Jump to content
IGNORED

explain course ratings

john granger

By john granger,
in Golf Talk

 Share
Note: This thread is 7010 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Recommended Posts

john granger Member

john granger

Before I quit golf back in the 60's, I do not remember a course rating. Now they have these course ratings 100-140?. As I understand it the higher the rating the harder the course. Ok, but as a weekend golfer who is also a high handicapper, what does this mean to me? How does this affect my game if any? Or by chance is this rating system mean something only to low handicappers?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator
iacas Hall of Fame Member

iacas

  • Administrator

Those are the slope ratings, not the course ratings. Read more about

ratings and handicaps and whatnot here .
Definitions The course rating is the average score the upper half of scratch golfers are expected to achieve. If your course rates a 73.1, and you put 100 scratch golfers and said "play," the top 50 should average 73.1. Slope rating represents the difficulty for bogey golfers, and can range from 55 to 155. 113 is about average. Bogey golfers face different challenges than scratch golfers, so these numbers may not always be proportional from course to course.

For the most part, as a high handicapper, stick to numbers with lower slope ratings (the 100-140 #). They're easier to play and thus probably more enjoyable. Will result in less lost balls, too.

Erik J. Barzeski — ⛳ I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • Author, Lowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Awards, Achievements, and Accolades
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

pmclamb Member

pmclamb

Before I quit golf back in the 60's, I do not remember a course rating. Now they have these course ratings 100-140?. As I understand it the higher the rating the harder the course. Ok, but as a weekend golfer who is also a high handicapper, what does this mean to me? How does this affect my game if any? Or by chance is this rating system mean something only to low handicappers?

This might not be completely right because I don't think I fully understand the concept. There are two numbers to describe course difficulty...slope and rating. So it looks something like 130/73.2. The rating is the second number, and that number just says that if you are a scratch golfer, that's the number of which you would normally shoot at that course...so obviously the higher the number the harder the course because if a scratch golfer should be expected to shoot a number over par, then a higher handicapper will have even more trouble with it. The slope is the more difficult to describe. It's called a slope because the number comes from a graph displaying a slope. The steeper the slope, the harder the course. The graph slope is steeper for more difficult courses...so if you were graphing a scratch golfer and a 25 handicappers scores for a course, the slope between the two points would determine the course slope...it's very confusing, i know...i am confusing myself as I write this. Just the higher the slope the higher a person is expected to score, and as you get into the higher handicaps the scores become exponentially higher for the harder courses.

The main use for these numbers are to compute handicaps. There is a formula you use to figure it out, someone on this forum will probably know it, but the formula takes into account the difficulty of the course to fairly compute your handicap and skill.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator
iacas Hall of Fame Member

iacas

  • Administrator
The formula was listed in the article I linked to above.

http://thesandtrap.com/archives/rule...r_handicap.php .

Erik J. Barzeski — ⛳ I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • Author, Lowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Awards, Achievements, and Accolades
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

Note: This thread is 7010 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Want to join this community?

    We'd love to have you!

    Sign Up

  • TST Partners

    TourStriker PlaneMate
    Golfer's Journal
    ShotScope
    The Stack System
    FlightScope Mevo
    Direct: Mevo, Mevo+, and Pro Package.

    Coupon Codes (save 10-15%): "IACAS" for Mevo/Stack, "IACASPLUS" for Mevo+/Pro Package, and "THESANDTRAP" for ShotScope.

  • Posts

    • DaHolla
      "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge

      By DaHolla ·

      Day 120 - Played 18; much better than yesterday. Miss right now is off the heel of the club, so I need to sort that out. 
    • Bo the Golfer
      Bo the Golfer's Golf Journey

      By Bo the Golfer ·

      Today we played Pease Golf Course in Portsmouth, NH. Course was in great shape but my game didn't show up. I will say I pitched and chipped fairly well but almost everything else was very hit or miss. Cost myself a lot hitting an in play drive with pulling my approach shots maybe 85% of the time. Finally figured out I had been swaying most of the round. Only took me until 13 to figure it out. Used what felt like a much more centered turn and the ballstriking improved. 18 tomorrow using a 2 man scramble format. Just looking to contribute. Been a blast though. 
    • Darkfrog
      "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge

      By Darkfrog ·

      Day 22: Hit balls with 7-iron using mevo+ to track dispersion. Was out for a long time after work; 86 balls but the first 50+ were 50% swings focusing on top of backswing feel and then just hitting the ball as a psychic reward. Finished with 20 balls close to full speed. Pretty happy with dispersion and also no horrendous misses. I’m chunking my priority piece out into two separate feels, first and more important is the position/balance at top of backswing which is what I was working on. Once I have that engrained I’ll move to transition part. 
    • iacas
      New Maxfli Tour and Tours Balls?

      By iacas ·

      FWIW I never really had issues with the previous generation of Snells. But… I'm not sure I played them a ton, either.
    • pganapathy
      New Maxfli Tour and Tours Balls?

      By pganapathy ·

      I know Dean Snell designed the original Pro V along with a couple of other brands tour balls.  How exactly does the Snell ball have problems.  Did he change something in the design or is a manufacturing error since he cannot afford the unlimited R&D budgets of the big manufacturers to iron out flaws
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Welcome to TST! Signing up is free, and you'll see fewer ads and can talk with fellow golf enthusiasts! By using TST, you agree to our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy, and our Guidelines.

  I accept
The popup will be closed in 10 seconds...