms. Evenplay asserts that a reliable assessment can be produced after roughly the first 10 shots—essentially all that’s needed to establish an Index—and the evaluation continues to refine as more swings are recorded. Ratings are locked during competitions to prevent players from manipulating handicaps mid-round. Be wary of hustlers, whether they’re hitting into greens or into screens.
“The handicap is one of the great inventions in sport, but it was designed for posted rounds on rated courses,” said Sameer Gupta, Evenplay’s co-founder. “It simply wasn’t meant to extend to garage sims, indoor leagues, or Friday-night bays. The Evenplay Index changes that—your skill, measured shot by shot, becomes a handicap built for wherever you play. Whether you shoot 72 or 120: game on.”
This launch highlights how drastically golf’s off-course landscape has evolved. The NGF notes that nearly four out of five golfers now participate in some form of off-course play, with millions playing exclusively in those settings. Yet only a small portion of all golfers maintain a traditional handicap, which is designed specifically for rounds on rated courses.
Would you consider money games on golf simulators? This company is betting that you would. The Evenplay Index represents a bold step toward standardizing skill across virtual and real-world environments, enabling fairer competition and broader participation in the rapidly expanding world of alt-golf.