What Is Considered a Hard Golf Course Rating?

[Vinsk]

47 minutes ago, Sandy Lie said:

His words not mine, re-read his post.

No, they were your words. Just a joke. As in…isn’t it the norm to feel depressed on a golf course? 🙂

[Sandy Lie]

…I have been trying to break 90 for the last 10 games and only manage to hit 91. It is so frustrating and I feel depressed playing this golf course. 

Get your joke, but still his words about feeling depressed.  I’m mostly happy with my game btw,  but there are days where I comment after an errant shot “I should have been a farmer”!

[tadpole87]

4 hours ago, Sandy Lie said:

Just because your friends play the tips doesn’t mean you have to.  But just to ask, what scores do they shoot from those tees. Play whatever tees are at 6100 yards or so. Play them until you get better. Have fun out there rather than feeling depressed. Gain confidence in you game then stretch out and challenge yourself.  

Hi sandy, 

They normally shoot in the 70s, yes I do enjoy playing each time. But certain days when nothing is going right. Every self positive talk doesn’t seem work and watching my friends shot scores doesn’t help either. Hahaha but then again they have been playing for years and play everyday. So I don’t compare myself to them. 

[GolfLug]

20 hours ago, Sandy Lie said:

 but there are days where I comment after an errant shot “I should have been a farmer”!

No!! Then we would ALL go hungry.

[iacas]

On 8/15/2021 at 12:58 PM, Pretzel said:

Course difficulty is primarily related to the course rating

I feel like I may have written something similar before…

Hmmm…

@tadpole87, check that topic out.

[billchao]

On 8/13/2021 at 7:56 AM, imsys0042 said:

third, there was a place I’m NJ called Crystal Springs.  Deliberately set up to be as hard as possible.   Played once, maybe twice because someone else really wanted to go.   Fast greens, odd angles.   Really tight driving holes (there was one hole with a row of houses so close that when my buddy hit one, the guy in the yard just goes “don’t worry, happens every day”.)  there was a par three in the middle of the forest that the tree creatures from LOTR lived, I swear.   But the topper is that instead of leaving the earth as it was in fairways, they deliberately built tall moguls to mess with your fairway lie.   You’d hit a good shot and get a weird side hill/downhill lie.   They were several feet tall.   The score card proudly said “hardest golf course in NJ” at the time (or maybe the web site).  Ugh.

I don’t like Crystal Springs, either, but I was a 20 last time I was out there. It’s actually only 6395, 71.4/132 from the blue tees. I found it more stupid than hard, but it was hard because it’s stupid, if you know what I mean.

Part of the course is built on an old quarry so that’s where some of the steep elevation changes and ponds came from. It’s really cool looking, though.

[Troy Ocker]

On 8/13/2021 at 12:45 PM, GolfLug said:

Of the 15 or so times I've played courses slope rated at or above 135, I thought so. But then it's hard to know if it was because of the archer or the arrow. For eg. Sand Valley from the black tees was about all the difficultly, largely due to length, I would want to play. The slope is 134 from black tees. The orange tees we're almost 10 shots easier with slope dropping to 130.

Admittedly I don't pay much attention to the rating. 

I am curious though - what course has a 67.5/136 rating/slope? What would be the reason for the disparity?

 

My home course is a par 72 that is playing 5250 yards from the 48 tees (front) with rating 68.0/slope 137. From the 57 tees (Traditional mens tee) it's playing 6300 yards with rating 72,7/slope 147. 

The difference is both the added length of the course and the added difficulty of the teeshots (required carrydistance, added hazards etc.). The par 3's play a lot easier from 48 (hole 11 for instance goes from 145 yards over dry land to 210 yards with 175 yards carry over water), all the par 5s are easily reachable in 2 in any windcondition and 3-4 of the par 4s becomes drivable for the precise longhitters vs. none from 57. I am a 9'ish handicapper and I average around 7 shots lower from the 48 tees vs. from 57. 

The tips on this course (62) plays 6800 yards with rating 75/slope 152 and adds another level of difficulty to the course off the tees. A couple of the holes requires 250 yards carry, and several af the par 4s becomes a lot longer (worst one goes from 385 to 460 yards) and the par 5s goes from 500-550 to 550-590 with 70 and 80 yards added to 2 of them compared with the 57 tees. 

So the same course with added length and difficulty makes  a 7 shot difference for a scratch golfer.  

I like mixing it up and play some rounds every year from each tees, even tough I mostly play from 57. I think that if you find playing off a certain tee a struggle, you should play off tees that suits your game and you find that feeling of mastering a little more often. It is about having fun after all.